"Do more of what's working and less of what isn't." Sticking to this idea means honest self-assessment (objectivity) and willingness to change.
In the investing world, it means "ride your winners" and "blow out your losers." It means avoiding "style drift" and demanding a "performance-focused, feedback rich" culture. In basketball, blindspots often precede turnovers and forced shots, but also miss hockey passes and basket cuts that yield easy shots.
"Hockey pass" is the pass that leads to the assist.
Simple is hard. I see coaches who degrade the player experience by running set plays every possession and run half a dozen mediocre defenses instead of a few solid ones. Pete Newell commented that coaches who try to "reproduce the system they played usually end up with a poor copy of the original."
Blindspots occur because of emotion, inexperience, misplacing personal and organizational values among other conflicts. Under stress, we make perceptual errors that can lead to overreaction or underreaction. Matthew Syed discusses ego and other sources of blindspots in his book, Black Box Thinking. For example, he discusses a case where an anesthesiologist thinks the patient is experiencing a latex (glove) allergy and requests the surgeon change gloves. The surgeon will not relent until the Anesthesiologist threatens to call the President of administration.
Papa John's slogan is "better ingredients, better pizza." If we want better play, we need better ingredients. If we can't recruit them (I can't), then we need to improve their skills, motivation, and teamwork. That means dissecting each segment of our process and asking whether it's working.
Aristotle's "Golden Mean" meant avoiding the blindspots of extremes.
John Calipari's "Personal Board of Directors" diminishes the chance of poor decisions, as he gets input from valued advisors.
Atul Gawande, a Boston surgeon, retained a senior surgeon to watch him operate, seeking input on his technique and possible weaknesses. We can use "inside stars" and "outside stars" to work on improvement. These resources can help us answer questions about "what if" or "have you thought about" other alternatives.
"Groupthink" often produces inferior decisions as expert input or experience is subjugated to group influence. We need to recognize that groups can experience blindspots, just as individuals do.
The first response to blindspots is a willingness to accept their existence and our susceptibility to them. We all have blindspots; we choose whether and how to address them.
