The hardest errors to correct are unrecognized mistakes. Nature reveals these with dramatic and unexpected weather shifts for hikers or climbers. Or riptides that can prove lethal. Or hazards like avalanches, waterfalls, and rapids...and dangerous wildlife, ambush predators, or misunderstood terrain. We don't know what we don't know.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns reminds, "cultivate a fresh eye." An excellent production has a "smooth narrative arc."
A game changes in heartbeats. Refusal to invest a timeout allows a momentum shift or foul to a key player. Lack of discipline bites teams. Instead of holding for one shot, an ill-advised play turns a 6 or 8 point lead into 3 or 5. Or victory turns into defeat via situational blindness.
A critical illness, injury, or transfer implodes our team. Did we cultivate depth? Were we too focused around one hub? Was the problem foreseeable, a black swan?
Burns says, "We listen." Each narrative receives input from many sources and experts. Every season's narrative arc begins at the end of the prior. Review using Michael Useem's four questions from "The Leadership Moment."
What went well?
What went poorly?
How might we improve?
What are the enduring lessons?
"Everybody knows what quick and dirty means; let's not do that."
Writers know that favorite phrases or passages may not advance the story. They share the expression, "Kill your darlings." Eliminate drills and game actions that don't elevate the story. Decide what has to go.
Humility means rejecting the status quo. What can we reject? Author Nassim Taleb might ask how can we manufacture antifragility within our process? Handling or even wanting to face pressure makes us antifragile.
Lagniappe: Some call the 1-2-2 a "safe press." Jay Wright explains the Villanova 1-2-2. "Attack small; retreat big."
