Sports analogies often let us down.
A colleague was explaining how measurement was difficult in many organizations, unlike a basketball game, where the time, the score and the stats are clear and obvious.
He said, “everybody wants to win.” Depending on how you define ‘win’, this is demonstrably untrue.
It seems that among professional athletes, everyone does want to win, all things being equal. But all things are rarely equal.
Perhaps a player wanted to celebrate with friends a day or two before the game instead of watching game tapes. Or maybe they wanted to think for a moment, just a moment, about a conflict they recently had, instead of being supernaturally focused. Or it could be that they’re protecting their body or their psyche rather than risking everything right now, in this particular moment.
Under the circumstances, committed professionals often choose to do their best to meet the specified goals. But the circumstances are rarely evenly distributed.
What everybody wants is what they want.
It helps to do the work to understand why things aren’t the same for each individual, and even better, how to create the conditions for culture and systems to make the goals you seek more likely to be met.
When we get smart about what we mean by winning, we can build a more resilient and aligned organization.