The Right Moves

"I never look at a move as being the wrong move, I look at a move as a move you made that didn't work out. I mean, I could have bases loaded with the winning run at third base with one out. If you're going to pull the best hitter in baseball that's ever played the game, and put him on home plate, and you hit into a double play, all of a sudden, it's the 'wrong move.' No, it's not the wrong move. It just didn't work. So I try to gain perspective." - Joe Torre

What is this kind of self-talk word play... a way of ditching responsibility? In the wrong mind, sure, but this is just another practical example of the idea of a successful experiment. Joe could stay up all night wondering what he should have seen, how he could have been more alert or prepared to make the decision that would have turned out better. But bad outcomes are just part of the human condition. There may be something to be learned for the optimist. For the pessimist, it's another validation of his inferiority. Sadly, the pessimist mistakes the difference between a failed task and a failed person.

A co-worker who reports to me recently tried to rally a few of us to form a golf team as part of a fun department-wide event. As we tried to fill the last spot and a couple of candidates emerged I delegated the final call to her. Her response, in part, was "I am NOT the captain!!" followed by several similarly charged paragraphs along the lines of "since my original suggestion fell through I am most certainly not the captain!"

Ew boy. Did I kick a hornet's nest here? Possibly. But it wasn't the wrong move. I empowered her with ownership and leadership of her idea, and she deferred. I could have reacted with some measure of offense or worry and cowed into silence. Instead, I stayed myself, responding with a note of self-deprecating humor. She responded in kind. And life went on as breezily as ever!