My Weird Thanksgiving Tradition and My Daughter’s First Basketball Game
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed time with family and friends. I have a weird Thanksgiving tradition: I don't like to eat turkey on thanksgiving - maybe the sight of a whole big turkey on the table takes the appetite away - however, I love to feast on the leftovers the day after. I find myself eating away at the leftovers and it is soooo yummy!
Do you have a weird Thanksgiving tradition? I am all ears.
Last Saturday was remarkable in my family. My 9-year-old daughter, Zarah, had her first competitive basketball game. Her team was on the road playing against a home team that was obviously more experienced. Zarah was positioned as the Center with instructions to tackle a certain player on the opposing team so she doesn’t get the ball. Being the tallest on the team, she also had instructions to guard the net.
I watched as Zarah became more concerned about tackling her opponent and blocking off shots than anything else in the game. There were opportunities to take passes, intercept passes and even take shots at the net but she was so focused on the tackles and blocking off her opponent that she seldom took any of the opportunities that were right in front of her.
As a parent, there were times when I felt like pulling her to the side and telling her the whole essence of the coach’s instructions - which was that they win the game by getting the more points than the opponent. I wanted to tell her that she could block and tackle for all I care but if at the end of the game the opposing team managed to get more points, they win! I wanted to tell her that there was so much she was missing by ignoring balls and throws because her focus was on the opponent and not on the ball and where it went. I couldn’t do anything because parents are not allowed to offer insights during games!
This kind of tunnel vision behavior is quite common in life and business. Often we get caught up in rules, metrics, and procedures that we lose sight of the real deal. We get so caught up in checking all the boxes that we miss out on low hanging fruits.
As I write this I am reminded of my time in banking when we had to make a certain number of outbound calls and folks will be so focused on outbound calls that they will ignore inbound calls because they were perceived as service calls. Folks didn’t want to be bothered by customer service calls, but for me these were golden. Why ignore inbound calls when you spend all day making outbound calls without getting anyone live? I will often take the inbounds, fulfill their requests and make a sale! Boom! Low hanging fruits there!
Do you find yourself caught up with checking boxes that you may be missing some low hanging fruits?
I am interested in learning how you are balancing sticking to the rules (instructions, metrics, procedures) with overall goal attainment. Feel free to comment.
PS: Zarah’s Team lost the game but this was a teachable (and learning) moment.