The Ineffectiveness of Mid-Game Monday Morning Quarterbacking
It’s easier to criticize than create, in the midst of a pandemic and in our personal lives. So how can we help be part of the solution instead of focusing on what’s gone wrong so far? Here’s some practical advice to that end.
I am a sports fan. I like all sports, but in recent years I’ve become most fond of high school football. In the fall you’ll find me happily tweeting about my students’ success under the Friday nights lights. I love the camaraderie that sports builds and the teamwork required of a sport like football. Another reason I like sports, like many people, I enjoy a good upset or a chance to root for the underdog.
A key to upset victories is often the ability of a team to make adjustments. These adjustments while on-going, are usually made with the greatest intensity and intentionality at half time. A coach's job is to convince their team, often in a rousing speech, that there is still hope and the battle can be won. Rarely if ever do those speeches focus on all the things you wish you had done differently in the first half. Good coaches will acknowledge mistakes but will spend the majority of their time mid-game encouraging their team on how to make adjustments in the second half to turn things around.
And yet in life, many of us get stuck ”Monday morning quarterbacking” at the halftime of a challenge we are facing, either collectively or individually. We think of all the things we, or someone else, did wrong in the first half of the “game.” We focus on what could’ve and should’ve and would’ve been, instead of focusing on what could be, should be, and would be going forward.
So how do we make this transition from critic to problem solver? How do we turn our focus to all the ways we can win instead of focusing on all the reasons we are losing? Here’s two thoughts and their applications.
1. Have a short memory.
Ask any athlete and they will tell you how important this is. If you are thinking about the last play, the last pitch, the last quarter you will not be at your best in the present as your focus is (literally) not on the ball. There is plenty of time for post game analysis. Taking time after you have carefully navigated a challenge or put on an event to sit down and as athletes do, “study the film,” is a healthy and effective habit. At that point in time it’s worthwhile to analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly. Put every aspect under a microscope to determine how you, your organization, your state and or government handled the problem. Take time to dissect each part of the event and give it a rating on a number or color scale if you want. All this is an integral part of self-reflection and growth. But don’t do it in the middle of the game. If you are focused on this kind of reflection and critique in the middle of your challenge, you are going to miss the subtle signs and indicators of what your next step should be right now in the moment and in the fight. In doing so you will certainly limit your ability to win.
2. Don’t tell me what you can’t do, tell me what can be done.
It’s easy to get caught up in what you can’t do and what won’t work. But it’s hard to win with a playbook full of things you aren’t doing. In sports this often looks like playing not to lose instead of playing to win. In life, when we focus on the “can’ts,” we have put our focus on the problem. To move forward you must instead focus on solutions. Focus on what you can do, and focus on what might work. Sometimes by focusing on solutions you will be able to build an entire multi-step plan, other times you will only be able to see the next right thing. If you find yourself shooting down every idea for addressing the problem, you are probably caught in the fog of “can’ts.” How do you break free? Ask these kinds of questions:
-What CAN I do?
-What might solve a part of the problem? (Sometimes it’s easier to solve a small piece instead of the entire problem.)
-What can move us towards making this situation better?
Criticizing is easy, working towards solutions is hard. But if we want to solve problems we have to keep our head in the game and focus on solutions until that final whistle blows.
