ENDURE: June 13, 2014

What Does it Take to Win the Super Bowl?

Spoiler Summary: Success begets success? Yes, if we're willing to build better circuits.

I was invited to present at a meeting recently to a room full of folks who were celebrating a full year without an injury in their workplace. It was a real honor for me. Having been involved with workplace injury prevention efforts for many years, I have a deep admiration for what it means for a group to go that long without injury, and how many things have to go just right for it to occur.  It's not super complex - if everyone is focused on safety & health, the group gets through a day - but to string 365 days of such focus together in a row is DEFINITELY NOT easy, it's pretty OUTSTANDING!

So what was the magic? What is so special about this group? Their work hadn't gotten any easier. I'm sure there lives hadn't gotten any less busy, and beyond some minor changes and upgrades, their tools hadn't changed all that much; but these 50+ folks still made it 365 days or more without a serious injury, a feat they had not accomplished for many years...

So what was it that changed?

The truth is I don't know.....and I'm not sure who really does. Were they just lucky?  Possible I suppose, but not likely.  Were they all superhuman unbreakable fitness freaks, impermeable to the risks? Nope. Was the entire group under the age of 30 and therefore still "humans made of rubber" that can just bounce back? Of course not...

So what was the formula in this case? Dunno.  And unfortunately,that's a major barrier to making it sticky and contagious. One of the trickiest parts of any championship season is analyzing the success.  Not tricky because it's different, but tricky because we don't spend much time doing it. As a general rule we like to celebrate success, but it almost never seems to get the same level of scrutiny as a setback or failure. Coaches, analysts and armchair quarterbacks alike pick apart every angle of a blown game in the sports world. Similarly, those of us involved in injury review tend to do the same. We look at every detail of what went wrong, but not nearly as much time analyzing what went right.  It's not just sports and it's definitely not just safety.

Why?  Is it easier to figure out "what went wrong" than "what went right"?  Interestingly, the science says yes....and no.

Some very interesting research that blends the sciences of the brain & nervous system (neuroscience) with the sciences of the mind (psychology primarily) has shown that like any habit loop, the more we practice something, the more reinforced our "analysis habit" brain-circuitry becomes.  Eventually our most practiced pattern becomes the default circuit....the "old reliable" of neural circuits.....and therefore in the sense that it's more natural, it is actually easier.  However if all things were equal, it takes the same effort - so it's no harder in the absolute sense.  This is not a bad thing really, it's just a brain thing....standard operating procedure.  So the more we do it, the easier it becomes.

The good news is, like any neural circuit, if we practice a new loop we can literally rewire our brain. But why would we want to? Why do we care about analyzing the "good" as easy (or easier) than the "not-as-good"? Because that's where top performance lives.  Although I'm oversimplifying a lot of really amazing findings, people who are aware of and get good at recognizing "what went well?" (either personally or in a group) are far more likely to do it again....and again....and again.  Better actions become better habits becoming better performance automatically....in the moment.

After studying this simple exercise (write down 3 things each day that "went well" or that you are thankful for) in a variety of settings, researchers have shown higher performance and goal attainment in nearly every domain.

It's true, many many things have to go well to win a Super Bowl, or a Stanley Cup or a World Cup for that matter.  Just the same, many things have to go well to have an injury free day, week, month, year or lifetime.  The more we talk & learn about those many things, and the more we focus on them, the better we get at repeating them.

If, as social learners we're more likely to repeat what we see and talk about.....spending more time looking for and talking about those actions will increase our likelihood of success every time.  Good, bad or ugly - Practice doesn't make perfect....practice makes automatic.....and if each of our automatic-pilot was centered on health, safety and prevention it'd be a very good thing.  

So what went well today?

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.