Win by...not losing

Written by Anthony Demangone

I recently started reading articles from Psychology Today, and the information has been grand.

Here's the first gem I plucked: Winning at Life...by not Losing.

The author noted a study and book that looked at amateur tennis, and how points are "won." 

Simon Ramo was a prominent American physicist, engineer, and businessman. Later in his life when he wanted to improve his tennis game, he applied the same rigorous, evidence-based approach that led to his successful career.

As a scientist and statistician, he gathered data by simply counting points won versus points lost. What he discovered is that in amateur tennis, the game’s outcome is determined by the player who makes the most mistakes. Thus, the best strategy to win in amateur tennis is to keep the ball in play, allowing the other player to make more errors. Occasionally, your opponent will hit a shot you can’t return. More frequently, however, he or she will hit it into the net or out-of-bounds, or fail to return it at all.

Win...by not losing.

Last evening, I was joking with a colleague that perhaps the secret to maintaining a healthy weight was not as much eating a perfect diet, but perhaps more about minimizing the big mistakes - late night snacks, extra helpings, etc.

For me, I eat pretty well 80 percent of the time. And the other 20%? An unmitigated made for reality-TV disaster. According to this article, I should keep chipping away at that 20%.

In other words, stop trying to be perfect all the time. Focus on minimizing the mistakes. 

So it got me thinking. When you are looking at a new strategy or process, we all want perfection. What if we started out trying to minimize mistakes?

It may sound simple, but look at it through the lens of member service. 

What are the common mistakes of member service?

• Not returning emails or phone calls.
• Rude interactions.
• Inattentive employees
• Employees that don't understand the company's products and services

How often do you run into those service mistakes? I'm guessing quite a bit. We don't want perfection. Just hitting the basics would be an improvement at times. 

Winning by not losing. I'm going to have to give this idea some more thought!  

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Speaking of winning by not losing, your CU should have someone at our Spring Regulatory Compliance School. Yes, compliance is about doing the right things. But a lot of it is also about knowing what you can't do. Minimizing the mistakes!

 

Comments

[DJ]

Ugggh. WHERE was this when I was playing college tennis and thought it was a great thing they named me "the cannon"? Guess who made more errors ... : /

[Anthony Demangone]

"playing college tennis..." I bet you were quite good!

The article was fascinating. The higher the skill level, the less the "win by not losing" works. Pros? Most points are won, not lost.

As always, thanks for reading!