“What made you decide to throw that pass?”
“Why didn’t you send that runner home?”
During my early days as a sportswriter, I often posed questions to coaches and players about what it was that influenced a decision. And despite having poured through game film, scouting reports and statistics, more often than not, it all came down to a gut feeling. Sometimes these decisions had little consequence; however, sometimes they set off a chain of events that either resulted in a team winning a championship, or a crushing disappointment that ended up costing a coach his job.
In The Yankee Years, one of the most interesting sports books I’ve ever read, former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre chronicles the time he spent with one of the most high-profile teams in the world. What I found really compelling was how Torre, who won four World Series titles during his tenure with New York, spoke candidly about the decisions he was most proud of — and the ones that still haunt him.
He talked about a game during the 2007 playoffs in which he didn’t pull his team from the field when a cloud of gnat-like bugs swarmed in, causing a distraction to several of his players, including relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who up until that point had been lights out. Chamberlain coughed up the lead, and the Yankees went on to lose the game and the series to the Cleveland Indians. According to Torre, his inaction during that game is one of the biggest regrets of his career.
During that same year in the next round of the playoffs, the Indians’ third-base coach failed to send Kenny Lofton, a speedy runner, home during a rally that could have given Cleveland the lead in the deciding game. Instead, Lofton was left stranded at third, and the Boston Red Sox won the game and advanced to the World Series. Fans in Cleveland still boil over with anger when they talk about the coach’s poor decision. But to him, halting Lofton seemed like the logical move — if he had been thrown out, the inning would’ve been over, and the coach would’ve been left wondering what would have happened if he’d held him.
The concept of what influences our decisions is an intriguing one, and one that has been the topic of countless articles, studies, roundtables, and books. In fact, a search on Amazon for books on “decision making” yields 284,060 results. There are a host of different theories as to whether the decision-making process is based on rational thinking, emotions, or a mix of the two. And the best answer anyone seems to have is that it depends on the situation.
It’s a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately. Within a week, my (much) younger sister and I both reached a major decision; she chose James Madison University as the college of her choice, and I selected a childcare facility for my soon-to-be-born twins. In both cases, although we carefully weighed all of the important factors, including cost, location, and reputation, it came down to a gut feeling. When I visited the facility and watched the way the workers interacted with infants, I was reassured in a way that I hadn’t been when touring other childcare providers. For Annie, going to James Madison to see the campus and get a feel for the school’s overall vibe was the tipping point. She just knew, the same way I did.
In his best-selling book How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer writes, “Sometimes we need to reason through our options and carefully analyze the possibilities. And sometimes we need to listen to our emotions.” Unlike previous theories, which have suggested that when making decisions, people either carefully deliberate or go with their gut, Lehrer argues that the best decisions are a “finely-tuned blend of both feeling and reason” (Amazon).
I agree with Lehrer. And while it’s important to point out that some decisions are bigger than others, and therefore require more deliberation, I believe that oftentimes people get too much outside input, whether it’s reading books and articles or polling coworkers and friends. There is such thing as too much information. Sometimes, after you’ve done the necessary legwork, you need to simply trust your instincts.
It may not always turn out the way you planned, but at least you’ll know it was your call.
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