Last night, the Boston Bruins lost in overtime. The world of sports can be cruel. In "sudden death" overtime, the first team to score wins. It doesn't matter if it is through some one-in-a-million fluke or the result of brilliant choreography. Any score results in the black and white of a winner and a loser.
I enjoy watching most sports. There is something compelling about the drama. When I was much younger, I remember being fascinated by the most obscure competitions. I would watch bowling or judo or archery even though I may have never done any of them in my life. Perhaps it was a brief escape. Perhaps it was just the ability to revel in either victory or defeat. Whatever it was, it was somehow comforting to have the finality of a result (even if it was negative).
The world at our organization is decidedly more complicated than that. It can often be hard to tell whether or not a decision is the correct one until well after the fact. Many times, there is no real "correct" decision. The individual or team must make some decision on a subject and deal with the consequences. Instead of a final result, we often find ourselves in a labyrinth where one turn leads to another without any end in sight.
One of the ways I try to judge my work is to gauge whether or not it helps advance in the general direction of an overall positive outcome. It may not be a "perfect" decision. It may not even be the best possible decision. As long as I feel that the team is heading towards the objective, in my opinion we are making progress. Sometimes that is all you can do...
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