Our family all met up in Chicago this past weekend for a short, fun-filled trip to the Windy City. Actually, Chicago is probably the most centrally located of all the possible cities we could have visited for a weekend trip. It rained almost the whole day on Saturday, but we still had fun (even though we apparently chose the weekend of "Taste of Chicago" AND the Chicago-wide Pokémon Go contest). On Sunday, we drove down to Wrigley Field (the Cubs, alas, were out of town) to pick up some spirit wear (you can never pass that up - and in this case, I was able to easily convince my wife that I desperately needed the home jersey, the visitor jersey, AND the alternate jersey). There are some great photos of the kids and I in front of the Ernie Banks statue and the iconic Wrigley Field, Home of Chicago Cubs). Unfortunately, there were no tours that day (apparently Journey and Def Leppard had just given a concert the night before), but they were hosting a large crowd out in front of the ballpark and playing the FIFA World Cup Final on a jumbo TV.
Now admittedly, I am at best a casual soccer fan, but it was very cool to watch 3 goals being scored in the span of what seemed to be about five minutes. The game never really was that close after that, so congratulations to France on their second World Cup victory (their first was in 1998). And, congratulations to Croatia on their first World Cup Finals. While we all followed the game closely on the radio on the way to brunch, the game would have been a lot more exciting if it was closer. And while many true blue soccer fans would probably disagree with me, I would have liked it even more if the game remained tied until the end, requiring penalty kicks!
Soccer penalty kicks seem really unfair. It seems to me that the goalie has no chance whatsoever. It almost seems as if the goalie neither wins or loses - it comes down to whether the kicker makes a mistake ("chokes") or not. The rules are impossible - the goalie isn't even allowed to move until the kicker actually kicks the ball. The goalie has three options - move to the right (i.e., dive to the right), move to the left, or stay put. What should he or she do? As it turns out, experts in Game Theory have thoroughly analyzed this question (just look up "Soccer penalty kick" and "game theory" on the Internet for a number of published studies, articles, and blog posts). The Wall Street Journal published an article last week about a study that was published in the Journal of Economic Psychology by researchers from Israel's Ben-Gurion University. These researchers analyzed over 300 different penalty kicks. Goalies moved to the left 49.3% of the time, to the right 44.4% of the time, and stayed put only 6.3% of the time. Which strategy was the most successful? Well, kicks went to the left 32.2% of the time, to the right 28.7% of the time, and to the center 39.2% of the time. In other words, the goalie's best strategy was to stay put.
While not always true, staying put is often the best strategy in life too. Don't get me wrong - I am not advocating that individuals or organizations should refrain from change (I actually would say the opposite, change is often good). What I am saying is that moving from a job that you enjoy to another job is not always the best strategy. The old adage that the "grass is not always greener on the other side" is frequently true. Over the years, I have had a number of opportunities elsewhere. I have often found, however, that most organizations either don't compare to my present one, or even if they do, there are just too many unknowns. I have been fortunate to move up in my organization, and with each opportunity I have more challenges that have been fun, exciting, and intellectually stimulating. Is my organization perfect? No, far from it. But I see opportunities in every single one of our imperfections. Opportunities are new challenges, and new challenges keep me motivated and enthusiastic. I have worked hard to establish my credibility (I hope) here, and if there are times when the job can get far too political, at least I know the political lay of the land.
So, if you feel like you are contributing to the greater cause, if you have bought in completely to the organization's mission and vision, and if you are provided with new opportunities and challenges every so often, it seems that the best strategy might be to stay put. Just like the goalies.
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