From Knowing to Doing: Embracing Trial and Error

Are You As Agile as a Cheetah?

The fastest land animal in the world is the cheetah. It can reach speeds over 70 miles per hour. But, according to behavioral biologists, speed is not the cheetah’s most significant predatory advantage. As science writer Katie Hiler puts it, “It is their agility—their skill at leaping sideways, changing directions abruptly and slowing down quickly—that gives those antelopes such bad odds.”

Take the attributes of a cheetah and apply them to your coaching. How agile are you in changing direction with your coaching methods, decision-making, and experimenting with something new? I don’t see a massive knowledge shortfall in the volleyball coaching community. However, I see an action problem. Taking action means taking a risk. Coaches tend to be risk-averse when trying new methods and strategies, preferring to stay within their comfort zone. Every season is a “rinse and repeat” format from the previous season.

We are all familiar with the term “trial and error.” Trial and error is one of the most tried-and-true problem-solving or individual growth methods. Scientists have used it for centuries, creating a path for incredible breakthroughs. I’d love to see coaches use trial and error as a vehicle for growth and positive change in their coaching routines and teaching methods. There are no guarantees of success with trial and error, but you’re always guaranteed a learning opportunity.

“Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.” ~Colin Powell

A prerequisite for using trial and error is embracing both components equally. First, you will need the motivation and curiosity to try something new. Second, you need to embrace the fact that failure comes with the territory.

There is always a hesitancy for coaches to explore new territory, and there are valid reasons.

• Fear of failure: We all tend to focus on the error component of the trial-and-error process. We tend to embrace failure personally rather than as a different learning path.
• We all desire certainty in our lives. Why do people sit in the same seats in class or look for the same locker at the health club? Experimenting and uncertainty go hand in hand.
• Paralysis by analysis. We want a perfect solution to every problem. So, we deliberate, ponder, consult, analyze, etc. In the meantime, nothing happens.
• We all want immediate results. The trial-and-error approach is composed of intriguing positives and colossal failures. The positives will take time as you work through the failures.
• Ego protection. We don’t want to look bad if something blows up in front of our team or fans.
• Coaches tend to tie decision-making to wins and losses. If the new offensive system I want to try doesn’t work, we will lose matches. So, let’s stay with what we have.

There are understandable reasons to avoid “walking the plank” with an idea that may not work. To quell the hesitancy for departing from your current routine, we must develop a plan of action to reduce those fears. The challenge is moving forward with an intellectual curiosity about improving as a coach. There are ways to create a path for making “trial and error” a component of your practice.

“There is so much to learn from our mistakes, we should fall in love with them” Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author

A Proposed Action Plan

Budget a portion of your practice time for new things. Since both practice time and coaches’ free time are constantly stressed, this time allotment for thinking about new ideas must be put into our planner. No, I don’t claim this concept as mine. Google implemented “20% Time,” where employees would allocate 20% of their work week to working independently on projects they are passionate about and might benefit the company. Google modeled this concept from the 3M Company, which allowed its employees to spend 15% of their work hours experimenting with new ideas, no questions asked. 3 M’s “15% Time” resulted in, among other things, Post-it Notes. I encourage coaches to allocate practice time for their players to work on, for example, different types of serve (spin, location, velocity), a faster attack from their middle hitters, different blocking or defensive schemes, incorporating a backrow attack, etc. These items are a work in progress that might be implemented as the season progresses. The “pushing of the envelope” will stimulate your players as they become part of something new and different.

Make a pact. In her recent book, Tiny Experiments, Anne-Laure Le Cunff presents the concept of “pacts” as a pathway to creativity. A pact is a formal agreement between two or more people, groups, or countries, often involving mutual promises or actions. (Merriam-Webster) In this case, a pact is an agreement with yourself. For our purposes, you make a pact to try a new concept (whatever it happens to be, let’s say, a new defensive system) for thirty days and monitor the results. Using a pact approach, you create a trial-and-error scenario to implement ideas presented at the clinic you attended over the summer or a video you viewed on The Art of Coaching Volleyball website. The foundation for the pact approach is one of curiosity. After thirty days, if you don’t like the results, no problem; something was learned. If you do like the results, you and your team are beneficiaries.

Managing fear of failure. The Second City Comedy Club is renowned for producing some of the best comedians in the world. I can’t imagine anything more stressful than being in front of an audience, and when you tell your best joke, all you hear are crickets. The challenge for the Second City instructors is to minimize the fear of failure in aspiring comedians. The Second City puts its students on stage in a small, intimate environment in front of live crowds every week. The students sometimes “crash and burn” in their performances. But the teachers and students embrace the discomfort of failure. They also don’t make a big deal out of failing; they learn and move forward. They encourage pushing the envelope and accepting failure as the cost of doing business. Coaches can replicate this process when pursuing new methods or strategies. Start small, make a pact, observe results, and keep learning. If a system or technique isn’t working as you want, it’s not the end of the world. Reevaluate and keep moving forward!

Takeaway

In 1519, upon arriving in what is now Mexico, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés is said to have ordered his men to “burn” their ships to eliminate any possibility of retreat by his sailors. When experimenting with a new concept with your team, you don’t have to approach it with a “burn the ships” mentality. Sometimes, whatever you try doesn’t work; don’t worry; each trial will gradually lead to something better.

I like the concept of making a pact to try a new concept. Start small, put a time frame on your experiment, observe the results, and balance the discomfort of experimenting with the excitement of creating something new. If you are resilient and determined, you will come up with some exciting things that will benefit your players.