Making Adjustments

Sports in real time is a tough business.

Especially at the professional level, especially if you’re trying to hold yourself accountable and get better. And it’s not just sports. It’s business, finance, education, dealing with people in your community. Real time is real time. It’s not a video game. It’s not a joke. There’s no pause button.

You always hear about the Monday morning quarterback. The person sitting on the couch the day after the game telling you what the coach should have done. What the player should have done. That’s part of the criticism that comes with anything done publicly. But the people in the arena aren’t worried about Monday morning. They’re worried about the next play, the next possession, the next adjustment.

Because that’s the beauty of sports and coaching. The GM and the president have the long term view. The adjustments needed for the city, for the players, for the staff, for running the business as a whole. The coach has the x’s and o’s. The strategies. The motivational things needed in the moment. And the players have to execute and adjust on the fly.

You might be a manager. You might be a clerk. You might be running your own business or raising kids or trying to get through a hard week at school. There are different adjustments we all have to make. The question is, what adjustments are we making to get better? Most of the time we have to make plans. That’s necessary and hugely important. But plans don’t always work out, especially in real time situations. You’re going to be asked to make adjustments on the fly. And you can take that as a life outlook too.

I ask myself that question all the time. How am I adjusting? Whether it’s adjusting a message to my kids when the way I’m saying it isn’t landing. Adjusting how I talk to a coworker when the original approach isn’t working. Adjusting my schedule when something more important comes up. Adjusting my attitude when I can feel it bringing the room down. What adjustments am I making for the greater good? That’s a huge question, and it’s one we have to take on ourselves.

I want to give you the other side too. Don’t make adjustments just to please your ego. That’s the easiest thing we can all do. I’m going to make an adjustment and shoot every shot on offense. That’s not what I’m talking about. That’s not adjusting. That’s hijacking the situation for yourself. Real adjustments are about being aware of where you are. Reading the situation honestly. Asking yourself what change is going to make you and the people around you more successful. And then making it.

Don’t point at everybody else when you hear the word adjustments. People want to point at their boss, their coach, their manager, the person above them. What they should have done. What they could have done. What they would have done. Forget that. Make the adjustments that you need to make to help you and the team be successful when you need to make them.

I know that’s an esoteric statement. I can’t tell you exactly when or how to handle every situation you’ll face. Nobody can. I can only tell you that adjustments are coming. Be ready to make them, and be accountable for them when you do.

The plan is the starting point. The adjustment is what gets you there.