The Goal Keeper's story!

I'm not a great follower of football and was even less a player as I was growing up. The reasons are pretty obvious, at 5'6" and slightly built you don't stand much of a chance tackling burly boys whose sole intention is to crack a rib or two of yours.Well, this short blog is not about my football days but more about decision making.Surprise, surprise! One of my memories of watching a football world cup was the great Frenchman Michel Platini winding up for a penalty kick.It was June 21, 1986, on a blisteringly hot day at Guadalajara, Mexico France played Brazil. Platini takes the kick and the ball aimlessly floats over the cross piece as the goal keeper dives away to the right. The French supporters groan in dismay and hold their heads in disbelief even as the goal keeper looks around to see where the ball is. The point here is the action of the goal keeper. Research has shown that during a penalty shoot, one of three things are likely to happen - the ball is shot to the right corner of the goal, the left corner of the goal or goes straight, unless of course like Platini did the ball is kicked out of the goal. However it is generally seen that the goal keeper dives either to the right or the left while there is a good 33% chance that if he just sits tight the ball might head straight to him. Why then does a goal keeper dive all over the palce? Psychologists say that it is human nature to look busy. Looking busy and failing is more acceptable than failing while appearing to be doing nothing. Hence from our football analogy, while it makes good sense for the goal keeper to sit tight and wait, he dives to either side simply because he does not want to be seen to be doing nothing, even at the cost of conceding a goal. Managerial decision making is unfortunately similar and many managers think that incessant action looks better than calibrated and calculated decision making.Senior managers need to impress upon their subordinates that action without progress is a waste of resources and does not pay in the long run!