Yesterday's blog wrote about the unfair burden that is placed on the individual to miss the final score in a game -- instead of being a hero, he is often, unjustly, tagged for the loss even though many other events contributed to the outcome.
I heard interesting commentary on this thought that shares another perspective:
The same is true on the flip-side too: placing all the praise & success on the last person to perform. In the recent high school hockey Missouri state championship game, the underdog beat the heavy favorite in overtime. It was a thrilling, well played 2-1 game.
The MVP award of the game went to the player who scored the game winning goal; that was the ONLY thing of real significance that he contributed to the game. No mention was made of the FRESHMAN goalie who made nearly 30 saves to keep it a close game, including throughout the sudden-death overtime period (even after the announcers on TV were talking about the goalie ALL game long).
Anyway, I like to call it “prisoner of the moment”: focus on THAT moment rather than the whole process leading up to the success (or failure).
This mentality of recency plays out in the organizational world most prominently at evaluation time: people are rated highly or poorly depending upon their short-term performance rather than being rated for their work throughout the year. Supervisors and colleagues would do well to take steps to see the whole term of performance and to provide feedback accordingly.
-- beth triplett and Brian Gardner
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