As someone who has exercised an appetite for personal risk taking in other adventure sports such as climbing, I am always very conscious of keeping that ‘little devil’ tucked safely away when working with others in any leadership role. My goal is to try and create a safe space to fail fast for rapid performance growth. That is not just physical but obviously psychological too. If a client or peer’s confidence could be damaged, I try a different tact, even though we might benefit from the technical learning opportunity in front of us. But if our cognitive load is threatened then we have stopped learning and are just surviving.
A recent morning out on the North Coast of Anglesey’s Hell’s Mouth reminded me of the omnipresent heuristic traps where things might seem all cool ahead but the actual reality of the oncoming situation would likely escalate outwith the remit of the day
We were looking to set up for a return down wind run with the tide to create some manageable ‘on the water navigation’ in conditions. One of my peers made an observation ‘that I seemed “super cautious” from the conditions in the video. As he said it is hard to understand the conditions from video. Our immediate position was reasonably tame but the future water and our intention to break into a long downwind run were likely beyond what we were looking for from the day if we were to push deeper up into the race.
The objective risks were that any rescue would have eventually just washed out in the race pushing us back east but in no apparent real danger. But the danger of creating cracks in someone’s confidence versus any benefits of us knowing they can be rescued in that environment was high with little reward. Only a few weeks ago, our team of four had successfully executed a rescue in the group in the same location whilst out playing with similar conditions, all be it with opposing tidal direction. It would have been easy for us to slide effortlessly into that heuristic familiarity trap thinking circumstances were the same.
What was different?
There were two of us not four.
Our exposure to rescue drift in South Easterly F7 gusts and 4.5 kt tidal flow.
Limited VHF signal in area.
Our objective to build confidence in ‘on the water dynamic navigation’ for a 2 mile 5 kt downwind run back to Bull Bay.
I am always pleased when my ‘little devil’ is left on the shore when he is not required!
THE SCIENCE OF DECISION MAKING: SYSTEM 1 VS SYSTEM 2
In high consequence environments: the brain naturally relies on System 1 thinking. This is a fast: emotional: and intuitive process that allows for quick reactions. While essential for immediate technical survival: System 1 is highly susceptible to heuristic traps.
As a Coach: the goal is to employ metacognition to trigger System 2. This is a slower: more logical: and deliberate mode of thinking that can override the biases of the expert halo or the scarcity of a tidal window.
During a coaching session in the Menai Straits: a coach might feel the pressure of the scarcity trap as the tidal window begins to close. System 1 might urge the coach to rush a technical demo to maximise the learning time.
By utilising System 2: the coach pauses to evaluate if the safety margin has been compromised by this time pressure. This metacognitive intervention ensures that professional standards remain the priority over the completion of a specific task.
#HeuristicTraps #RiskManagement #FutureWater #DecisionMaking #CoachingScience #PerformancePsychology #AffectiveDomain
