Coach Mac-John McCarthy who runs Homerun Baseball in Washington, DC and Beisbol y Libros in Consuelo, Dominican Republic, pointed out the other day that we constantly tell our ball playing kids to be careful. He sees one result of this in that most of the kids that come to his baseball programs in Washington are afraid of getting hit by a baseball, and that inhibits them in the game. They shrink from pitches and hesitate when fielding a ball. It makes them less successful as baseball players.
Why would that kind of timidity matter in working to improve foresight? Too many people in organizations operate with fear of making a mistake. They are too careful.
Coach Mac points out that the kids he sees in his programs in Consuelo are far less afraid of the ball. They expect to get hit by the ball from time to time. They don’t worry about it.
We should cultivate a comfort with “being wrong” and become greater risk takers in foresight. Exploring the future is not action planning, and it’s ok to be wrong. In this work, we need to relax a little, and stop worrying about getting hit by the ball.
