Malaysian Grand Prix <\/a>last weekend \u2013 which was made more eventful by rain. As it drew to its conclusion, the Mexican Sergio \u201cCheco\u201d Perez driving for Sauber \u2013 usually one of the less competitive teams \u2013 was in second position, and appeared to have the chance to win the race. He gradually reduced the distance between himself and Fernando Alonso\u2019s Ferrari. Finally, he was within a second of it with half a dozen laps to go. The chance was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThen he received a message over his radio from his pit crew. \u201cCheco be careful, we need this position, be careful\u201d. They needed the position because points bring in cash in Formula 1, and perhaps because this was the nearest that Peter Sauber, the team principal, had been to victory in almost 20 years of Formula 1. But \u2018be careful\u2019? And twice in the same sentence? Checo had contended with torrential rain whilst driving at 150mph and with visibility down to a few yards for the first part of the race. Now with a relatively clear track and dry conditions he is told to \u201cbe careful\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost as soon as he had received the message, he ran wide off the track, lost several seconds and that was the end of his challenge for first place. He did manage to regain control, and so finished in second place, but what could have been?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And more importantly, was the loss of control the result of being told to \u201cbe careful\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This focussing of people\u2019s minds on the potential pitfalls rather than on their achievements is something I come across on an almost daily basis in workplaces. I saw a sign recently on some stairs which read, \u201cDo not spill your drink \u2013 this causes a slip hazard\u201d. I wondered which members of staff in particular attempted or wanted to spill their drinks on the stairs. And when a drink is spilt, it appears that you don\u2019t need to clean it up! Perhaps a better sign could have been \u201cIf you spill liquids, clean up to avoid slips \u2013 thanks\u201d \u2013 same amount of words, but perhaps a different focus for the message \u2013 and a different message?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also hear it a lot where children are involved \u2013 and this is the most concerning issue for me. \u201cDon\u2019t spill your drink\u201d, \u201cBe careful with your plate\u201d, \u201cDon\u2019t fall over\u201d, \u201cMake sure you don\u2019t fall off the climbing frame\u201d, and so they go on. The vast majority of children have no intention of doing any of these things \u2013 they are probably already concentrating on achieving (or perhaps not failing) before hearing these \u2018words of wisdom\u2019, so what help are they? Or what hindrance are they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell done for carrying that full cup\u201d, \u201cYou carried that plate beautifully\u201d, and \u201cYou\u2019ve done really well getting to the top of that climbing frame\u201d could be so much more effective. The child will grow up looking at the world in a more positive way, and they will have more self-belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as they move into the work environment, perhaps we would then see fewer notices like the one above \u2013 and Checo and Peter Sauber may have won their first Grand Prix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have huge respect for racing drivers. They demonstrate a level of focus that can be found in few other sports people. A Formula 1 driver drives each corner almost inch perfect, time after time, and their speed has to be absolutely on the button. One mistake and they are finished for that race. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,16,29,30,32],"tags":[323,325,322,324,321,111],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}