Silencing the Noise: Part 2 — More Strategies to Improve Golf Performance Judgment
More Insights from Daniel Kahneman's 'Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment'
In this article, I will connect (a few more) ideas from Daniel Kahneman's book, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, to golf and reflect on their implications.
Informational Cascades
An informational cascade happens when people without sufficient knowledge on a topic adopt the opinions of others who appear more informed and express those opinions as their own.1
We often come across high-profile coaches or instructional videos with millions of views and adopt their approach in our own game or use the information with our athletes, assuming it to be scientifically sound. We tend to believe that the "crowd" must be correct. However…
…people tend to neglect the possibility that most of the people in the crowd are in a cascade, too — and are not making independent judgments of their own.
This lack of independent judgment, the failure to ask "why?", leads us to adhere to the standard model that "everyone" follows.
However, as noted by Kahneman, we overlook the fact that not everyone has made an independent judgment; we simply assume it's accurate because others consider it to be so.
When we see three, ten, or twenty people embracing some conclusion, we might well underestimate the extent to which they are all following their predecessors. We might think that their shared agreement reflects collective wisdom, even if it reflects the initial views of just a few people.
It's remarkable how the initial views of just a few can have a lasting impact on industry norms. This is especially true in sports, where players often follow pre-established routines and adopt training methodologies without questioning their effectiveness or relevance.
During a recent caddying experience at a WAPT event, I observed players warming up on the putting green before their tee time and found myself wondering about their pre-round putting routine.
I wondered about the desired outcome of their routine, how many could articulate why they followed it, and how many blindly followed an ineffective routine due to an informational cascade.
As athletes and coaches, it's important to question the status quo and critically evaluate established practices to ensure that they are grounded in scientific evidence and tailored to individual needs.
Reducing Noise
In last week’s post, I emphasized the significance of considering the lens through which we evaluate golfers, as it greatly affects how we perceive and analyze their issues.
In an excellent book titled Accelerating Excellence, James A. King touches on this topic as well.
Single-discipline specialists give us their solutions before they know our problem.
This is why a holistic and multi-faceted assessment process is crucial, as to avoid giving a one-dimensional solution, to a three-dimensional problem.
Excellence is never about one thing in isolation.
Performance excellence is the result of a multifaceted approach that involves collaboration across various performance-related domains. Therefore, fostering a collaborative team environment is essential.
When management has the opportunity to construct teams that will reach judgments together, diversity of skills becomes a potential asset, because different professionals will cover different aspects of the judgment and complement one another.
https://effectiviology.com/availability-cascade/