Daily debrief: wisdom from discomfort
Mountain guides commonly have “their terrain” — those zones in which they work day in and day out, month after month, and often year after year. This is a huge advantage to the client because the guide will know all the best routes that are less traveled (escaping the crowds) and will know the best objective for any given condition — snow or sun, summer or winter, and everything in between. For the guide, this familiarity can be a two-edged sword; it reduces preparation time and lowers stress levels, but it can also lead to complacency and an over-dependence on familiarity instead of reading conditions in real-time. In the world of ski guiding, this has resulted in a number of high profile tragedies when a slope that “never slides” unexpectedly released a massive avalanche with tragic consequences.
There are a number of strategies to mitigate against complacency in the mountains. One of the most effective is the routine use of a daily debrief. The template is to reflect on the conditions encountered during the day, identifying how they were similar or different from what was expected or what was encountered previously, and to ponder the question “did I make good decisions today, or did I just get lucky?” This is an invaluable tool when your job is to manage risk in situations where the probability of an incident occurring is low (“the slope never slides”) but the consequence of being wrong is catastrophic (multiple fatalities). This type of reflection is not for the faint of heart — it can be extremely uncomfortable to set your ego aside, look critically at your own performance, and to identify how your decision making can be improved the next time.
The concept of a “daily debrief” is useful in life and in business as well. It can be applied to specific interactions (for example, a cross functional meeting to address a charged topic) or specific projects, or even to specific experiments. The reflection becomes “what happened and what did I learn?” Creating a written journal of learnings over time can be an invaluable tool for personal and professional growth. Sharing those learnings with a peer or a loved one can be transformative and (initially) the most uncomfortable experience since high school. Despite the discomfort, or perhaps because of it, the investment in reflection and continuous learning will provide an attractive return in growth opportunities.
