Malcolm Gladwell presents an absolutely fascinating story about Wilt Chamberlain an NBA basketball star who managed to score 100 points himself in a game – yes 100.
What was even more fascinating was the fact that Wilt made 28 of his 100 points from the free throw line. Why Gladwell was so impressed was because Chamberlain was a terrible free throw shooter. However that season and that game he’d been persuaded to take his free throws underhand. 28 points from free throws is a record that’s never been broken in a regular season NBA game.
What Gladwell truly wanted to explore was the reason Chamberlain reverted, the following season and the rest of his career, to throwing his free throws in a traditional style (his success rate had plummeted back again so he was making less than 4 out of 10).
In his autobiography Chamberlain knew he was wrong to give up the underhand free throw. He gave away the opportunity to be the best he could have possibly have been at his profession just because he felt “silly” and “like a sissy”.
Undoubtedly Chamberlain’s team would have suffered because of his vanity…..
Can we utilise reputation to drive improvements in healthcare?
The NHS has already started through creating the Learning from Mistakes League – a table which scores providers based amongst other things on staff confidence and security in reporting unsafe environments and the percentage of staff who feel able to contribute towards improvements at their trust.
We look to emulate this elsewhere.
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