What I have learned about people and organizations...so far.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Your Secret Weapon in the Red-Zone
Football offers a good analogy that is relevant to life.  In football, the “red-zone” is where you are about to score a touchdown, but gaining additional yardage is harder.  When you are in the red-zone, you are somewhere between your opponents 20 yard line and the end zone.  You have marched your team as far as 80 yards down the field.  You can see, feel and taste the end zone.  For the average professional team, 50% of the time they will not make it through the red-zone and make a touchdown.

Why is it possible to make it successfully 80 yards and not the final 20 yards?  The reason is that in the red-zone the opposing team has a distinct advantage.  They now only have to defend 10 yards of the end-zone and from one to 20 yards of the playing field.  This short field gives them added resources to put up resistance.  That increased short-field resistance is what makes the pathway through the red-zone so difficult.