The Inner Game Equation for Individuals and Teams

Trophies are for Winners

Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game Equation provides an interesting perspective shift to realign us to our potential, and the achievement/expression of it.

The equation is simple: performance = Potential minus Interference (p=P-I).

Your performance is how you are showing up, the actions you are taking, the results you are achieving, and maybe even the thoughts in your head (are they supportively telling you that you can achieve more, or are they telling you that you screwed up again?).

Potential, simply put, is anything you are not doing currently. You have the potential to be the best sales rep ever? That means you are not the best sales rep YET.

You have the potential to be the best wide receiver on your team: aka #WR1 ? If that’s what you’re telling yourself, you have not yet reached the pinnacle of your role.

(And yes, I watched the #KansasCityChiefs play the #GreenBayPackers last evening. So much of what I am outlining here applies to how the Chiefs played last night.) #NFL

Interference can be both internal and external. Of course, there is only one of these that we have control over: the internal interference. But we should at least spend a moment on external interference.

For a receiver, external interference could be anything from crowd noise to the safety covering him, to the conditions of the field, to the (ahem) *perspective* of the referees. He has no control over any of it.

He does however, have control over how he responds to these challenges.

Does he find a way to refocus and tune out the crowd? Does he notice a pause or a weakness in the defender(s) covering him that he can exploit on the next play? Does he shift his running style to adapt to the field? Does he tell the ref to go fu…well, let’s leave that one for the field.

Or, does he talk to his coach so they can bounce ideas around, get a holistic perspective of what is going on both on the field, and what’s being noticed from the sidelines?

Every individual experiences this equation every day.

From parents, to sales reps, to managers, to executives, to entrepreneurs; to the homeless, to billionaires. Because in every role, behind every label, there is a human being.

That human being’s story about themself, what they believe they deserve, what they are capable of doing, is a lens of judgement for themself.

That’s a lot of potential being diminished by a variety of interferences.

And it compounds exponentially for a football team on the field in a game.

I’ll focus on the offensive side of the ball here in this article, but before I do, let’s discuss:

The Three Levels of Play

Play to Win – For this one, think of the New England Patriots from the early 2000s through the late twenty-teens; the Brady/Belichick years. Their success cannot be argued. They played to win, they dominated the league for years.

Here, the energy of the game is focused on forward energy to create positive outcomes.

Play Not to Lose – Here, consider the Marty Schottenheimer Chiefs of the late 90s and early 2000s. They would have a mediocre offense with a powerful defense. As long as the defense could prevent the other team from scoring more points, all the offense had to do was score a few times.

This way of playing is focused on using resistance energy to prevent negative outcomes.

Play to Play – In this way of playing, the outcome does not matter; being on the field and having fun matters. What can be learned? What can we try out, without consideration of how it may impact our final result?

The energy of this way of playing is focused on being in the moment. Nothing else matters but right now. Win/Lose does not matter – only that we showed up and did our best.

And now, back to the game:

In American football, there are eleven players on each side of the ball.

Eleven individuals who are all facing some level of internal interference, possibly many distractions, as noted above.

What is the narrative they are experiencing, both individually and as a collective, that is influencing their performance?

How can the interference experienced by one player reduce the performance of the entire team?

Since I am a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan, let’s explore their team performance over the past few years. I notice some interesting patterns.

In Patrick Mahomes’ first full year as the team’s #QB1, they went 12-4, defeated the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Divisional Playoff game, and then lost a back-and-forth battle with the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Not a bad season overall for a new team with a new quarterback.

2019 is then a very interesting year. This is a hungry team. They were one possession away from going to the Super Bowl in the previous season. After a slow start, they finish the season with a 12-4 record.

This is where the team dynamic gets interesting.

First playoff game, they fall behind 24-0 in the second quarter to the Houston Texans. A four-score deficit with nearly half the game complete. Yet, they didn’t give up, and took the lead 28-24 before the half. The game ended with the Chiefs winning 51-31.

A week later, they fall behind early to the Tennessee Titans by a much smaller deficit. The team rallies and wins that game.

In the Super Bowl that year, facing the San Francisco 49ers, they trail for much of the game. At the start of the final quarter of play, they are behind 20-10. Ultimately, they win 31-20.

Looking back on these games, I recall seeing something special in the team when they were in difficult games on the big playoff stage: It looked like they stopped trying to win, and instead chose to play to play. They relaxed – almost like they said collectively, “We’re here and we’re losing, what can we learn from it? How can we have fun while all these eyes are on us?”

Of course, they wanted to win those games, but during the game, a “Play to Win’ attitude would have sabotaged their success by placing the focus and energy on ‘having to win.’ Play to Play took the pressure off.

And they won.

The next year, as defending Super Bowl Champions, they played with the swagger of a champion. Until they faced the Tamp Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.

Now, with Tampa Bay’s defense pressuring the Chiefs’ offense, as the Bucs stretched their lead, the Chiefs’ team dynamic and energy shifted.

Rather than playing to play, it seems like they got locked up in an interfering narrative in their heads: “We’re the defending champions. We should not be in this position.”

And they started to ‘Play Not to Lose.’ They tried too hard to make big plays happen, rather than go back to the basics that had served them in the prior year. They became sloppy and inconsistent, rather than surgical and precise.

2020, hungry again after losing ‘The Big Game,’ they make another playoff run, eventually losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game.

Last year, they went back to the Super Bowl and beat the Philadelphia Eagles.

This is all history. The numbers are easy to look up.

What’s harder to see in the team’s patterns. You have to look beyond the actual plays and feel the energy with which the team is showing up to play.

Because that “We Are the Champions” interference is back this season.

It showed up in the first game of the season when they played the Detroit Lions. They are a long-suffering franchise…(’no time for losers,’ heh.)

Had it not been for the color of the uniforms being different, I would have thought I was watching the Super Bowl against the Bucs: Same frustration, same clutching trying to make big plays happen to overcome a deficit, same looseness rather than precision.

The same inner sabotage showed up last night against the Packers, particularly in the fourth quarter.

Success can be interference too.

Eleven individuals, all facing some level of internal interference, compounding that energy by trying too hard to perform to the potential they KNOW they have.

The external resistance and challenges they faced from the Bucs and Lions became internal narratives of frustration, which interfered with their game play.

In the past week, Kurt Warner discussed how he thinks Mahomes does not trust his wide receivers. As an NFL MVP and Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Warner has a unique perspective into the game and the mind of a QB.

I think Warner is noticing the same thing that I am, we’re just seeing it a little differently.

Trust is relative and on a continuum. It will ebb and flow. It is not absolute.

This is where the inner game of one player can affect another player and eventually the whole team.

On a basic level the QB throws a pass to the receiver. He catches it, or he does not.

What levels of interference are at play that complicate that interaction?

The QB might be running away from a defender, he might be looking for a different primary receiver who is covered, crowd noise, timing, etc, etc, etc all impact his getting the throw off. All things out of his control.

For the receiver, he is interfered with from the defenders (hopefully not in a flag-throwing penalty-earning way) by how they slow him down on his route, by the field conditions, by the light in his eyes, etc. All things out of his control.

How do these uncontrollable events impact what is in either person’s control?

For the QB, does he start to doubt his receiver’s ability to catch the pass and consider another opportunity rather than operating on the appropriate reaction in the moment?

Does he change the speed of his arm, adjust the arc of the ball, or hold it longer than he should?

For the receiver, does he get stuck in his head, beating himself up over a dropped pass? Does he start to question his abilities and try harder in a clutching, gripping way, that tends to just create more interference with his actual abilities. (Universal Law of Manifesting: The Law of Reverse Effect – the harder you try consciously, the less your subconscious wisdom can be accessed to help you.)

The perceived failures compound and spread across the team consciousness.

“Who is going to step up? Is the pressure now on me? Wow! If X can’t make that play, who am I to make it? If something doesn’t change soon, we’re fucked.”

And so it goes…

All it takes in this moment to turn things around is to stop trying so hard. Pause, reground, be in the moment to move forward rather than becoming hyper-focused on what has been.

It’s true in football. It’s true in business. It’s true for individuals.

By all accounts, Kadarius Toney has the tools and skills to be the number one wide receiver for the Chiefs, but he has not unleashed that potential.

Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league (Hey, I’m biased – sue me), yet when those around him are not showing up fully, he tends to get into a ‘play not to lose’ energy, particularly when he is the reigning MVP, and he tries too hard to turn things around all by himself. You can see it in his eyes…it was very obvious in the second half of the game against the Philadelphia Eagles a couple of weeks ago.

The reduced performance of his teammates creates interference for him and his potential is reduced to the performance witnessed this season.

The Review

If interference can get in the way of professional athletes, how is it affecting you and your team?

How are you sabotaging your success? How are you getting in your own way?

“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

― Albert Einstein

To change your outcomes, you must change your mindset.

You must think differently to create consistent new actions for new results.

Are you ready to challenge your current thinking? Are you ready to trust yourself to make the changes to get yourself unstuck?

Let’s chat. I love a good game.

I inspire players who feel stalled in their game of life to ‘move the sticks’ through intentional, focused action. You can stay where you are, or you can play to progress.

Let’s play.