“Archer’s Paradox”, What can we know from this?

Why team members need to learn about the “archer’s paradox”?

I invariably choose to explain several occasions about this information,

The term was first used by E.J. Rendtroff in 1913,[1] but specific descriptions of the phenomenon appear in archery literature as early as Horace A. Ford’s 1859 text “Archery: Its Theory and Practice”

In order to be accurate, an arrow must have the correct stiffness, or “dynamic spine”, to flex out of the way of the bow and return to the correct path as it leaves the bow. Incorrect dynamic spine results in unpredictable contact between the arrow and the bow, therefore unpredictable forces on the arrow as it leaves the bow, and therefore reduced accuracy.

What is THE ARCHER’S PARADOX?

To shoot the target, aim dead-on? Not necessarily. Archery provides us an excellent lesson of why initial misses can be vital. Arrows flex, and this means their trajectory curves in mid-air. Archers have to factor in the stiffness of the arrow’s shaft in order to judge how far its flight will deviate. This is the “archer’s paradox”: for a perfect shot, you have to aim slightly away from the bulls-eye.

Occasionally the particular way to get an understanding for things is to fire some arrows and understand how they fly. Consider of your mistakes as test shots: study at where your efforts land, and that can tell you how to correct your aim next time.

During sprint planning meeting the conversation comes out about the rework reduction and the strategy to minimize rework. Through this rework, as a team, we explore many things. We stabilize an abundance of ways of working, we reach our mastery level.

In a popular TED Talk, art historian Sarah Lewis describes watching archers practice over and over again to master the “archer’s paradox” whereby to hit a target, you have to aim slightly askew. This, she argues, is the difference between success and mastery: it’s a success to hit the target, and mastery to be able to hit it more than once—but to reach that point, you have to miss many times.

Many great artists, Lewis adds, didn’t much care for some of their artworks that others value greatly: the “near win” that doesn’t please its maker is a part of learning. Being able to judge your work negatively should be taken as a sign of increasing mastery, as it means you are developing expertise.

Initial several sprints will be part of the Forming and Storming process for team discovery plus the technological discovery phase. It is a journey in which we keep maturing ourselves.

Will you share similar topics to alter the mindset of the Leaders?