For too long, too many cricket-minded South Africans - including many of the players - have thought of winning as a moment or a series of isolated moments without properly considering how they came about.
It hasn't helped that most generations of South African cricketers have produced more than their fair share of world-class players.
Success looks like it has always come effortlessly to stars like Allan Donald, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn. It hasn't, of course. But the cricket public doesn't care - if the gifted few can do the impossible, what's wrong with the rest of them?
In South African minds all poppies are the same height, so best the short ones make a plan to catch up.
As an opening batsman who was, compared to some of those he shared a dressingroom with, short on talent and long on tenaciousness, Kirsten learned the long, hard way that winning meant focusing on the journey much more than on the destination.
Now, as a coach, he is trying to get that into the heads of another generation of South Africans who have, for most of their waking lives, had their eyes firmly fixed on the prize instead of on the process. Not any more. Spend some time in the company of any Proteas player on this tour and the word "process" will pop out of his mouth sooner rather than later.
The difference is becoming noticeable on the field, where South Africa's resounding victories in the one-day series against New Zealand were not celebrated with the same gusto as they have been in the past.
In the Dunedin test, a first innings deficit has been calmly and steadily turned into a looming lead, and then some. Those parts of the process might never have been accomplished had South Africa kept their eye only on the ball.
Telford Vice is a South African cricket writer.
