The Tenth Man

When Alexander the Great landed his army on the shores of Persia his first order to his troops was “Burn the boats!” There was no option but to go forward and face the enemy and, if you wanted to see home and family again, win. His attitude was we succeed, or we die.

But in today’s world we so often hear of people, businesses or teams setting goals and objectives and formulating plans to achieve them, their plan A. But then they add a plan B, a backdoor, an escape in the event that plan A fails.

The trick is to set up plan A – and make it work.

This sounds good, even wise, in theory, but the problem is that plan A needs to be implemented with total focus and commitment in order to succeed. Knowing that there is a plan B in place often, even if unconsciously, dilutes that focus and commitment and so, plan A fails. The irony is that plan B also fails because, again even if only unconsciously, it is perceived as a ‘second rate’ solution.

The trick is to set up plan A – and make it work. This may involve discussing all the possibilities of what can go wrong and building appropriate counter action into the plan. But, from then on focussing only on the positive action of making the plan succeed. This is a technique used by the Mossad and other military special forces units when setting up an operation. The final stage in planning is to bring in what is known as the Tenth Man, whose job is to rip apart the plan looking for every negative. The plan is then revised to counter all these negative possibilities ensuring that all the positive energy and action is directed at a successful outcome.

Perhaps you have not achieved the success you would like, or have deserved, purely because Plan B had an unconscious effect on you, or your team’s focus. So, use the Tenth Man approach, or try burning your boats and watch your motivation soar. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. After all, history has shown that Alexander was one of the greatest leaders and strategists the world has seen.