The road is easier when you’re not alone.
It is not only the journey that makes the man, but who he travels with.
Like some of the best stories, this one begins at the end. Or, rather, it begins by discussing what might ordinarily be considered the thing that should come last.
Sounds complicated, but you’ll see what I mean as we progress.
First I need to establish some context.
For many years, the core tenet of my work in enabling organisations, and people, to function effectively has been the idea of the 10th Man. It’s a concept formed out of dire necessity by an organisation whose very survival was at stake, and involves challenging the very assumptions upon which our everyday activities are based.
In talking about the subtleties of this role for some years, I have developed several… let’s call them archetypes, to explain particular attitudes that can help us navigate the challenges business and life throws at us. For instance, I often discuss the role of The Alchemist, who initiates and implements change within a person or organisation.
More recently, I’ve become concerned about the plight of our young men. If you want to read the background to this growing concern, and what I decided to do about it, have a look at this brief article:
Long story short, I decided to write a book that I thought might help men navigate the complexities of modern life. I also thought it a good idea to excerpt that material here for your thoughts and critique. This is what I’ve been working on these last several weeks.
However, as so often happens when embarking on such an enterprise, the thing began to take on a life of its own. I soon realised that I was incorporating more and more of my thoughts relating to the many archetypes I use in my training and coaching. It dawned on me that my coaching material around the 10th Man, and a potential book helping young men regain some agency might actually be one and the same.
As you will come to see, the 10th Man acts as guide in our journey through life. He asks the tough questions, the ones we think we know the answer to, and then kicks our arse when we’re too stubborn to listen. A book with the 10th man guiding the direction of the discussion began to make a lot of sense.
So, this is the route I have chosen to take - use the archetypes already fleshed out to illustrate - no, to embody the lessons men can draw upon to make life more compelling and satisfying. There are nine that I typically refer to when discussing certain attitudes, the final one being, appropriately, the 10th Man. They are as follows:
The Pathfinder. Clarity: Finding Truth in a Complex World.
Establishes the foundation of clear thinking and understanding. Discusses the importance of clarity in decision-making, problem-solving, and setting goals.
The Sentinel. Presence: The Art of Being Fully Engaged
Explores the concept of being present and fully engaged in the moment, which is essential for effective decision-making and leadership.
The Sage. Belief: Building a Resilient Mindset
Examines the role of belief systems and mindset in shaping our actions and responses to challenges. How to cultivate a resilient and adaptive mindset.
The Architect. Detached Involvement: Balancing Engagement and Objectivity
Introduces the concept of detached involvement, where one remains engaged yet objective, preventing emotional biases from clouding judgment.
The Alchemist. Change: Navigating and Leading in Volatile Times
Provides strategies for effectively navigating and leading through change, leveraging the 10th man concept to anticipate and manage resistance.
The Visionary. Vision: Creating a Compelling Future
Focuses on developing a clear and compelling vision for the future, both personally and professionally. How to align actions with this vision.
The Sacred Fool. Innovation: Cultivating Creative Problem-Solving
Explores the importance of innovation and creative problem-solving in overcoming complex challenges and driving progress.
The Warrior. Courage: Mastering Discipline and Resilience
Champions the vital role of courage and discipline in overcoming adversity and achieving long-term goals. This archetype embodies the principles of taking bold action, upholding values, and standing firm in the face of opposition.
The 10th Man. Integration: Synthesizing Knowledge and Experience
Combines insights from the previous archetypes to help the student integrate knowledge and experience into a manifesto for personal and professional growth.
You will notice there is no archetype occupying the position of number 1 in my list above. That is because these nine companions must be companions to someone - you.
You are number 1.
And that is also why I must begin this story at the end, with the final companion to take his position. He is the guide, the mentor. It is him you will hear from first.
The 10th Man. Mastering the Maverick Mindset.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Ralph Waldo Emerson.
A cautionary note
In writing this book, which consists of the cumulative knowledge gleaned from more than 20 years working in problem-solving, I have made certain assumptions about you. You might reasonably think, as we sit down to discuss this subject together, that I couldn’t possibly know you at all. But I do.
How could I not?
I know that, like me, you’re aware that all is not well with the world. In spite of your efforts to stay positive, the thought creeps up on you at increasingly regular intervals: ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’. You try to believe that humanity will eventually get its shit together, but you can’t help but feel this is no easy road we walk. I know this and many other things about you. And I empathise. Which is why I want you to know, at the very outset, that this is a book about hope. I’m going to get into some pretty snarky critiques of the way we operate as a species, but don’t be fooled - this a positive message. The world is a place of wondrous miracles sparkling from every nook, just waiting for us to drag our eyes from the horrors laid out before us like some squalid freak show.
There is, however, a question I feel serves both our interests to ask at the outset, and it is this:
What if I was to tell you that I could give you perfect insight and total clarity?
That, in any situation, you would be able to see exactly what was going on? I make no promises of super-human ability, of course. Nevertheless, within the constraints of human physiology, you would be perfectly able to understand exactly what was happening around you at any given time. Would you accept?
You might think you’d jump at the opportunity. Very few people would be able to successfully lie to you or pull the wool over your eyes. Any problem that arose, you would understand completely the cause and its potential solutions. Again, this is not one of those body language books, simply an explanation of the complex interactions between what we see and how we understand it. You will almost never be fooled again. However, before you answer: there’s a downside.
Of course there is.
Imagine, for instance, that your partner lies to you. They might have perfectly good reasons for it – such as not wanting to hurt your feelings, or to keep you from knowing something about which you can do nothing to change. But you would know.
If your boss, family or friends hold anything back from you, you’ll know.
Would that start to become a burden? A curse, even? There's a reason we can't see everything with our physical eyes. Magnetism, radio waves, and the little bugs that live in our eyelashes all exist outside our physical perception. Thank goodness. Otherwise, we’d go mad. Our minds just wouldn’t be able to take it all in.
So, how do you think you’d handle the knowledge that bullshit, lies and manipulation are as common as the little critters that are, right now, munching on your dead skin?
It’s a question worth considering – not everyone wants to investigate that particular rabbit-hole.
Still interested? Good. Then let’s get started.
Crossing the threshold
Drinking my first coffee of the day on October 7th 2023, I almost scrolled past reports of paragliding terrorists – I was still half-asleep and such pictures were yet to burn themselves onto our collective psyche. However, as the bizarre images began to coalesce into some semblance of a story, the realisation made my skin crawl. That the despicable nature of many hundreds of individual atrocities shook me, goes without saying; few rational people could have been unaffected. But something else tugged at my sleeve, begging for an answer: How could this have happened? It was not a rhetorical question.
It, literally, should not have been possible.
For several years I had been researching, writing about, and teaching a subject that had, at its heart, a philosophy rooted in the lessons learned from the original Yom Kippur attack on Israel in October 1973. I had been citing Israel specifically, in presentations and training classes, as a country that would never be caught out again because of this idea – what they loosely referred to as Ipcha Mishtabra, or as I and others called it, the 10th Man Concept.
The 10th Man philosophy should have meant that an invasion on Israeli soil was not possible. It would have been thought of and pre-empted. So, the theory went.
I first heard of the concept in 2015. Working with a large manufacturing organisation, I was part of a small team tasked with building and delivering a company-wide training programme designed to address the behaviours that led to accidents in the workplace. Rather than adopt a ‘stand here, do this’ approach to safety, this ambitious project aimed to root out risk-oriented behaviours at source and encouraged staff – from the General Manager to the newest operative – to challenge each other when they felt a behaviour or action was unsafe. The question we asked continually was: What if? What if you hadn’t allowed that person to take that risk? What if you’d said something? It took a full year to train every member of staff and was an unprecedented success. Accidents dropped precipitously. I was sold on the concept of asking ‘what if…?’.
I began to obsess over the possibility of preventing situations such as catastrophic oil spills, chemical fires and other, avoidable, industrial disasters.
Then I read about an approach to risk that had been mentioned in a film I’d never seen – World War Z.
In the film, Brad Pitt is trying to save the world from a zombie apocalypse. Yes, not very scientific, I know, but I was intrigued. At one point during the film, an agent of Mossad explains to Pitt’s character why Israel was better prepared for an attack than the rest of the world - Israel’s security council supposedly consisted of 10 advisors who were continually analyzing world events. If 9 members of the council dismissed an issue or potential danger, then it was the job of the 10th man to overrule them on principle and investigate the issue no matter how far-fetched the scenario. That way Israel would always be prepared for black swan events.
It made for a good story, but was it true?
Actually, it was. Sort of. Here’s the potted version:
In the autumn of 1973, rumours of an impending attack on Israel by a coalition of belligerent states began to circulate. However, Israeli and US intelligence assumed that the coalition, led by Egypt, would not attack. At least not any time soon. The Egyptian army was suffering from a shortage of spare parts and a poorly trained army. Besides, it would soon be Ramadan. There was nothing to worry about.
Against all expectations, on October 6, 1973, the coalition launched a surprise attack against Israel on the holy day of Yom Kippur. Although lasting only a few weeks, the Yom Kippur War drew the U.S. and the Soviet Union dangerously close to direct confrontation and very nearly pushed the adolescent state of Israel into the sea forever.
As well as highlighting the consequence of underestimating security threats, the war led to the loss of territory, the resignation of Prime Minister Golda Meir and the adoption of a new approach to decision-making in the intelligence community.
This approach, although not called such in Israeli Intelligence circles, has come to be known as the 10th Man Rule.
The job of the 10th Man is to challenge received wisdom and argue against consensus. Why? Because Herd Mentality can lead to some very strange, and often deadly, assumptions. When a group of likeminded individuals agree on a course of action, they can accomplish great things. But when Groupthink is running the show, a peculiar myopia can set in, and it must be challenged lest the herd find themselves charging headlong over a cliff.
So important was this role in decision-making that Israeli Intelligence subsequently formed an entire department dedicated to looking into obscure possibilities and unlikely alternatives.
You can see why I was so shocked that the attack had even happened.
Unfortunately, two weeks after the attack, as debate was raging over how to best deal with a situation in which hundreds of hostages were still being held, I was riding my motorcycle when an SUV suddenly decided to turn left across my path. The injuries from the resulting accident left me screwed into a body cage that protected damaged spine and internal organs as they struggled to heal. I was to spend the next 4 months in a dazed fog of self-administered morphine, trying to figure out how I was going to work if I couldn’t even stand up straight.
To be continued…
I'm very curious: do you think a company needs one of each archetype as an employee to be successful?
How about one of each archetypes in our life?
No, not at all, Angela. In fact, the idea of the 10th Man as the antidote to Groupthink really took root in my own mind when research suggested that we are all victims of a type of Groupthink that occurs within individuals - that's us, the opinions of those around us impinge on our ability to make wise decisions, even when those people aren't even around.
The concept of the 10th Man became, for me, a figure we could invoke when faced with any internal conflict.
Eventually it became clear that all archetypes are just that - a reference point, or a benchmark against whom we can gauge our own response to situations.
Organisations can certainly identify people with those skills and exploit them where applicable and appropriate, but the strength of these archetypes lies in their value to all of us as individuals.