Steel sharpens steel; having an enemy can be your greatest ally
When was the last time you got lost? I’ve been taking my dogs out for walks around our neighborhood with the intention to explore. I leave the podcasts at home so my ears and other senses can be present and focus on the experience. I start out with a planned duration and a direction; say, 90 minutes, going West. After that I follow my curiosity. At any intersection I check in to see which direction I want to go. As I mentioned in a prior newsletter about “explore vs. exploit,” I tend toward the explorer side. I usually choose whichever road I haven’t been down yet, or where I see something new. With 90 minutes to play with and erratic direction setting, I invariably end up somewhere I haven’t been before. My neighborhood is hilly with windy roads, which really messes with my sense of direction. Eventually I need to figure out how to get back home! Instead of being stressful, it’s been really fun! In the age of Google Maps, it’s been a while since I had to leverage my way-finding muscles. I’ve had to tune into my underused senses, pay attention to street names, and navigate in a more analog way. I noticed that after about an hour I get hit with a strong sense of joy. I laughed out loud before! It’s the combination of exercise, mindfulness, and novelty that just hits me in a cool way. If it’s been a while since you got lost, I suggest this weekend you give it a shot. Take a walk. Learn your neighborhood. Notice the plants and animals. Listen to the noises. If you do, please share your story with me! What did you notice in yourself? What did you notice around you that you’ve previously not seen? Kevin 🦮🚶😄 A Quote Three Things1 - 🧲 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) - This is just one study, but I’ve been hearing a lot of interesting things about TMS and the durability of impact on things like depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and chronic pain. TMS is a non-invasive procedure where an electromagnetic coil is placed against the scalp, stimulated with electrical impulses, to deliver magnetic fields to areas of the brain. I’ve heard treatment anecdotes from the Stanford lab where patients with decade long treatment resistant depression can go from a nearly non-communicative state to “normal” in two days - and stay that way. Very interesting stuff! 2 - 🦷 Bacteria that Prevents Cavities from Forming - This is just one article, but I recently heard about a resurgence of something started a few decades ago - a strain of bacteria, that when applied to the mouth, kills the other cavity-causing bacteria, permanently preventing the formation of cavities. This was something that failed to get FDA approval in the US previously (because the testing was too costly for the provider), but is now being provided as a treatment in a crypto-libertarian community down in South America. The people providing this service are hoping that by studying the impact down there they can generate enough data to bring it back to the FDA for approval later. 3 - 💪 Physical Education in the USA in the 1960s - This is a video highlighting the physical education training at La Sierra High School in California in the 1906s. Certainly not every person in the 60s had this for PE class in school, but dang these kids are impressive! At the time the older generation was calling kids growing up in the 60s the “marshmallow generation” because they were lazy compared to kids growing up in the 30s. Deeper DiveI’ve been thinking a lot lately about the importance of having an external enemy. I like to ask hypotheticals as a way to explore other perspectives, and one of my favorites at work is to ask, “If you were going to get fired if this didn’t succeed, what would you do differently?” Often the answer is something other than what I’m currently doing. It’s a good way to re-think my approach and apply a greater sense of urgency and intensity to get something done. Why does this work? Well, because like most people I wouldn’t want to get fired! But more abstractly, it’s the idea of having an external enemy. You need something to fight against - to resist - to bring out the best in yourself. In today’s newsletter I’ll share what I’ve learned about this idea and some examples where I see this lesson applied. The reason this first occurred to me is a family history of autoimmune disease. To oversimplify, auto-immune diseases are ones where your body fights itself. One theory for the cause of autoimmune disease is called the “hygiene hypothesis.” The theory states that insufficient exposure to organisms that challenge the body’s immune system in early childhood causes the immune system to turn on itself. Evidence that seems to support the theory are the extremely low rates of autoimmune disease in kids who grow up on working farms. For such a complex topic there’s unlikely to be a single, simple, explanation like this one, but it is illustrative. Without something to fight, like microbes in farm dirt, the body fights itself. This is similar to what happens in business. There’s a saying that “most business die by suicide than homicide.” Like an autoimmune disease, a business can harm itself by being too slow and not innovating. This can happen in large companies because of a dilutive effect. Every company has enemies in the form of competitors. When the company is small, those companies are known, and every employee can name them. Market skirmishes are part of the company zeitgeist. You talk about logos you’ve won at their expense. You talk about sales figures and marketing campaigns. As a business grows to, for example, 10,000 people, those competitors and skirmishes are no longer clear and present. Employees have weak or zero awareness of competitors and don’t make decisions or operate with the speed that the CEO may want them to. They do this because the information is diluted and the costs are unclear. While in the early days the biggest fear was going out of business, in a large enterprise the bigger fears are social and political. Instead of taking quick action with imperfect information like when the company was young, employees dance around ideas and decisions to build consensus. They feel people out. Everyone wants their opinion heard, and employees are fearful of stepping on the wrong toes. The result is slow processes. Weak decisions. Scope creep. Politics. Employees are more worried about the feelings of those around them than they are worried about the health of business and its ability to fight its enemies. “Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert.” - Robert Greene in “48 Laws of Power” It’s not malicious. No one is doing it on purpose. It’s just human nature and the way incentives change as companies get larger. It’s why folks like Jeff Bezos tend to stand out. He, and the companies he leads, try to fight this natural effect. Amazon acts more like a startup than you’d expect given their immense size. If the culture of your company isn’t strong enough to push against this natural tendency as it increases in size, it results in those slow processes and weak decisions. What can be done to counteract this tendency? People and Culture Culture, as they say, is “how we do things around here,” and it’s the result of every employee’s decisions every day. Who you bring in the door has a huge impact on this. Crystalize and Broadcast Your Enemy Like Winston Churchill and other great military leaders, you need to rally your team to fight the external enemy. Who are you fighting against and why? Crystalize the enemy in your mind and share this explicitly with your team. Mobilize and Energize Cut waste. Remove unnecessary steps. Over time, what impact does this have? You’ll find that your team has more capacity than you thought possible. Things will move much quicker. No more: In fact, this increase in capacity happened when Winston Churchill came to power. A new electricity surged through Whitehall. Subdued corridors awoke. “It was as though the machine had overnight acquired one or two new gears, capable of far higher speeds than had ever before been thought possible,” wrote Edward Bridges, secretary to the War Cabinet. This new energy, unfamiliar and disconcerting, coursed through all bureaucratic strata, from the lowest secretary to the most senior minister. The effect within No. 10 was galvanic. Under Chamberlain, even the advent of war had not altered the pace of work, according to John Colville; but Churchill was a dynamo. To Colville’s astonishment, “respectable civil servants were actually to be seen running along the corridors.” For Colville and his fellow members of Churchill’s private secretariat, the workload increased to hitherto unimagined levels.”
- Erik Larson, "The Splendid and the Vile"
As your newly energized team gets some wins against the enemy, this energy will build upon itself. Just like muscles require resistance to grow stronger, you and your team grow stronger through the struggle against your enemy. It’s hard, but it’s how you get better. Every obstacle is pushing you to improve. "No one is saying you can’t take a minute to think, Dammit, this sucks. By all means, vent. Exhale. Take stock. Just don’t take too long. Because you have to get back to work. Because each obstacle we overcome makes us stronger for the next one."
- Ryan Holiday, “The Obstacle is the Way”
You now know how important having an enemy is to your success. You can see the signals in the slowness and consensus-driven approach to decisions. You see the risk aversion. You see more worry about social and political concerns than on the business impact. "Years later, a Japanese visitor tried to apologize to Mao for his country’s invasion of China. Mao interrupted, “Should I not thank you instead?” Without a worthy opponent, he explained, a man or group cannot grow stronger."
- Robert Greene, “The 48 Laws of Power”
You also know how to counteract that force through: The action this week is to take stock of you and your team’s enemies. Is it clear who you’re fighting against? Does the team know their names and how well you’re doing? Does your culture feel slow? If you don’t have an enemy, find one. Name the competitor and galvanize your team against them. Bring out the best in everyone by giving them a cause to push for. "Never let the presence of enemies upset or distress you—you are far better off with a declared opponent or two than not knowing where your real enemies lie. The man of power welcomes conflict, using enemies to enhance his reputation as a surefooted fighter who can be relied upon in times of uncertainty."
- Robert Greene, “The 48 Laws of Power”
Look for any immediate actions and new perspectives by asking yourself the question I shared at the beginning of the newsletter: “If you were going to get fired if this wasn’t successful, what would you do differently?” Good luck out there! You have competitors whether you know it or not. Best to bring them to the fore than to ignore it and fail to achieve what you’re capable of. You can do more than you thought possible. Kevin |