Seems like everywhere you turn – in the entertainment world at least – there is a zombie of some kind to contend with. You even have your choice of a variety of books on how to survive a zombie apocalypse if you are so inclined. The movie World War Z came out last year and contributed to this theme. It was a somewhat different take on the whole idea and there was one particular moment in the movie that caught my attention.
The main character’s role in the film is to try and figure out where and how the zombie inducing plague started and his journey takes him to Israel where apparently they saw it coming before anyone else did and were somewhat prepared. When he finally tracks down the individual responsible for figuring things out, he gets an explanation. After recounting some key moments of their history where they thought they knew what was coming but were surprised and caught off guard, the individual involved said their decision makers created ‘the tenth man’.
“If nine of us look at the same information and arrive at the exact same conclusion, it’s the duty of the tenth man to disagree. No matter how improbable it may seem, the tenth man has to start digging with the assumption that the other nine are wrong.”
Some time ago I sent out two comments about hearing the dissenting voice. I tried to get across the idea that teamwork is a balancing act of getting everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction while maintaining the skill of being able to speak and hear the dissenting voice – the voice that is confident enough to point out something that may have been missed that goes against the prevailing position but may be worth taking another look at.
I received a fair bit of feedback from people on those comments, all of which confirmed for me that it is definitely a balancing act – and often a difficult one. It is a constant struggle to keep a team focused while not buying into ‘group think’. This small piece from World War Z struck me as another way of approaching this discussion. What if a team had a designated individual to purposefully look at things from the minority or more improbable view? What if there as was a way, in specified circumstances, where one person was given the responsibility to play ‘devil’s advocate’ just to make sure nothing was being missed? It would be an interesting exercise to try. To be honest, I am not entirely sure how it would work, but I am convinced that on some level the best teams find a way to get everyone moving in the same direction without becoming so singularly focused that they miss something really important that is going on around them that can significantly change the situation.
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Zombies Are All the Rage These Days
The main character’s role in the film is to try and figure out where and how the zombie inducing plague started and his journey takes him to Israel where apparently they saw it coming before anyone else did and were somewhat prepared. When he finally tracks down the individual responsible for figuring things out, he gets an explanation. After recounting some key moments of their history where they thought they knew what was coming but were surprised and caught off guard, the individual involved said their decision makers created ‘the tenth man’.
“If nine of us look at the same information and arrive at the exact same conclusion, it’s the duty of the tenth man to disagree. No matter how improbable it may seem, the tenth man has to start digging with the assumption that the other nine are wrong.”
Some time ago I sent out two comments about hearing the dissenting voice. I tried to get across the idea that teamwork is a balancing act of getting everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction while maintaining the skill of being able to speak and hear the dissenting voice – the voice that is confident enough to point out something that may have been missed that goes against the prevailing position but may be worth taking another look at.
I received a fair bit of feedback from people on those comments, all of which confirmed for me that it is definitely a balancing act – and often a difficult one. It is a constant struggle to keep a team focused while not buying into ‘group think’. This small piece from World War Z struck me as another way of approaching this discussion. What if a team had a designated individual to purposefully look at things from the minority or more improbable view? What if there as was a way, in specified circumstances, where one person was given the responsibility to play ‘devil’s advocate’ just to make sure nothing was being missed? It would be an interesting exercise to try. To be honest, I am not entirely sure how it would work, but I am convinced that on some level the best teams find a way to get everyone moving in the same direction without becoming so singularly focused that they miss something really important that is going on around them that can significantly change the situation.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 17th, 2014 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.