It was a dark and stormy night, the middle of a political campaign. There were problems; in the last three days, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. The situation seemed hopeless. The press was after our leader—accusations of the worst sort about the character of the leader and the Party. We had lost control of our communication agenda.
A crisis team meeting was convened. Desperation permeated the room. Everyone was exhausted. After an angry start, the team was drifting, moving towards paralysis. The debate subsided and then stopped. We sat looking down at the floor.
One of the team was a retired army general. In the silence, he leaned forward; he said, “if you are going through the valley of the shadow of death, the worst thing you can do is stop.”
He continued, “and we should be clear, we are in trouble, we are in the valley of the shadow of death. It is a political valley, and we are in the shadow of political death. And we have three options, only three.
“We can move forward; we will be moving towards the end of the valley. That might be good. Time will tell.
“Or we can move backward, retreat to the other end of the valley, where we started. We may lose the progress we achieved, but we will live to fight another day. And maybe when we get back to where we started, we will find a better valley to go down.
“Or we can stop, but stopping is the worst of the three options.
“In the valley of the shadow of death, if you stop you present an improved target profile to the shooters. The next shot is usually a kill shot.”
That broke the log jam; ideas came out that moved the team forward or took them backward. But they were moving.
He was right; a moving target is likely to be a live target. Standing targets are often dead targets.
The clarity of a military mindset is powerful; they frame the issues as life or death. The goals are simple – increase the odds of living and decrease the odds of dying.
In life, as in politics, we often pass through the valley of the shadow of death. Your spouse announces a desire for divorce. A child is arrested for possession of drugs. The boss calls you in after a major contract is lost. These are all valleys in the shadow of death.
The military mindset might be helpful. Be clear and acknowledge that you are in the valley and the shadow of death is upon you. Then you can frame the issue with clarity. And usually, the worst thing you can do is stop.
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