Jump back to May 2021. The Covid-19 second wave was at its peak. There were lockdowns imposed throughout the country and I was fortunate enough get time to read this gem of a book called Good to Great by Jim Collins.There is this little confrontation of the author with an US Admiral described in the book which I thought is worth sharing. The author and his team had framed the term ‘Stockdale Paradox’ as a part of their research analysis.

Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest ranking US military officer in the prisoner of war camp during the height of Vietnam war. He was tortured twenty times from 1965-1975. Stockdale was a very responsible person and took the burden on his shoulder,doing everything he could to create conditions that would help other prisoners of wars survive unbroken. He exchanged secret intelligence information with his wife through their letters,knowing that discovery could mean torture and death.

While researching on this topic,the author Jim Collins is invited to Admiral’s home for lunch. Before meeting, the author had read the book written by Admiral and his wife In love and War,chronicling their experience during those eight years as his homework. The book was very depressing to read. So author asks Admiral”How on earth did you deal with it when you were actually there and did not know the end of the story?”
“I never lost faith in the end of the story” he said. “I never doubted not only that I would get out,but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life,which,in retroy i would not trade.”

Further after the lunch they take a walk down the street and the author asks “Who didn’t make it out?”
“Oh that’s easy” Admiral said. “The optimists.”They were the ones who said”We are going to be out by Christmas.”And the Christmas would come and go. They would say,”We are going to be out by easter.”And easter would come and go. So they were the ones who hoped for the last day but last day did not ever come. Eventually they lost hope of ever getting out. Such situations are also faced by us when we wait for the last day of the exams or the last day of the school or last day of that job or something that we wish to end.

As the author and Admiral continue walking,Admiral says one of the most interesting things. He says”This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end-which you can never afford to lose-with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality,whatever they might be.”

Imagine a mental image of Admiral telling optimist “We are not getting out by Christmas,deal with it.”

“What seperates people,Stockdale taught me,is not the presence or absence of difficulty,but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life” writes the author .

We ourselves can apply a lot from this in our business as well as in our personal lives. Stockdale paradox can be helpful to someone who is leading an organisation and going through a crisis;the leader needs to understand that they will prevail but also need to face the harsh truths of surviving the competition,economic crises or a pandemic.

To summarize the “good to great leaders can strip away noise and clutter and focus on just few things that make the greatest impact. They are able to do so in large parts because they operate from both sides of Stockdale paradox,never letting one side overshadow another. If one can adapt this duality one can dramatically increase the odds of making a series of good decisions and ultimately discovering a simple yet insightful concept for making big choices.”

Credits-“Good to Great”book by Jim Collins

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