Fire & Fanatic Focus — The Survivor Playbook
In the TV show Survivor, the technique participants use to start a fire offers a good metaphor for how a focused team operates.
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I have watched religiously every episode of the first 15 seasons of the TV show Survivor — the French version, called Koh Lanta. The concept of the show is to drop 20 people on an island, divide them into teams, expose them to physical challenges and force them to eliminate a participant every two days. After 40 days of survival, the last person standing wins 100.000€.
During 15 years, I couldn’t get my eyes off this wonderfully produced show. Thrown in an hostile environment — fatigue, lack of food, isolation from friends and families, big prize, etc. —, the participants always end up forming a mini-society, in which each typical archetype is represented in an extreme manner. Watching the show felt like an accelerated course on social psychology.
How to start a fire
Every season includes an episode where a participant motivates other team members to start a fire. It’s a critical moment because, if they succeed, they instantly get access to better food.
Once you have seen multiple seasons of that show, the best technique to start a fire becomes clear.
The team gathers pieces of wood.
One person takes one piece of wood and holds it down.
Another person rubs a second piece of wood on the first one, rolling it between her palms.
She keeps rubbing for a very long time.
Sometimes, she run out of physical strength, and asks a third person to carry on.
When they change places, there is barely a second of pause. They understand that waiting will make the piece of wood cool down, thus ruining the whole effort.
They don’t stop rubbing until they see the wood turn hot and red.
This method usually works.
The opposite of being focused
This natural way of making fire came back to me recently. It looked like the perfect metaphor of how a focused team operates: one clear goal, a fanatic focus towards it, and a lot of persistence.
And while applying this method doesn’t guarantee success, doing the opposite is a guaranteed failure. Sticking to the Survivor metaphor, here is what an unfocused team might do:
They would gather all kinds of things that could be fire material.
They would start rubbing a piece of wood, not see anything happen immediately, wonder if it’s the right one, pick up another one, again and again.
Every person would try to lit up a piece on her own.
They would go at it with little intensity or continuity.
They would take a piece of wood, rub it for a few minutes, get up, go swimming, come back to it, try again for a few more minutes, take a break, try again, etc.
Someone would ask if, instead of making fire, they could build a little shack with the wood.
Of course, no one would do this on the Survivor show. Why is that?
Because the goal is super clear — obtain fire.
Because the measure of that goal is super clear — either you have fire or you don’t.
Because the activity of lighting up a fire is boring — no one rubs pieces of wood together just for fun.
But imagine that the goal is more blurry; or the progress towards it is harder to measure; or the activity required is not a boring one, and people find interest in the activity itself, regardless of whether it leads to the goal. In this situation, you will often see smart and passionate people fully occupied, achieving very little, yet having the impression of making progress.
Applying fanatic focus to oneself
To help a person or a team increase its level of focus, a few powerful questions can drive the right conversation.
Why do we need to achieve X?
To our knowledge, what is the best way to reach X?
How will we know when X is done?
Are we applying a fanatic focus towards X?
Recently, I asked myself those questions. And I realized that, on the professional front, I wasn’t as focused as I could be. In fact, I was trying to start two fires at once: working as a partner in the consulting firm Thiga, while also driving the adoption of a co-invented method called Discovery Discipline.
It was painful to choose, but I have decided to leave Thiga in order to apply a fanatic focus on spreading Discovery Discipline wherever it can bring value. This is where I will put all my energy moving forward.
What about you?
In which area of your life could you apply a fanatic focus?
PS : This decision means I am available for conferences, training and coaching around the topic of product discovery. If you are working on a digital service and want to improve the way you and your colleagues make it evolve, I may be able to help you. Just reply to this email to get in contact. More information about it here.
Thank you to Olivier Bonnet for coining the term Fanatic Focus, to Tristan Charvillat for carrying the torch, to Eve-Marie Guidier, Sébastien L’Hoste, Jean-Luc Momprivé and Arnaud Girard for reviewing a draft of this newsletter a long time ago, to ChatGPT for suggesting the illustration, and to Thiga for being so supportive.