2. Principled Preparation
In the first paragraph of his last book, Mark Twain penned: “In all of human history only one person ever held supreme command of the military forces of an entire nation at the age of seventeen.”
With these opening lines of his biographical novel about Joan of Arc, Twain described perhaps the most impressive example in the history of the western world of the immense potential of principled preparation.
Joan was born in 1412, the 4th child of farmers in far Eastern France. She was an engaging child, the ringleader of her siblings and cousins. At the age of twelve she became acutely aware of France’s uncertain future. After eighty years of war with England, France had lost its grit and was consistently losing battles to smaller English armies.
When she learned of France’s plight from a soldier fleeing the front, Joan transformed from precocious playmate to quiet contemplative, spending each afternoon in prayer. She was recurrently visited by visions advising her that she had been chosen as God’s vessel to rescue France.
A year later, at the age of sixteen, she told her family of her visions to lead the military to bring victory to King Charles VII against England. Her intensive meditative mental preparation provided her with a charismatic aura that conveyed her depth of integrity, courage, and commitment.
The next year Joan set out with a few local supporters to meet with the provincial officials. Joan’s confident demeanor led to a commission that granted her the authority to lead a small group of knights to meet with the King.
As they crossed France, the confidence of Joan’s band of knights infused a patriotic fervor among the citizens of the towns they passed through. However, when they arrived at the castle, Joan’s authority was abruptly challenged by the KIng’s self-serving advisers. Joan deftly out-witted their bureaucratic traps, leaving them with no choice but to provide her an audience with the King.
Charles was thoroughly impressed by Joan and audaciously appointed her commander in chief of his armies. France then won its first convincing battle in years, followed by several more in quick succession.
As a poor peasant, Joan had never ridden a horse, handled a weapon, or fought in a battle. But her mental preparation had created a unifying vision that kindled a synergistic cohesiveness among the French people, army, and King that ignited military success.
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In crafting effective strategic design, what one omits is as important as what one includes. In Joan’s case, she did not even try to convince the King’s bureaucracy to support her cause. Twain portrayed Joan as understanding that trying to convince those that were profiting from France’s dysfunctional status quo was futile.
Mark Twain is quoted as saying that “Joan” was his most important work because it portrays the immense power of intensive preparation and principled purpose to change the world.
With a bit of tongue in cheek, the Switch playbook echoes the Joan of Arc plot. The cast includes:
- The King – Represents the importance of the “best available scientific evidence”,
- The Corrupted Nobles – The large cast of healthcare’s industrial aristocracy in lockstep with their lobbyists,
- The Dedicated Armies – The healthcare providers on the front lines caring for patients,
- The Citizens – Employers and individuals seeking better health at affordable prices,
- Joan of Arc’s strategic purpose to free France – Switch Healthcare’s value proposition to employers, and the
- Victorious Collaborators – Our healthier and happier members.
The bottom line is that principled preparation can change the world.
Tomorrow’s Fix Today™,
Carl Myers, CEO Switch Healthcare
Joan of Arc was painted by Jules Bastien-Lepage in 1879 and hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)
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Switch Healthcare designs solutions for self-insured employers.
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ALL POSTS:
Edition 1 – Solving a Well-Entrenched Problem
Edition 2 – A Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Edition 3 – Best marketing tagline of all time?
Edition 4 – Post-Truth Killed a President
Edition 5 – What’s an employer to do?
Edition 6 – Profiting From the Opioid Epidemic
Edition 7 – The Keys to Unlocking Better Decisions
Edition 8 – When Difficult Things Need to be Done Well
Edition 9 – Fixing Healthcare
Edition 10 – Beware of a Singing Cow
Edition 11 – Wise Reflections
Edition 12 – Warning: Reader Discretion Advised
Edition 13 – Can AI save healthcare? (Part 1)
Edition 14 – Can AI save healthcare? (Part 2)
Edition 15 – Can AI save healthcare? (Part 3)
Edition 16 – Embracing Reality to Improve Healthcare
Edition 17 – Everything I Needed To Know…
Edition 18 – The Eighth Circle of Hell
Edition 19 – So… What’s Our Solution?
Edition 20 – Protecting Integrity as a Core Strategy
Edition 21 – An Unadorned Legacy
Edition 22 – Time to Grow Up
Edition 23 – Against All Odds
Edition 24 – When Everyone Has Stopped Listening
Edition 25 – Focusing on What’s Important
Edition 26 – Don’t Give Up Your Shot
Edition 27 – Join the Goodhood
Edition 28 – Fixing Healthcare (Recycled)
Edition 29 – Taming the Healthcare Beast
Edition 30 – Leadership
Edition 31 – Better Health Requires Good Sense
Edition 32 – Little Decisions With Big Consequences
Edition 33 – Transformational Courage
Edition 34 – Transformational Courage – Part 2
Guest Post – Happy Thanksgiving! By Jeff Novick, RD
Edition 35 – Transformational Courage – Part 3
