The next time you find yourself shooting down an idea because it is impossible, ask yourself what impossible actually looks like. It is surprising how frequently the impossible is possible.
As an avid scuba diver, I had to do my fanboy duty and watch the movie, The Rescue. It is a documentary about the boys’ soccer team who became trapped in a water-filled cave in Thailand and the ensuing rescue attempts. It was a massive effort with thousands of people. The US Airforce even contributed by sending a team of US Airforce Parajumpers (PJ’s) led by Master Sergeant Derek Anderson.
Go watch it on Disney+. It’s fantastic. Pay attention to the contributions that Anderson made to the operation. Then, come back and read this.
It was inspiring to see glimpses of his extraordinary leadership skills. It all came to a head when the highly skilled cave divers found the boys but couldn’t figure out a way to dive them the 1.25 miles back to the cave entrance.
Some scuba diving background
As a diver, I get that. I’ve worked with panicking students before and have trained (very lightly) in how to deal with a panicking student. Even a small human is almost impossible to overcome when they are in full on panic mode. The short answer is to catch it before it happens or get away until they exhaust themselves. I can’t imagine diving through a roaring, muddy river, in a cave, with a potentially panicking person in tow.
The other thing to point out is that pressure does weird things to how our bodies handle chemicals. The idea of sedating the boys was also horrible. Ignoring airway issues, science still doesn’t fully understand how the body processes chemicals under pressure. We do know weird and dangerous things happen. For example, pure oxygen becomes toxic for a human to breath just a bit below 10ft and regular air can make you feel drunk below 100ft.
The miracle question
The risks were too high. The cave divers didn’t want to take the chance. They went to the Anderson and told him that diving the kids out was impossible, “It can’t be done.” Anderson’s reply was, by far, my biggest takeaway from the movie (other than don’t dive in caves): “What if it could? What does the impossible look like?”
In some ways, this is a forum of the miracle question used in therapy. As described by Michael Bungay Stanier in The Coaching Habit the miracle question goes something like, “Suppose that tonight, while you’re sleeping, a miracle happens. When you get up in the morning tomorrow, how will you know things have suddenly gotten better?”
I’ve seen this in action for years. But I’ve never seen it used to impactfully and with such strong leadership as by Derek Anderson. He doesn’t try to solve their problem. They are the experts. However, that question unlocked a day-long brainstorm where the divers reached out to other divers in the medical field. They kept getting the “it’s impossible” answer but kept pushing. Finally, they found an option that everyone agreed had massive risk but wasn’t impossible. It was still “a terrible option” but the best they had. And it worked!
Unlocking yourself
Sometimes we get locked up in why something can’t work instead of looking for ways that it can work. Anderson’s question gave the cave divers permission to look into the absurd/ridiculous/scary options and see what they could find. I hope I remember it the next time I find myself locked behind a self-imposed “impossible” barrier.
Thanks to Daniel Burka for his stunning photo of a man in a cave.