Real-life resilience - Roald Amundsen

This is the story of two explorers racing to be the first to the South Pole. Roald Amundsen from Norway and Robert Falcon Scott from Britain. Amundsen’s team reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, planted the flag, and returned to base safely. Scott’s party also made it, but arrived a month later, took the photo, and then, in worsening conditions, all men died on the return.

Polar opposites.

This is a tale of stark contrasts, packed with ideas and lessons that we can apply to handle uncertainty, pressure, and challenge in our modern lives.

Roald Amundsen (my second favourite Roald after Roald Dahl) was a Norwegian explorer who was 38 years old at the time of his journey to the South Pole. It sounds obvious, but his approach to the expedition was single-minded. He cared only about reaching the Pole and coming back alive. He built his base as close as possible to the Pole, chose a short route up a glacier, relied on advice from Inuit experts about clothing and transportation, and was overly cautious when it came to managing supplies and equipment weight.

On top of all of that, Amundsen marched with extreme discipline. His team did 15-20 miles a day….in good weather and bad. He built a collective mindset of rhythm and consistency, aiming to avoid booms or busts. That rhythm stabilized morale and decision-making when nature tried to derail their plans.

Robert Falcon Scott, on the other hand, approached the expedition quite differently. He was 5 years older than Amundsen and he had two objectives. He wanted to win the race to the Pole and also run a major science program at the same time. He built his base at a place called Cape Evans, 60 miles further away from the Pole compared to Amundsen. He took a different route and his transportation included dogs, ponies, and experimental motor sledges. His team’s clothing was heavily influenced by British military and naval tradition.

Scott’s approach to the distance was to bunker down in challenging weather and ride it out, and go as far as they could on days of good weather. Some days would be a sprint, others would mean no moving at all.

Amundsen survived. Scott did not.

Amundsen’s advantage.

“Victory awaits him who has everything in order - luck, people call it.” - Roald Amundsen

This expedition has been studied in business books as an example of exceptional leadership and preparation for tough times. It emphasizes planning, humility, and consistency as a key difference between failure and success.

Prior to this expedition, Amundsen had spent years living in modern-day Nunavut (Canada) with the Inuit. He was their student - observing, trading, and learning from them. That information dictated his team’s clothing and heat management. Amundsen switched to loose fur layers made from caribou, with windproof skins and big protectors around the hoods of their coats. He also ditched wool next to skin because it traps sweat and then freezes. His rule was to never sweat! He also absorbed the cultural wisdom of the Inuit to “go steady, not fast”, because haste makes us sweat.

Amundsen also engineered certainty into uncertain places. He laid “flag fans” which were big lines of flags that ran east to west and stretched a whopping six miles so they wouldn’t be missed, even in horrible weather. These storage spots included equipment and supplies that were critical for their success, especially on the return from the Pole.

With this level of planning and leadership, we can understand how Amundsen survived.

Lessons for today.

1. Environment over ego. When we accept what we’re up against, we can prepare more adequately. With any challenge (be it a project, a launch, significant change) we often overlook the actual tools required - budgets, bandwidth and skillsets. Real planning pays off when we take the time to understand the task, stay open-minded and prepare realistically. Resilience is a skill we rely on when things get tough, but we give ourselves the best chance when we do the work in advance.

2. Build “flag fans” for projects. For intense projects, people will get depleted when the pressure hits. So what are the preventative measures in place to stay on track when everyone’s exhausted? That’s when we need to know where the next “storage unit” will come from. Amundsen’s system assumed drift and fatigue, so he made it hard to miss a critical storage unit.

3. Consistency matters. Find the one thing that is non-negotiable in our day to day operations and stick to it. Let’s not overcomplicate it - just a small, must-do activity we complete regardless of chaos (for example, “3 customer calls/day,” or “10 min breathing break”). The key is to hold the line on bad days and hold back on great days. That steadiness prevents the emotional whiplash that wears us down.

4. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. It sounds negative, but it’s powerful to pre-mortem our work. That means asking what could go wrong. If we plan for the best conditions, things will be immensely more challenging if (and likely when) a curveball hits. “What could go wrong?” is a great question to ask at the beginning of a project, followed up immediately by discussing the potential solutions for said problems.

5. Narrow the mission. When risk is high, define what is most important. Scott tried to run a world-class research program and win a sprint. In volatile times, we need to strip to essentials. The saying “If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither.” feels pertinent to Scott’s expedition.

Victory can often look and feel dramatic, but it’s usually built from ordinary discipline.

Resilience is the same. It doesn’t need to be complicated - it’s the small gratitude we do daily, or the breathing exercises between meetings that add up. Because the heart of practical resilience is the courage and discipline to be boring in our systems so we can be brave in our goals.

Until next time friends, stay resilient.

Carré @ Resilient Minds

PS - As we head into the busy period of back-to-work and back-to-school, it’s important that we build our own storage units so that we’re ready when the stress strikes. Consider a workshop for your team, or also think about measuring your own personal resilience.