The 10th Man

What is the 10th man rule?

The Tenth Man essentially says that if ten people are exposed to the same information and nine of them arrive at the same conclusion, the tenth man must disagree with the others. He does so as a matter of duty, choosing to take a contrary stance even if all the data are against it.

The rule is quite simple but profound and it can be applied to life in general. Whether you are having a conversation with a group of friends or making business management decisions.

That is perfectly aligned with business decisions. As a manager, founder or even engineer, if you have a plan and everyone says yes to the plan, you must find someone that disagrees. That way you will be prepared for a plan B if your initial plan does not work.

If we think back to 2020, nobody had a plan for COVID, especially the hospitals. If the regulators had a 10th man, they would be at least thinking of another scenario that could affect the whole healthcare system.

Most of the care provided today is highly algorithmic and unpredictable. By 2030, high-cost, highly trained health professionals will be able to devote more time to patients who have complex health conditions. Data and technology will empower consumers to address many routine health issues at home. Consider a child who has an ear infection. Rather than taking the child to a clinic or doctor’s office, an at-home diagnostic test could be used to confirm the patient’s diagnosis.

Open and secure data platforms would allow the parent to verify the diagnosis, order the necessary prescription, and have it delivered to the home via drone. Or maybe the ear infection never materializes because the issue is identified and addressed before symptoms appear. In this case, a prescription isn’t needed at all because the parents intervened early. In both scenarios, consumers address health issues at home while allowing physicians to focus on cases that truly require human intervention.