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Ernest Shackleton wanted to be the first to cross Antarctica on foot. He never even reached its coast. Yet his expedition is still regarded as a textbook case of leadership in a crisis – and of the Power of Proximate Objectives. The reason: he understood that in a completely uncertain situation, only goals you can actually reach will help.
The big goal breaks apart
Situation
In January 1915, the Endurance becomes trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea. For months, she drifts with the ice. By the end of February it is clear that she will have to spend the winter in the ice. On October 27, 1915, Shackleton orders the ship abandoned because the pressure of the ice is crushing the hull. On November 21, 1915, the Endurance sinks. Twenty-eight men stand on a drifting ice floe with boats, tents and supplies.
Link to the principle
The original goal has become meaningless. Shackleton replaces it with a new one: bring all the men back alive. But even this goal is too distant to tell anyone what to do today. Goals that lie closer are needed.
Goals that are too far cost strength
Situation
At the end of October 1915, Shackleton tries to march across the ice toward land, hauling two boats on sledges. After a short distance he gives up and sets up Ocean Camp. At the end of December a second march follows; again the ice proves too broken up. On December 29 he sets up Patience Camp. There the crew waits more than three months until the floe has drifted far enough north.
Link to the principle
The marches show what a proximate objective must not be: a goal that only looks close on the map. Shackleton learns from this. The new proximate objective is no longer “reach land” but “preserve our strength and the boats until open water comes.”
Solid ground underfoot
Situation
On April 8, 1916, the floe breaks up. On April 9, the three boats are launched. Shackleton considers several destinations, including Deception Island and Hope Bay. He decides on Elephant Island because the men are too weak for a longer voyage. On April 15, all three boats land on the island. It is uninhabited and lies far from any shipping route.
Link to the principle
Elephant Island is not a place of rescue. But it can be reached, and it changes the situation: instead of sitting on drifting ice, the men now have solid ground beneath them, with seals and penguins for food. Only from here does the next step become conceivable.
Six men, one boat, one island
Situation
On April 24, 1916, Shackleton sets out for South Georgia in the lifeboat James Caird with Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, Harry McNish, John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy – some 1,300 kilometers across one of the stormiest seas in the world. He chooses South Georgia over the closer Falkland Islands because he could not reach the Falklands against the prevailing winds. On May 10 they land in King Haakon Bay. On May 19 and 20, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean cross the island’s unexplored mountains to the whaling station at Stromness.
Link to the principle
Once again, Shackleton chooses not the seemingly closest goal but the attainable one. A proximate objective is not what lies closest on the map but what can really be achieved with the strength you have.
Four attempts at rescue
Situation
On Elephant Island, Frank Wild leads the 22 men left behind. He keeps to a fixed daily routine. Meanwhile, Shackleton tries three times in vain to reach the island by ship; each time, pack ice blocks the way. The fourth attempt succeeds: on August 30, 1916, the Chilean navy tug Yelcho, commanded by Luis Pardo, takes all the men off the island.
Link to the principle
Those waiting live on proximate objectives, too: get through the next day, keep the hut standing, ration the supplies. The chain of attainable objectives – from the camp on the ice to the island to the whaling station – leads in the end to the distant goal.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- If your big goal breaks apart, set a new one right away, but derive a closer one from it.
- Check whether a goal is truly attainable or only looks close on paper.
- Choose the goal you can achieve with your strength, not the one that lies closest.
- Every proximate objective you reach should change your situation so that a new step becomes possible.
- Give those who have to wait daily goals as well.
Summary
In 1915 Ernest Shackleton lost his ship and his expedition’s goal. Instead of clinging to a distant goal, he set a sequence of attainable ones: hold out in the camp on the ice, reach Elephant Island, reach South Georgia, reach the whaling station, bring back those who were waiting. Each goal he reached changed the situation and made the next one possible.
Sources
- Ernest Shackleton: South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914–1917. London: William Heinemann 1919.
- Alfred Lansing: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. New York: McGraw-Hill 1959.
