No. 67 · Risk · Military and War
Stop the Bleeding
When losses mount, halt them first and plan the recovery after.
In the Almanac
“Dunkirk”, 1940 · “Qantas”, 2014
Both stories in full, three ways to use it and where it misleads.
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Questions
What is Stop the Bleeding?
Stop the Bleeding is the principle that when things go wrong, your first job is to halt further losses before attempting a comeback. Stabilise first, then rebuild.
How do you use Stop the Bleeding?
Use it at the first sign of a spiral: cut unused spending before planning a recovery, freeze a failing project before adding people, and pause a heated argument before trying to resolve it. But don't cut so deep that you damage what you'll need to recover.
When does Stop the Bleeding matter?
Stop the Bleeding is one of the 32 mental models for risk, the situations where you ask: What could go wrong, and what will I do if it does? Within that, it belongs to “Protecting yourself”, alongside Antifragility, De-Risking and Margin of Safety.
What is an example of Stop the Bleeding?
Two stories show it at work: Dunkirk (1940) and Qantas (2014). Both are told in full in The Mental Models Daily Almanac, which has two stories for each of its 365 models.
Which mental models are related to Stop the Bleeding?
Sunk Cost Fallacy, Containment and Exit Strategy. Stop the Bleeding itself comes from military and war.