Tariq ibn Ziyad Communicates When It Counts

Tariq looked out at the army facing him across the field. He just planned to test the waters, not start a war. But he was about to conquer Spain.

Tariq ibn Ziyad (670-720) was a general in Morocco, the farthest western reaches of the Umayyad Caliphate’s territory. The local governor sent him across the Straits of Gibraltar to raid across the sea.

Spain had been ruled by the Visigoths for hundreds of years, ever since they settled down there in the last days of the Western Roman Empire. Visigothic Spain was a prosperous independent Christian kingdom that sometimes tipped its hat to the emperor in Constantinople.

But in 711 AD, things were looking as good as paella de mariscos that’s been sitting in the sun for a couple days. There was a succession crisis, so that meant civil war.

Across the sea in North Africa, the new Muslim rulers noticed the disarray in Spain, so Tariq was sent to assess the situation, make a few raids, steal some loot, and get back home. But instead, his army of 7,000 soldiers met the forces of the king of the Visigoths, who brought three or four times as many to the fight.

Tariq led a very diverse team. He was from the ruling Arab minority, and most of those under his command were from various Berber tribes, all newly converted to Islam. Lots of languages were spoken, and of course nobody could read. So how would Tariq communicate his commands?

Before any medieval battle could begin, there was always a speech. The commander must address his troops about the action to come. Maybe they fight for king and country, maybe for loot and plunder, maybe just to still be alive a few hours later.

Everything begins with motivation. Fear, greed, bloodlust - the commander must know his troops well enough to press the right buttons to get them to march. So then they march.

Once on the move, the troops need to stay in sync. The infantry stands shoulder to shoulder in a shield wall, the archers in their ranks, the cavalry on their horses, each team moving as a unit.

You know it’s hard to get your crew to load into three different cars to go out for a team lunch, so can you imagine how difficult it would be to coordinate hundreds of amped-up troops in an ordered line? But they must march together.

That’s why you have the standard, the banner with imagery that everyone understands to identify the unit. The troops move with the flag. They know not to get ahead of it and not to fall behind it. Stay with your team, get the loot. Keep it simple, stay alive.

When it’s time to advance, the standard tips forward, letting the troops know it’s time to advance. The horn blows to signal to the troops to look at the flag. The drums set the pace for the advance. All these tell the troops to march.

The king of the Visigoths had more people, sure, but they were mostly peasants armed with farm tools, without much training or any armor. In the fight, Tariq’s well-disciplined army held together. The Visigoths broke and ran. And they were soundly defeated.

This was a watershed moment, like 1066 in England or 1453 in Constantinople. Hispania had been a rich province of the Roman Empire and a rich barbarian kingdom. It was about to become Al-Andalus, Muslim Spain, which would become the richest and most prosperous part of Europe for the next few centuries, home to luminaries like Ziryab, Averroes, and Maimonides.

And Tariq? Don’t worry about him. He did just fine after the battle. "Gibraltar" means "mountain of Tariq" and he's on the Gibraltar £5 note today. His name has been communicated down the ages and into the pages of history.

The need for clear, consistent, continual, confident communication is obvious. If your troops don’t know what to do out there, then they’re far more likely to be carried off the battlefield than walk away from it.

Because the stakes are life and death, it’s easy to see why medieval battle commanders spent so much time on communication. They built an identity as a team. They understood what motivated their team and hit those points just when they needed reinforcement. They communicated when to move, over and over, in multiple ways, to get their troops’ attention.

You’ve been frustrated when you sent an email, but your team didn’t read it. But was one email enough? If you want to make sure your team knows the information, you’ve gotta try multiple ways.

Yes, of course you send the email. The email should be a shorter summary of the longer, more detailed version on the company intranet, and include a link to it.

You also need to use whatever tools the team uses for DMs and conversations and give an even shorter version of the information there, maybe even reference the email you sent. It’s totally your choice whether or not you seethe with resentment that you know they got your email and just ignored it.

Does that sound like too much work? Maybe. Yes, you’re busy. Yes, your team definitely should just read your original email, but you know that they won’t.

Just ask yourself what would you rather do: a) spend time repeating the same thing, over-communicating with your troops or b) spend time recruiting new troops after yours are crushed in the mud of the battle, the last words on their lips, “No boss, I didn’t get the m-me-memo…”