Step 10 · Tradition 10 · Concept X
Knowing where our job ends
Daily inventory, no outside opinions, and every job with a clear scope: all three are about knowing where our business ends.
Step 10 · Recovery
Perseverance
Keeping a daily inventory and promptly owning mistakes
Read Step 10 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 10 · Unity
Neutrality
A.A. takes no sides on outside issues
Read Tradition 10 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept X · Service
Accountability
Responsibility matched with equal, clearly defined authority
Read Concept X at aa.org (opens in a new tab)The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service are copyrighted by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Read them in full at aa.org.
The thread
Step Ten asks us to keep watching our own conduct, every day, and to set things right as soon as we slip. Tradition Ten keeps A.A. as a whole watching its own conduct, declining to take public positions on outside issues so that we are never drawn into controversy. Concept X gives every service responsibility a matching authority and a well-defined scope, so that no trusted servant is answerable to two masters or tempted to reach beyond the job. The common thread is a disciplined sense of limits: knowing what is ours to tend, and tending only that.
Where it shows up
Doing a Tenth Step at the end of the day, a member notices that she gave unsolicited advice at work again and makes a note to apologize, because perseverance is a daily habit, not a one-time cleanup. A home group practices Tradition Ten when a member wants to add a petition about a local ordinance to the literature table and the group kindly declines; the Washingtonians collapsed after taking on outside causes, and we have not forgotten. At the area level, Concept X shows up in a clear job description for the treasurer, with authority to pay routine bills without a vote on each one but also a defined limit beyond which the committee must decide. The trustees hold their legal authority under the board’s charter and bylaws and their mandate from the Conference, GSO’s general manager has authority from the A.A.W.S. board, and neither the delegates nor the trustees give orders to the staff, which is what Bill W. meant by avoiding double-headed management. Every level stays healthy by minding its own business and no one else’s.