"Win by the Audacity of Method"

For the past few years, I've been in a book club that is reading biographies of the U.S. Presidents in order, starting with George Washington.  The book club met virtually during the pandemic, but lately they've been meeting in person again (which has created some difficulties for me, as the book club meets at the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, Ohio).  I've tried to keep up with them from afar.  

I just finished reading A. Scott Berg's biography of Woodrow Wilson and learned a lot about a President and a time that I didn't know previously.  I remember learning about Wilson's 14 Points and his proposal for the League of Nations at the Treaty of Versailles following World War I.  However, I never knew that President Wilson suffered a stroke in the middle of his second term, which basically resulted in an abrupt cessation (more or less) of all activities by the Executive Branch of our government (remember that this occurred long before the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution)!

I remember learning about the highly controversial Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, but I don't remember learning that Congress passed very similar (and equally controversial) legislation called the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 during Wilson's term in office.  As controversial as these were, I have to confess that President Wilson was exactly the kind of leader that the our country needed to help prepare for the United States' entry into World War I.  

President Wilson delivered a famous speech to the naval officers of the Atlantic Fleet on August 11, 1917 onboard the USS Pennsylvania, the flagship of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet (the ship was at the U.S. Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia at the time).  The speech was not prepared in advance, and the members of the press weren't aware of it beforehand.  Wilson addressed the men "in confidence" and delivered a message of inspiration, asking them to look beyond the lessons in their manuals and be prepared to fight a war like no other war before in history.  He warned that the upcoming war was without precedent and "therefore it is a war in one sense for amateurs. Nobody ever before conducted a war like this and therefore nobody can pretend to be a professional in a war like this." 

Wilson admonished these officers to "please leave out of your vocabulary altogether the word 'prudent.'  Do the thing that is audacious to the utmost point of risk and daring, because that is exactly the thing that the other side does not understand.  And you will win by the audacity of method when you cannot win by circumspection and prudence."

He went on to say that "so far a experience in this kind of war is concerned we are all of the same rank. I am not saying that I do not expect the Admirals to tell us what to do, but I am saying that I want the youngest and most modest youngster in the service to tell us what we ought to do if he knows what it is."  That sounds a lot like the High Reliability Organization (HRO) principle of "deference to expertise" to me!

Just to make sure that the officers knew that he would lead by example, Wilson continued, "Now, I am willing to make any sacrifice for that. I mean any sacrifice of time or anything else. I am ready to put myself at the disposal of any officer in the Navy who thinks he knows how to run this war. I will not undertake to tell you whether he does or not, because I know that I do not, but I will undertake to put him in communication with those who can find out whether his idea will work or not. I have the authority to do that and I will do it with the greatest pleasure."

It's a message of inspiration, but even more so it is an example of great leadership.