Tempestuous. Turbulent. Uncertain. Chaos. These are just some of the adjectives that leadership and management experts have used to describe the last several years. The U.S. Army War College introduced an acronym that I think perfectly describes the leadership climate in today's world - VUCA, to which some have added a fifth letter to create the acronym VUCAT, where V=Volatility, U=Uncertainty, C=Complexity, A=Ambiguity, and T=Turbulent. As I have shared in the past, I strongly believe that organizations that embrace the High Reliability Organization principle of "Deference to Expertise" will be the ones best positioned to stay ahead and thrive in today's climate. I've also mentioned the concept of "Commander's Intent", a leadership element that has been adopted by the U.S. military, based in turn upon a concept known as "Mission Command" originally developed by the Prussian Army during the Napoleonic Wars and later modified and adopted by the German Wehrmacht in the First and Second World Wars. The German Wehrmacht called it Auftragstaktik (literally, "mission tactics") and distinguished it from Befehlstaktik (literally, "command tactics").
Dr. Martin Samuels wrote an excellent article ("Understanding Command Approaches") in the online Journal of Military Operations that further builds on this topic. Dr. Samuels describes Auftragstaktik as a leadership style where leaders and managers give someone a goal and the freedom to achieve it, whereas Befehlstaktik is a leadership style in which leaders and managers give someone specific and detailed instructions on how to achieve a goal.
There's a scene from the 1986 movie "Heartbreak Ridge" starring Clint Eastwood, in which Eastwood plays the character Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway, a famous war veteran and Medal of Honor winner. Earlier in the movie, Highway meets a troubled Marine Corps unit for the first time and tells them that they will wear the same T-shirt or none at all during the morning run ("As soon as you all look like Marines, you will start acting like Marines"). The next day, the Marines all show up wearing the same T-shirt, but Gunny Highway is wearing a different one. Gunny Highway orders them to again take off their T-shirts, because their T-shirts don't match the one that he is wearing. They complain that it's impossible to pre-determine what T-shirt Gunny Highway is wearing when they are getting ready for their morning run, to which Gunny Highway responds that they have to "Improvise, Overcome, and Adapt." It's a great scene, and describes in three short, easy words what is meant by "Mission Command".
Dwight Eisenhower famously said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." I think this quote perfectly describes Auftragstaktik, "Mission Command", and ultimately, "Deference to Expertise". Particularly in the VUCAT world that we live in today, it's impossible to plan and prepare for every single contingency that can occur. Instead, leaders should embrace the concept of "Mission Command" by training their teams to be able to "improvise, overcome, and adapt" to the specifics of a particular situation, while simultaneously keeping the end-goal in mind.
As Chad Storlie writes for Harvard Business Review (see "Manage Uncertainty with Commander's Intent"), "The key to successful Commander's/CEO Intent is trained, confident, and engaged military personnel/employees. Employees must understand the plan and when they have to deviate to ensure the Commander's Intent is accomplished." Storlie emphasizes (just as the military and other High Reliability Organizations emphasize) that teams need to be highly trained to be able to work in this kind of environment and under the concept of "Mission Command". He concludes by stating, "Good Commander's Intent allows employees and teams to adapt the plan using improvisation, initiative, and adaptation to reach the original plan objectives. In other words, teams need to "Improvise, Overcome, and Adapt."
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