By Chad Storlie:
The major challenges to organizations today read like a bad 1970’s science fiction novel: disengaged workers, over regulation, rising costs, a looming retirement wave of the most skilled and experienced workers, and technology trends that rapidly and decisively shift consumer preferences and purchases to the next new thing in days instead of months. Gallup estimates that only ~30% of workers are truly engaged in their jobs on a day-to-day basis. In 2014, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated from the pool of ~2 million permanent federal career employees that “by September 2017, nearly 600,000 (31 percent) of on board staff will be eligible to retire.”
The challenge confronting organizations today is how we can rapidly develop our employees so they are prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Army leadership techniques segment challenging competitive problems into small scale engagements that teams can accomplish. These skills build morale and employee engagement.
Lesson for Business #1 – Great Strategy Creates Options to Accomplish the Mission
Strategy is about finding, determining, and creating options that all reach the same goal or strategic outcome. During my Special Forces training, our instructor’s loved the “What If This?” happens? What if your primary helicopter for medical evacuation fails to arrive? What if the enemy is twice the estimated size on the objective? To help anticipate and plan for all these possible “What If” events, we had the P-A-C-E planning process. P-A-C-E represents Primary-Alternate-Contingency-Emergency. P-A-C-E is a tool to ensure that you develop a minimum of four ways to ensure steps that are critical to your plans success get accomplished.
In the late, 1990’s, I served as the Battalion Logistical Officer with responsibility to deploy over 300 Special Forces and support personnel with all their equipment into Bosnia on the same day so we could relieve another unit of their peace enforcement duties. The primary plan was to land in Sarajevo and move into our assigned areas. Winter in the Balkans, however, is snowy, cold, icy, and unpredictable, so the Sarajevo airport was closed. The P-A-C-E planning process allowed me to land at three other airfields simultaneously and get the entire Battalion into place on time despite the weather. Business planning is constrained with both time and resources. P-A-C-E is a great tool for business teams to help drive creativity in the planning process to find alternate yet effective methods to meet the business plan.
Lesson for Business #2 – How Well Do You Define Success for the Team?
Military plans have to be shifted and adapted rapidly when the enemy shifts tactics, resources are reassigned or other conditions change. Business is no different – budgets change, competitors introduce unexpected new products, and cost factors can rapidly increase. The Army, like business, wants employees to follow a plan because that ensures the best chance of success. However, business also wants people to exercise considerable initiative when conditions change and the plan has to be rapidly adapted to ensure a successful mission. Commander’s intent fills this need.
Commander’s intent is the description and definition of what a successful mission will look like at the conclusion. Military planning begins with the Mission Statement that describes the who, what, when, where, and why (the five W’s) of how a mission will be executed. Commander’s intent describes in detail what success looks like. Commander’s Intent fully recognizes the chaos, lack of a complete information picture, changes in enemy situation, and other relevant factors that may make a plan obsolete when it is executed.
The role of Commander’s intent is to empower subordinates and guide their initiative and improvisation as they adapt the plan to the changed battlefield or marketplace conditions. Commander’s Intent empowers initiative, improvisation, and adaptation by providing guidance of what a successful conclusion looks like. Commander’s intent is vital in preparing organizations to be successful where adaptation to the environment is now a requirement, not a “nice-to-have.”
Lesson for Business #3 – Train Your Team for the Challenges of Today and the Future
Training is a constant for the US Army. The training that the US Army practices is both formal and informal. Formal training is a professional school, such as learning how to parachute or learning the basic skills of an Infantry officer that every soldier regularly attends every 3-4 years throughout their career. Formal training serves as the foundation, but the informal training that is provided by peers, outside specialists, and leaders form the true foundation for excellence at the military profession.
Informal training ranges from professional reading to lectures to hands-on learning. In the military, most training is hands-on and “do-as-I-do” training that reinforces the ability to perform in times of stress. The themes of training focus on training not only for the challenges of today, but also identifying and training to correct weaknesses in the organization and for identifying future challenges.
When I was in Iraq, my team created a new analytical system to help us understand and predict where we thought enemy attacks would occur next. Critical to this process was training others in how to use, understand, and improve this analytical process.
Finally, others have to be trained in the skills that they need for their next positions in order to advance their careers and advance the proficiency of their organizations. In the Special Forces, we conducted cross-training so the Communications specialist could operate all the Weapons and the Medical specialist knew how to operate the various radios. This cross-training allowed us an incredible amount of flexibility and confidence in our operational ability because everyone knew how to perform all the critical tasks. Training is critical because it both develops and retains talent, and ultimately drives an improved product to the customer.
Lesson for Business #4 –Use More Rehearsals and Situational Training
In many organizations, paid, formal, classroom-style training is one of the first items to be cut or reduced when operating budgets come under pressure. A great adaptation to retain the training outcome without the expense is to use more rehearsals and situational training. For those that were or are members of an airborne unit, the challenge of the static-line Jumpmaster certification course is one of the most rigorous examples of the situational training process.
In Jumpmaster school, you spend countless hours on the Jumpmaster Pre-Inspection (JMPI) process. Why? Because in Airborne operations, the greatest single point of failure is a soldier that puts on equipment incorrectly or a parachute equipment irregularity that is not detected. In civilian organizations, rehearsals and situational training, just like in the military, are as close to reality as possible.
For many organizations, interactions with actual customers are some of the most challenging interactions, as well as some of the hardest to train. For example, a situational training exercise could be a step-by-step customer interaction to test a new sales process or introduce the customer to a new set of products. Likewise, just as in the JMPI, a trucking company might practice the safe and efficient fueling of vehicles at night, where safety and averting environmental contamination are paramount concerns. Rehearsals and Situational Training of a company’s most vital and important tasks are a critical way to lead and develop employees and teams for a successful future.
Lesson for Business #5 – Coach and Develop Your Team for Leadership
The military places incredible emphasis on the concept of leadership by example. The leader personally sets the example in job performance and professionalism, both large and small, of what to do and how to do it. In the Army, the most senior leader always eats last – no matter what. In the leadership by example principle, a leader always ensures that every person is taken care of before himself or herself. Central to leadership by example is the concept of the leader as a mentor and as a coach.
A coach is the best concept for military leadership development because a coach is first concerned dually with the player and the performance of the team. A coach is always a regular active participant that looks to mitigate weaknesses and expand strengths so all players develop to be the best they can be. The recruitment motto of the US Army in the 1980s was for soldiers to “Be All That They Can Be” and the leader as a coach fully encapsulates this concept.
When I was in Iraq, my unit had just completed the initial ground invasion, I had not slept for almost three days, and I was bone tired. A senior leader pulled me aside and asked what my next rounds of plans were and what I was doing. I stood there without an answer – he was right. I was thinking about today, but I needed to start thinking of all my teams in the combat zone and what I was going to do with them in two, four, and eight weeks later. Think about how you coach and mentor your team. Are you looking to create great players in your organization?
We can never predict the future, but it always comes. Learning how to create and define strategic options will assist in guiding our organizations into the future; defining success encourages and promotes initiative; using training and coaching for development ensures employees emerge as successful leaders for the future generation to guide the organization; and more rehearsals rapidly develops employees for challenging engagements.
Current conditions are rapidly pushing our organizations towards a challenging future. We may not know the final outcome, but we own the response. By adapting military tactics and leadership styles, we apply the best of the military to the greatest organizational challenges of the future to create not just an organization that services in the future, but one that grows and thrives.
Chad Storlie is an OpsLens Contributor and retired Lieutenant Colonel with 20-plus years of Active and Reserve service in infantry, Special Forces, and joint headquarters units. He served in Iraq, Bosnia, Korea, and throughout the United States. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Special Forces Tab, and the Ranger Tab. Chad is author of two books: “Combat Leader to Corporate Leader” and “Battlefield to Business Success.” Both books teach how to translate and apply military skills to business. He has been published in The Harvard Business Review blog, Business Week Online, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and over 40 other publications. He has a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from Georgetown University. Follow Chad @Combattocorp.
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