"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good (people) to do what (they) want done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." -Theodore Roosevelt
Organizations and employees everywhere are faced with unprecedented and still escalating levels of VUCA daily.
What’s VUCA?
VUCA is the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that constantly bombards, confuses, consumes, frustrates, and freezes organizations, leaders, and employees in place.
VUCA is the reason that ‘What the f…?’, ‘Why the f..?’, ‘How the f…? and ‘Who the f…’ have replaced ‘Good morning.” when greeting a member of our work in-group.
VUCA is TRW and it is everywhere.
How well (or not) organizations manage VUCA correlates to cultural and business advantages including better collaboration, customer satisfaction, greater employee engagement, improved job satisfaction, reduced turnover, increased alignment, higher change management success rates, fiscal viability and even market share.
While the best companies find opportunities and advantages in what seems to others to be complete bedlam, the ‘have-nots’ go rigid holding in place waiting for a level of certainty that never comes not unlike a squirrel who makes it halfway across a busy intersection only to inexplicably seize in place. Unable to move forward or back, tail arched and bushy, eyes wide with anticipation and glistening from the reflection from the headlights of an oncoming Telluride , our furry protagonist resigns himself to the inevitability of his self-determined and wholly avoidable fate.
Sound familiar?
When it comes to agile, potentially life/business saving decision-making under VUCA conditions, that squirrel has a lot in common with former industry leaders like Pier 1, Nokia, Borders, Pan Am, Kodak, Yahoo and Blockbuster. The cautionary tales of the decline of these (and countless others) former household names begins and ends with their inability to predict, recognize, adapt to, or even ADMIT the existence of profound change and shifting trends in their organizations and industries. Theirs are epic tales no less tragic than that of Achilles, Odysseus, or Icarus from Greek mythology … or disco from the 1970s.
Although varying degrees of psychopathy narcissism, self-importance and megalomania leave them disinclined to acknowledge it, managing VUCA requires business leaders at all levels to do something that so many struggle to do –get the hell out of the way.
Unsurprisingly, for organizations to be agile, to leverage the full potential of its employees - objectives, roles, responsibilities, and accountability must be clearly, consistently, and repeatedly communicated by its leaders.
Easy enough, right? Leaders love to hear themselves talk and this gives them a chance to do just that for all the right reasons.
Here comes the hard part.
Every employee must have the trust and support of the organization and their leaders to think and act independently. (cue the cricket chirps)
As VUCA increases, success requires clear goal definition, value-based decsion making, synchronization and leveraging of the experience, skills, and competency - not the increased regulation, administration, or more granular control thereof.
It requires a culture where intentions, objectives, means and methods available have been made so clear that every employee knows the right (or at least the rightest) course of action under any circumstances and is empowered to act accordingly of their own volition.
Success is about staying on course by staying on brand.
Ever hear of a guy named Napolean Bonaparte?
Yes, THAT Napoleon Bonaparte.
While his name may not spring immediately to mind along with those of Carnegie, Ford, Buffet, Bezos, Welch, or Walton when looking for a source of advice on how to build high performing, innovative, industry and market leading organization- let me tell you why it should.
‘Le Petit Caporal’ (The Little Corporal), as his soldiers affectionally referred to him, was the visionary and practitioner of one of the most comprehensive, simplest, and most relevant business strategies ever conceived – Commander’s Intent.
‘The Man of Destiny’ (when you’re one of the greatest military leaders, political and social reformers in history you deserve a couple of nicknames to make sure everything is covered) actually handed down responsibility for decision making. He empowered lower-level officers, those best positioned to observe and analyze the constantly evolving, dynamic conditions (aka VUCA) of the battlefield, to react in real time without higher level consultation. WITHOUT his direct command.
Fast forward 160 years or so, Commander’s Intent first appears in the US Army’s Field Manual 100-5 in 1982 as described in part below.
“Trust between superior and subordinate is the cornerstone of mission-oriented command. The superior trusts his subordinate to exercise his judgment and creativity, to act as the situation dictates to reach the maximum goal articulated in his mission; the subordinate trusts that whatever action he takes in good faith to contribute to the good of the whole will be supported by his superior.” - Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence G. Shattuck, US Army
Conceptually and practically, Commander’s Intent should be what every business, business leader and employee aspires towards for their teams, departments, projects and organizations. It supports, promotes and, in fact, requires independent decision making, initiative and action at all levels of an organization.
It allows employees to bring the best of themselves to work and use it.
Commander's Intent mitigates the need for the continued massive investment and constraints of administration, politicking, crippling collaboration (yep, I said it ) and self-doubt that slow response time, consume resources, and leaves an embarrassingly innumerable number of opportunities unrealized. Commander’s Intent enables people and teams to improvise, acting quickly and decisively in the interest of communicated objectives and take ownership of results.
Even in response to VUCA, especially in response to VUCA, Commander’s Intent activates the experience, knowledge, and competency of every group member. It generates otherwise unachievable levels of engagement, communication, affiliation, purpose, and agility. Commander’s Intent improves organizational alignment, empowers team members, engenders trust, simply by decentralizing decision making and giving employees the space and support to do the things that got them hired to begin with.
It can help military leaders win skirmishes, battles and wars. It can help business leaders win customers and market share, reduce costs, improve innovation, production, service, and just about any other targeted outcome you can think of. It is a blueprint for building a culture of excellence, engagement, and accountability.
Done well, Commander Intent does the seemingly impossible. It aligns and galvanizes the best interest of the individual and that of the organization in a way that is otherwise unachievable and enables employees to bring the best of themselves to the work and empowers them to actually leverage it more fully.
You gotta admit.... this sounds like great stuff.
So, is your organization there?
How bout its leaders ?
Are you?
No? (....the 97% likely response if you answered honestly)
Why ?
Why, when we are aware of a far more advantageous, 200+ year old alternative, do organizations continue to choose ( inaction and acquiescence are choices) to require employees to freeze in place awaiting direction in the middle of the busy intersection, unable to move forward or back, tails arched and bushy, eyes wide in anticipation and glistening with the reflection from the headlights of an oncoming Telluride ?
It seems we still have a lot to learn from ‘Le Petit Caporal’ ( who BTW, was actually of average height for his day)... and squirrels .
