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A NEW WAY TO ASSESS & IMPROVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

In this 60-minute workshop, we discuss getting the balance right in communicating with our employees.

TOPICS WE DISCUSSED IN THIS WORKSHOP

  • 05:48 – Decentralised control and the balance between expectation and empathy
  • 11:00 – The trust issue
  • 16:00 – The freedom in routine
  • 21:30 – Combatting uncertainty
  • 29:00 – The impact of cutting employees to save money
  • 42:00 – Continuous education within a cost-sensitive period
  • 48:00 – How to have courageous conversations

HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS REQUIRE TRANSPARENCY

Successfully developing your people is fundamental to the sustainable growth of your organisation. Take a look at what may be holding your organisation back. Is the rate of change making it difficult for your team to feel connected with a sense of purpose and direction?  Do you feel there is a lack of clarity at the tactical level? Do your leaders feel confident to handle having courageous conversations? The Eighth Mile Consulting can help you build your leadership team through Leadership Training to motivate disaffected teams and deliver business and people outcomes.

For more helpful videos to help you grow your people and your organisation subscribe to our YouTube channel.

What are your thoughts or learnings when it comes to managing employee performance? Are you seeing positive results from having courageous conversations? Let us know in the comments below!

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Aligned Leaders Summit – Panel Discussion and Leadership Q&A

Panel Discussion at The Eighth Mile Consulting Aligned Leaders Summit

For those who were unable to make it to the Aligned Leaders Summit, we have recorded a number of presentations, including the panel discussion at the end where Peter Keith, Jonathan Clark, David Neal, Trehan Stenton, Neil Salkow and Samantha Pickering answer questions from the audience regarding lessons in leadership and how to support the desired values within our workplaces.

The questions discussed include:

  • 00:55 – What are some of the ways you can incentivise staff?
  • 04:35 – What would you classify as the single most defining leadership behaviour?
  • 09:42 – What do you do to increase self-awareness?
  • 14:20 – How do you pick up on team members’ well-being states and at what stage do you intervene?
  • 18:30 – At what stage in leadership should you start thinking about succession planning?
  • 21:45 – Do you feel we currently are in a mid-cycle economic slowdown with a quick recovery on the other side, or in a position with far more detrimental lasting impact?
  • 23:20 – What is the single most important discipline action that you do for you on a routine basis?
  • And many more…

About Aligned Leaders Summit

The Eighth Mile Consulting has brought together a team of experts to provide an event for Leaders to improve the strategic alignment of their teams, create a culture that fosters resilience, and learn ways to survive, stabilise and grow during times of uncertainty.

For more helpful videos to help you grow your people and your organisation subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Do you have questions you would have liked to ask the panel at the Aligned Leaders Summit? Let us know in the comments below!

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Choosing Between Offensive vs Defensive Business Strategies

In this 50-minute workshop, we discuss the relationship between offensive and defensive business strategies.

Topics We Discussed In this workshop

  1. Personalities, biases and decision making
  2. Running concurrent offensive and defensive initiatives
  3. Understanding the relationship between strategy and risk
  4. Leadership considerations

SMART BUSINESS REQUIRES SMART STRATEGY

Strategy development is fundamental to creating and running your organisation. Where do you want your business to be in five years? Where are you now? How big is the gap between where you are now, and where you want to be? The Eighth Mile Consulting can help you build a strategic outlook and implementation plan to deliver business and people outcomes.

For more helpful videos to help you grow your people and your organisation subscribe to our YouTube channel.

What are your thoughts or learnings when it comes to deploying the right strategy in business? Are you leaning towards an offensive business strategy or a more defensive one? Let us know in the comments below!

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Invest in your teams, it will save you

Have you ever completed an obstacle course… On your own?

Picture this, you have just scraped your knees crawling through a tunnel, mud all over you and heavy with water. Your feet are blistered, sweat is stinging your eyes. You hear your heartbeat in your ears and the sharp panting of breath. You are fatigued and in survival mode. You look up to see the dreaded wall. It is ten feet high.

Too high to jump up, no ropes and it is stopping you from reaching your goal. If only you had a team… Even one other person and you could complete the course.

In crisis, much like obstacle courses there are those who choose to go it alone and self-protect, preferring to minimise personal risk at the expense of the team. They are 50/50 on success and failure. Then there are those that double down on teams and increase their odds of succeeding by sharing a common vision and providing different perspectives to problem solving and communicating effectively.

Share the load

In an average or sub performing team, people are happy to watch other people do the lion’s share of the work, the late hours and own all the pressure and responsibility. They would rather see themselves succeed and the team fail so that they appear strong. In a High Performing Team (HPT), people focus on the overall success and reputation of the team. They put team success before self and proactively search for work. They understand that sharing the fatigue and the burn so that everyone can perform means that nobody gets left behind. While they share the work and their fatigue so that the team achieves more, they all actively seek to be involved in planning at all levels.

Shared planning and supportive decision making

There is a place for planning in isolation and it usually means there are substantial time pressures or trust issues within the team. A leader who doesn’t trust the team will not value their input into decisions. If they have been burned before, they will want to remove that possibility. In an HPT, everyone’s opinion is valued. It is understood that a wide range of perspectives on an issue may yield a better solution. The team also knows that when a decision is made, the time for shared planning is over, and its implementation time!! 

They align and get it done. They support the decision because they understand the importance of achieving the goal and they were involved in the planning. They leverage and reinforce their relationships and maintain open, supportive communication.

Build relationships and a team language

Ever wondered how HPTs can work with minimal communication, or when they do you can’t really understand them. It is like watching a group of soldiers use hand signals and you are standing there, having no idea. They have refined the way they speak to include their history, shared experiences, values and connection to remove superfluous chat. They still have fun and they still care for each other. However, when work needs to get done, they can streamline their language. They know they work from a position of care and support. The HPT will work to strengthen relationships and networks in the good times so that they can lean on each other in crisis. They are calm and deliberate in their actions and communication because they understand that the team’s reputation is more important than their own. These relationships and shared language help understand and communicate the context while implementing the vision.

Clear context and vision

A team that works to understand and communicate the context in which they operate will be able to make decisions in the absence of leadership, direction and under extreme pressure. They share a common vision for success and work within the boundaries of the defined context. Pushing authorities and decision making as far down as you can, will allow a team to create momentum and take advantage of opportunities. This also mitigates risks associated with slow decision making. The key part of owning the context and implementing the vision is a shared trust in every member of the team.

Trust

HPTs trust each other to a point where they receive feedback without feeling hurt. They understand that the feedback is coming from a place of love and respect to build the overall team and is not a personal attack. They trust that when someone says they will do something, they do it. The behaviour and trust are forged through shared experience and values. They also understand that they will be represented well even when they aren’t in the room.

The steps

The theory of teams is built on a model originally published by Dr Bruce Tuckman. It encapsulates Forming, Storming. Norming. Performing. Adjourning. These steps are normal, linear (step through to build a team) and cyclical in nature (it can relapse back steps at any time) and cannot be skipped. Friction in the storming phase is normal, temporary and MUST happen. A HPT will minimise their time in both storming and norming to accelerate reaching performing. They will also have limited relapses to storming by:

1. Sharing the workload

2. Conducting shared planning and supportive decision making

3. Building relationships and a team language

4. Having a clear context and shared vision

5. Building trust

6. Acknowledging the steps.

The point 

By understanding what a successful team looks like, how it operates and some of their characteristics, we can work to constantly improve our own teams. There is no secret that, teams are always evolving and constantly changing. Understanding the context allows you to have clarity and accommodate for the disruptions. The steps above are not exhaustive and based on my experiences and opinions. I will say this though, once you have been part of a HPT, you will understand the addictive nature of it. You want it back all the time and will fight to have it again. 

So, if I return to the scenario above. Imagine you are back in that obstacle course and you are looking up at the wall. You are fatigued, tired, wet and sore. Suddenly someone says, “you got this!” A hand reaches down from the top to grab yours and at the same time you are lifted to grasp it. Doesn’t it make a difference?

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Attacking The Right Things – Moral And Ethical Leadership

The world has always been an insanely chaotic place defined by constant change, creation, destruction, and an ever-increasing competition for finite resources and space. This coupled with exponentially changing environmental conditions creates for one confusing place.

So, what does this have to do with leadership? 

Those species and organisms which have developed the ability to coordinate and synchronise their efforts have found resilience, robustness and success that often far supersedes those ‘lone wolf’ characters. There is no clearer evidence of this than humans dragging their way to the top of the evolutionary ladder by working in teams.

We could even argue that our ability to create teams has in some ways become too successful, as it has:

  • Increased our average life expectancy from ‘below 40’ in the 1800’s to now over ’Over 83’ in some developed Western cultures, resulting in over population and an unsustainable drain on environmental resources and space.
  • Allowed us to develop technologies that provide the ability to collaborate, often at the expense of interpersonal interactions and face-to-face engagements.
  • Resulted in us living in cities, sometimes completely devoid of any connection with nature and the environment we are concurrently destroying

The need for strong leaders who are morally and ethically aligned has never been more important.

Teaming allows us to hunt big

‘Hunting big’ originally referred to our ability to take down larger prey by working as a pack. By being able to attack, trap and shape an animal on multiple fronts resulted in the animal becoming overwhelmed and making mistakes. This in turn increased our likelihood of taking down larger animals, coupled with the convenience of having to do less hunts. Less hunts equated to less risk on individuals, which in turn allowed us to live safer and longer. Concurrently whilst other members of a tribe were hunting big game, there were others foraging and sourcing key raw materials which would support the broader community.

Leadership would have been required at all levels in order to coordinate and synchronise the efforts of different teams. This would have also included prioritising their efforts in order to ensure their precious collective energy could be invested in those initiatives that would provide them the greatest returns.

In today’s current corporate context there is little to no difference. The teams that are able to coordinate their efforts and invest their precious resources towards an agreed strategy, win.

Teams help us cover our personal gaps

Teams provide the necessary platform and mechanism in order to capitalise on the unique abilities of the people within them. This is achieved by allowing individuals to capitalise on emerging opportunities and gaps, whilst being personally protected by the team’s ability to absorb risk and danger.

In days of old, this would have looked like an individual taking the opportunity to throw their spear, knowing that another member of the team would be able to protect them whilst they were disarmed.

This would have also looked like community members providing for injured or sick members of the community, only to have the favour reciprocated when the roles were reversed.

The corporate world is very similar. The teams that are able to adjust rapidly to their dynamic industry environments are the ones that will ultimately thrive. This can only be achieved if the members of our team are looking outwards for opportunities, instead of looking inwards for danger.

Teams allow specialisation

Our ability to form and establish teams with specialist capabilities allows us to adjust to an ever complex and changing world. The difficult for leaders is meshing the complex array of personalities and character types into one unified group, and then refocusing their efforts. This takes significant skill and finesse in order to get right.

In the past this would later set the conditions for agriculture and industrialisation. By allowing individuals to perfect a trade or skill, the community was able to elevate its collective standard of life. We would have seen blacksmiths manipulating precious metals, butchers sourcing and preparing meat, farmers and millers creating larger more efficient methodologies for mass producing product. You get the idea…

The point is that the most effective teams are those that understand that each of their members is inherently different and uses that to their advantage. In this way, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

When teams and leadership go wrong

A commonly overlooked aspect of leadership is the impact when it goes wrong. All we have to do is look briefly back in our history to see when poor leadership influences the masses to do terrible things (genocides, religious wars, cults, unethical corporate organisations, etc)

My time on this world has shown me the good and bad sides of teams. The bad sides include:

  • Cliques & nasty social groups
  • Unnecessary wars and conflicts
  • Misuse of precious resources
  • Manipulation of weaker groups
  • Exploitation of people and the environment

Forbes’ provides this definition, “leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal”. But this doesn’t speak to the morality, ethics or utility of what we are ultimately working towards. I would like to think that the world has progressed to a point where we not only judge our leaders on their ability to empower others, but also towards the validity of the cause itself.

If our leaders are guiding followers towards goals and objectives that only seek to exploit or displace other teams and organisations, then surely, we cannot consider this effective leadership under a contemporary definition. Using our precious (and ever reducing) resources at the expense of others does not seem like a sound long-term or survivable strategy to me. Surely, morality and ethical decision making must come into it.

At The Eighth Mile Consulting we routinely use the mantra ‘Good People, Helping Good People’, not only as a means to keep us honest but also as a filter to screen our clients. Our values are clear and concise and can be used to screen our operational objectives and we categorically refuse to support organisations that leave a wake of destruction wherever they go. This has been a guiding characteristic for our team, and we have found ourselves blessed in supporting positive projects, people and initiatives. We are making the world a better place one little bit at a time, and we are using strong moral leadership to achieve it.

Make sure you are leading your teams towards goal that leave a positive legacy worth talking about…

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Lost in the White Noise – What’s the thing?

How Stress Turns Into Self-Protection

The best leaders and project managers I have seen are those that can differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information quickly, so time is not wasted unnecessarily. It is those individuals, whom through their line of questioning, determine from another person – ‘what is the thing you want?’.

Do not confuse what I am about to say as an excuse for poor stakeholder engagement, or buy-in. This article is geared towards organisations and teams which operate in high tempo environments, experience stressful positions and require streamlined communication in order to survive.

My previous role within the military was one characterised by high and low tempo periods. Due to the nature of high tempo periods, time becomes short to make accurate and well-reasoned decisions often concerning the allocation of resources, and judgements about personnel safety. But what struck me as odd was a phenomenon I can only describe as ‘rambling’. As people got stressed, they felt the need to justify their question prior to asking it. But why would you be saying more when there is significantly less time? – it doesn’t make sense. It only creates more stress. It took me a long time to realise what was happening, but after having reasonable time to deliberate on the phenomenon I think I have figured it out!

As people become stressed they internally perceive the stakes to be higher. In turn, people tend to transition into a self-protection mode (either physically or professionally) – this is seen particularly in the military where individuals are assessed routinely on their technical skills and their ability to operate complex/complicated systems under trying circumstances. As a result, people rearrange the way they ask their questions in such a way that they begin with the justification before asking the question. You might have experienced this before when someone opens with a massive preamble about a problem and all they really wanted was to ask for something simple like a signature for something you already knew about. This is the same issue on a graduating scale.

On one such occasion I was helping run operations in a large scale military exercise. A person (whom I have the highest respect for, particularly their technical ability and their integrity) was ten minutes into a ramble and unbeknownst to them – time from my perspective was very short! I had to ask directly:

“What is the thing that you want?”

They looked at me somewhat shocked as to the bluntness of the question, but I continued,

“If you had to describe in 50 words or less how I can help you best, what would you say? As I have to leave for a meeting.”

Their reply – priceless.

“Can I borrow your computer for a couple of minutes.”

My reply – and a quick pat on the back later.

“No worries”.

Our relationship since that time has never been better. There was no massive social blunder, no awkwardness, just professional courtesy. Since that time, it dawned on me – how many hours of other people’s busy lives I have needlessly wasted by asking questions in the wrong way.

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) – How To Streamline Your Communication

In certain circles within Defence, a technique called Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) is utilised. It directly addresses this problem – it formally requires the individual to rearrange their correspondence in such a way that the question is the first line read on the document, brief or presentation.

BLUF Example:

I seek approval to move item X to area Y?

Justification:

  1. The item needs to be serviced
  2. Replacement items are inbound
  3. The item will no longer work with system Z which will be introduced in June.
  4. Etc.

The result is the decision maker is queued towards the problem early, and can actively consider the justifications without getting lost in the data.

Please note, when I refer to direct questioning, I am not implying one has to be rude, or unapproachable – quite the opposite. I am suggesting that a strong team with well rehearsed lines of communication should be able to circumvent the need to talk unnecessarily in times of extremis, or high stress. Team members should be confident in asking questions directly, and leaders should be comfortable in their team members’ abilities. Those teams that can achieve this level of operational ability are routinely the same that outperform their competitors.

Our Top 5 Starting Points to Improving Your Communication

Now I am not suggesting that Nirvana can be reached in terms of perfect communication, but I would suggest that there are certain things we can do at our level to improve our communication when it counts the most:

  1. Think before you communicate – What is it you want? Be prepared to explain why if they ask. Rehearse your question and answer.
  2. Don’t be afraid to ask the direct question – ‘What is the thing you need from me?’ or ‘Please describe exactly what you see me doing to help you?’
  3. Train your personnel – Encourage people to be confident enough to ask direct questioning.
  4. As a leader, be approachable and explain your intent – If you have to ask someone to be direct with their question also explain that you are not being rude and you appreciate direct questioning as it helps you problem solve more efficiently.
  5. Reinforce the correct behavior.

In my own experience, I have seen this work very effectively. Not just within Defence but across a multitude of different agencies. By cutting out the white noise I think I have significantly improved the way in which I communicate. My team members have also adopted the same line of questioning, to a point where it has become habitual. Give it a try!

We have taken many of these lessons and incorporated them into The Eighth Mile Consulting.

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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Leadership 101 – Infographic

Leadership 101

Leadership is NOT about you. Leadership is about trying to write yourself out of a job by EMPOWERING others to take over and head towards success.

Leadership is:

  • Helping the team understand the strategy
  • Enabling them to operate in your absence
  • Empowering them to make decisions and take risks, protected by your influence

Leadership is not:

  • Witholding information or techniques
  • Isolating individuals
  • Building a team around you for the sake of ego

Leadership 101 Infographic

Leadership Infographic by The Eighth Mile Consulting
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Why we helped create a medicinal cannabis platform designed specifically for Australian Veterans

An article by David Neal (Director), The Eighth Mile Consulting

In 2017, I medically discharged from the Australian Army due to a myriad of injuries that were gained throughout my time in the Infantry Corps. This is not unusual or special in any way, in fact it is quite a regular occurrence for serving members to medically discharge due to their service caused injuries.

Where my story diverges from the norm is the way that I ultimately addressed the problem surrounding my chronic injuries, and the way in which my team and I are now trying to give our precious findings back to our Veteran community, and provide them with a solution that might help them win their battles.

Throughout my career I had dealt with my injuries in the same way nearly everyone in the service does, by popping Ibuprofen and Panadol like they are tic tac’s, overshadowed by a deep love for beer, bourbon and scotch.

Over time, as the number of broken bones and joints grew as did the need for stronger solutions with an emphasis on Codeine and Opiate solutions. Over time my willingness to use these drugs increased ever so gradually until they became virtually useless, but still left all the negative symptoms such as lack of concentration, dizziness, shortness of breath etc. Simply put, it was not a solution that would work long-term without having serious risks on my health and a high likelihood of developing addictions, or as a minimum a very unhealthy reliance.

When I was finally discharged, I approached my doctor to start developing sustainable longer-term solutions. I was fortunate enough to have access to some incredible medical physicians who were contemporary, understood military issues, were open minded and solution driven. After numerous discussions, the topic of medicinal cannabis was raised in its capacity as a possible solution for chronic pain. This was a bit of a shock to me after having come from a no tolerance community and having been directly responsible for kicking many people out of the Army for their use of recreational cannabis. I would be lying if I also said I was not worried about the judgement of my peers who were currently serving in the Defence force at the time, and would have very little first-hand knowledge in this space.

In any case, there wasn’t a great deal of other alternatives on the plate. I had already had all the nerves fried out of my spine and neck with very little success, with a larger number of surgeries on the way. I really didn’t have anything to lose.

I invested significant research to see if medicinal cannabis had helped other Veterans in similar situations, and it had. Veterans can be very ‘clicky’ sometimes and we often like to speak to our own before we make decisions. I was fortunate to have discussions with a large number of veterans who had also gone the black-market route, utilising recreational cannabis for its pain killing properties. Some of these individuals had experienced remarkable improvements in their physical and mental health as a result of their actions. I had seen the improvements from the outside looking in.

As it was, I was the first to go through the legal prescription process which was a little clunky due to the immaturity of the medicinal cannabis industry at the time, overshadowed by a clunky government legal approval system (TGA). But once through, I was blessed with a solution that not only turned my pain off (yes, off) but also allowed me to stay more coherent, sleep through an entire night (I couldn’t remember the last time I had done that), and generally feel better all round. This was life changing to say the least. My relationships started improving, my moods and confidence improved, and I started feeling younger again. It was a significant jump in the right direction.

The problems I had though was that it was exceptionally expensive ($400 per month, AUD), it tasted disgusting (I can deal with that) and was a difficult administration process to navigate to get there. Another issue was the type of medication one might take; a quick slip of the lips and an individual might agree to a THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) & CBD (Cannabidiol) solution as opposed to a CBD only solution, resulting in a loss of one’s driving licence. The most difficult thing was trying to have it accepted by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs who can be a very slow-moving and bureaucratic beast.

My team and I decided that something needed to be done. We needed to:

  • A. Educate other veterans about how effective this was as a solution
  • B. Warn others about the dangers associated with Codeine, Opiate and Alcohol
  • C. Provide a platform for veterans to become better educated
  • D. Provide a means for veterans to start their journey to sourcing legally approved medicinal cannabis product
  • E. Provide the best chance for veterans to have their prescriptions subsidised by the Department of Veterans Affairs
  • F. Most importantly, remove the victim persona that follows the veteran community like a plague

After a significant amount of searching, we finally met the team at MedReleaf Australia who were willing to team up with us in developing a platform that would make the product better understood, and easier to source (pending the suitability for the individual). In doing so a partnership was formed. We had also met some not so desirable companies in our journey that were clearly focused on using veterans for the sole purpose of making a ‘quick buck’. The MedReleaf Australia team were considered, caring and compassionate about providing a service where it will get best effect and provide care to the people that had fought on behalf of the country.

Since that time a significant amount of research has been invested into ensuring the currency of information in an industry that is currently flying by the seat of its pants. We have also implemented a ground up build of the ‘Releaf for Veterans’ platform which will enable veterans to simply start their journey by visiting a website. Simply put, the Releaf for Veterans platform will allow veterans to be provided with an alternate and easy to navigate solution if it is applicable to them.

In memory of the veterans we have served who struggle with physical and mental injuries due to their service, we have decided to launch the platform on 11th November (Remembrance Day).

I hope that it in some way this project will both practically and functionally help our community of veterans for which I am proud to have served with, and I owe so much to.

I am exceptionally proud of my team at The Eighth Mile Consulting for their professionalism, tenacity and dedication in delivering this project on time and on budget. Amazing work.

Thank you for reading.

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What Do You Know? Facts vs Assumptions

My father is one of the most intelligent people I know, blessed with a highly analytical brain, and an ability to simplify the complex. He once challenged a younger version of myself, when I was massively overthinking about an issue. During one of my lengthy rants he stopped me abruptly and asked, “what is it you know?” Not paying much attention (as I hadn’t yet learnt to listen) I went on listing hundreds of pieces of what I thought were truths. He asked again, “What. Is. It. You. KNOW?” Upon further analysis it became evident that all but one or two pieces of information were assumptions, fabrications or guesses at best. This second challenge caught me off guard and has induced a healthy skepticism that has aided me to this very day.

When I stopped and thought about it, I really didn’t know anything. I had jumped to numerous conclusions based on my emotions, my perceptions of individuals (and their behaviour), and subjective observations which if had been seen or experienced by someone else would have ultimately led to very different conclusions. My father, on this day, changed the very way that I look and analyse problems. It has kept me more grounded through a combat military career, as a project manager, and as a consultant.

In 1997, Men in Black (MIB) was released, but there was one quote that really resonated with me. Kay, an experienced MIB operative is attempting to recruit Edwards and has just confirmed conclusively that humans are not alone on Earth.

Edwards: “Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.”

Kay: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the centre of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow…”

Assumptions Vs Fact

An assumption is ‘a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof”. A fact is defined as, ‘a thing that is known, or proved to be true’.

When I was in the Army, we often conducted planning in preparation for complex emerging issues, conflicts and situations all around the globe. Planning under these arrangements was often characterised by:

  • Limited planning time
  • Very restricted resources
  • Scarce information
  • A complex and confusing operating environment
  • A need to gain early momentum on whatever it was we were committing to.

Our planning methodology was commonly referred to as, ‘assumption-based planning’. In doing so, we would spend numerous iterations of planning identifying a lengthy list of assumptions. These assumptions would become the premise to whatever plans we were simultaneously developing, allowing us to get early preparation and movement. Data collectors and different organisations would push significant time and resources towards confirming whether the assumptions we were using to form the foundation of our rapidly developing plans were factual, or not. It was not uncommon for assumptions to be disproved and would suddenly change large aspects of the plan, at short notice. But when the assumptions were proven correct, it would inevitably have given us the jump on our enemy or would have allowed us to get significantly ahead of schedule.

During my time in the Army we never, I repeat, NEVER made the mistake of thinking that our assumptions were facts.

There is one key difference between the commercial industries and the Army. The Army is deliberately geared towards effectiveness and capabilities, and less towards efficiencies and cost reduction (although effort is still invested into cost reduction). This approach is what largely separates the two communities, as a business that is not continuously reducing cost is likely going to encounter significant survival problems later.

Since my transition from the Army to the commercial sector, I have observed a common mistake for businesses to make sweeping generalisations and assumptions and use them as the basis for an organisation’s overarching strategy. This can be very dangerous! It’s okay to use assumptions, provided there is adequate time invested in proving, or disproving them later.

Misinformation Is Worse Than No Information.

In today’s world we are constantly barraged with information. Information that directly disagrees with other reputable sources. Technology in all its forms has now saturated our brains with so much content that it can be very confusing where to turn, who to listen to, and which medium to approach.

If I could invite you to consider one thing; Misinformation is so much worse than no information. Conclusively knowing we do not yet have factual information about a topic affords you the opportunity to conduct targeted analysis in order to prove or disprove assumptions. Misinformation on the other hand, only offers the opportunity to run down rat warrens, poorly invest resources, and waste time.

Misinformation itself is often manifested by our own personal biases, our aversion to collecting accurate and contemporary data, our available sources of data collection.

“Before the invention of printing press, the problem was, lack of information, and now due to the rise of social media, it is too much information – the former leads to mental starvation and the latter to mental obesity.”

Abhijit Naskar

My recommendation to those teams conducting strategy planning is to spend the time confirming the following:

  • What do we conclusively know?
  • What don’t we know?
  • What do we need to know more about?
  • What assumptions can we make at an early stage in order to get things moving?
  • How do we scale or rate the assumptions?
  • How will we prove or disprove these assumptions later? By when? For what purpose?

This should provide an opportunity to streamline your data collection and ensure that you are only collecting information that you need, and not wasting time and resources unnecessarily.

These are some of the lessons I have taken with me in my current capacity as a Director at The Eighth Mile Consulting. 

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Leadership. When I got it WRONG.

We hear a lot of positive stories, and the ‘how to’ of successful leadership scenarios. This is not one of those. Let me tell you about the time when I got it completely wrong.

I thought as a junior officer I knew the intricacies of leadership and command. I didn’t know at the time how much I had left to learn, and still do to this day. Specific to this incident, was my lack of E.Q. understanding of stressor impacts, and conflict resolution skills.

Do not mistake my lack of experience for a lack of willingness to do good. I cared about my team, their families, their prospects and life goals but, the in-depth knowledge of how they all interconnected to either support or undermine the team was limited. Retrospectively, I believe that in this instance, I subscribed too heavily towards a ‘mission’ first mentality, at the expense of the team.

The Scenario.

For the purposes of this article let’s call the other person Bill.

On return from an Army exercise, a piece of very important equipment couldn’t be located. It was Bill’s responsibility. He was in a position of leadership at the time, and not being able to find it meant that my team was still working, when the rest of the unit had been home for hours. A terrible outcome for the soldiers and their families desperately craving to be reunited.

In this instance, I was unaware of the life stressors occurring in Bill’s life. Bill was always so cool, calm and collected at every turn that, it never occurred to me that his life was literally burning down around him. I had known Bill prior to us working together and he had a reputation for being a strong, fit, competent and professional man. However, I was focused on preparing the team for operations, fixing the overt issues and working on ensuring the team was at a ‘high performance’ level. I was thinking about the group as a whole and did not make the crucial connection of the group being made up of individuals.

Once the item was found, in his kit, I was livid. I counselled the person in a fashion completely contrary to my character. There are no excuses. Stress from a pending deployment, embarrassment from the counselling I received from my commander or even the disappointment that my team had missed out on even more time with their families, were no reasons for my behaviour. 

My counselling of Bill was aggressively vocal. It was completely uncharacteristic of me and shameful. An interaction that wasn’t lost on my team. Bill also did not take it very well and it had a lasting impact on him. It took time to gain the trust of my team back.

Lesson 1 – Provide clear vision and intent, the mission will happen.

If I had looked after Bill, provided a clear vision and intent, I would have enabled him to a way to tell me what was going on outside of work. Then, I could have worked with him to fix it and ultimately, set the conditions for him to succeed. Instead, I undermined his faith in me as a leader.

Lesson 2 – Stick to your values.

My response at the time did not align with my values (accountability and service). Where was my service to this man and how was I being accountable to him? It was my job to protect him and ensure that his faith in me as a leader was paramount.

Lesson 3 – Find space between the stimulus and the reaction. (Bram Connelly in his Warrior U podcast, Episode 01: KC Finnegan – USSF Major, he explains this well.

When the incident occurred, I should have taken the time to analyse and decipher the variables and considerations. The equipment had been found, that was a positive. While the team was the only one left, they were together and all unified in their search. This was uncharacteristic of him, what is wrong? If I had taken the time to absorb all the variables, I may have found out something that could have prevented a greater impact on Bill later.

Lesson 4 – Make the best decision you can with the information you have.

At the time, with the information I had, this was not the best decision I could make. I knew this man extremely well and I knew it was out of character. Instead of confirming information, I sought to transfer anxiety from my Commander to him.

Lesson 5 – Know your people, they are not their behaviours.

I didn’t find out until later that the interaction had a long term and devastating impact on him. It impacted his Afghan deployment and contributed to some long-term issues. To his credit, he reached out. He explained how the incident had impacted him and it was something that he had never really let go. I had no idea that the interaction had hurt him. It hadn’t registered to me as something that would have. 

Lesson 6 – If you are wrong in your approach, own it, TRY TO MAKE IT RIGHT!!

After he told me the impact the event had on him, I was gutted. So, I did the only thing I could and owned my mistake. There was an explanation of my thought process at the time and how with the benefit of hindsight and experience, I would have done things differently. Now, I am doing what I can to make it right. I keep in contact with him regularly and it is a constant reminder to stick to my values.

Dave and I have unpacked this a hundred times so that we can learn from it and never make these mistakes again. So, feel free to take a free one from my error. We use our experiences and lessons like these at The Eighth Mile Consulting because it keeps us accountable to ourselves and the good people we work with.

Dont be a jerk and never underestimate the impact your actions have on other people.

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