Whether you’re overseeing the adoption of a new platform or conducting a full-scale merger, effective change management will be critical to the success or failure of the project. A few years ago, Jonathan Clark and I assisted in the implementation of a large-scale Information Technology (IT) project. This project influenced almost all aspects of the broader organization’s finance, sub-projects, customer data, product information, operations, manufacturing capabilities, retail centers, and more. Prior to this project, we were involved in numerous technology-based projects within the Military, as both deliverers and users. Our experiences have uncovered a number of significant recurring themes and lessons which we wanted to take the opportunity to share with those who had the time to listen.
Effective Change Management Is Not An Afterthought
Change management is not a joke. It is not the responsibility of a single agency or individual to promote change within an organization. It requires significant investment and analysis at all levels of an organization. For effective change management on a large scale, you need to provide leadership, champions, preparation, and context. We have seen many instances of organizations that want to implement a change but are not willing to invest anything in order to achieve it. Worse yet, no one understands why the change is necessary or how it will occur.
Change within organizations too often starts with the word just. We’re just replacing capability A with B. We just want to absorb another organization. We just need to transition Team A into Role D.
There is no “just” when it comes to effective change management. That type of approach all but guarantees a waste of money, time, and resources, up to and including a full regression or undoing of the change efforts. Depending on the scale of the effort, it could literally destroy an organization.
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Systems And Technology Alone Will Not Save You
During our years as change management consultants, we have observed an overreliance on technology. It is a common misconception that new digital systems will fix poor processes. But they never have, and they never will. There is no doubt that technology can enhance an organization’s productivity, capabilities, and efficiencies. But part of effective change management is making sure you have the right people to implement and align the technology to a strategic direction. If those people do not understand the strategic direction of the company, the technology they implement may only send you further off course.
In many instances, organizations will implement a new platform or technology because they want to appear innovative and modern. But changing a system comes at a cost in time as well as money. Before you decide to implement a new system, make sure you determine the specific issue this change is going to address and the projected return on investment. It also may be worth considering non-technological alternatives. You will have no hope of effective change management if you’re trying to solve a process- or people-based issue by trying to cover it up with a computer program.
Leadership Is Not A Scary Word
You can change software interfaces and technologies, but unless you have user buy-in and ownership, you will have a fight on your hands every step of the way. If there is no leadership to explain the context, facilitate the time for acceptance, or provide a buffer for mistakes, then users will never see the need to make it work.
The Eighth Mile has had the privilege of working with some truly amazing leaders across multiple industries including military, government, and commercial enterprises. We often hear blasé comments about the differences between leadership and management, but when we ask people if they consider themselves to be a leader, they balk at the last minute and describe themselves as a good manager. Do not do that. If you want to be a leader, then be one. Do not shy away from the responsibilities associated with it. It is a role that offers the privilege of providing a purpose to those around you, sometimes through effective change management, and sometimes simply by working with them to achieve your objectives.
Change Is Inevitable
“Change is inevitable; Progress is a choice”
Dean Lindsay
Organizations will experience change, either voluntarily or due to the environments they operate in. A business that doesn’t change or evolve with its industry will eventually be left behind. As a result of this many businesses, appear to make reactive and impulsive changes instead of deliberate changes that propel them forward. A lack of careful planning and evaluation can increase costs. Many times, these same organizations don’t align their goals with realistic and achievable timelines, opting instead to rush the change and hope for the best.
For the most effective change management, our experiences at The Eighth Mile prompt us to suggest the following guidelines:
Determine the direction of the organization. Any change you make must align with your overall strategy, mission, and goals.
Analyze the problem you are trying to fix. How many ways can you think of to solve it?
Analyze what is not required to change. This will prevent enacting unnecessary efforts that will only drain your resources.
Once a decision is made, communicate the information early and openly to your staff
Champion the decision and enforce leadership at all levels.
Plan and sequence the change
Enact the change
Provide ongoing support to ensure success.
Truly effective change management provides a host of benefits, including lower resource costs and higher employee satisfaction, to say nothing of resolving the core issue that necessitated the change in the first place. The risk of getting it wrong, however, can be monumental. Large-scale changes, especially when it comes to implementing new technology, will not work without support from all levels within an organization. Do not assume the problem will go away with wishful thinking. Some change are necessary, and you must manage them effectively if you want your organization to not only survive but excel.
Nervous about effective change management? The Eighth Mile can help. We provide full-service change management consulting and guidance for organizations across multiple industries. Visit our Change Management Services page to find out more, or contact us directly to speak with our consultants.
Hear the phrase “tactical decision-making” and your first instinct is probably to frame it in terms of its strategic counterpart. This is not an article about strategy, but there is an important habit we need to bring with us from setting strategy when we think about tactics: thinking. No one reading this would let strategy decide itself or claim that strategy emerges from reacting to crises. Management by exception has its place, but it won’t set your strategy for you. Neither, more to the point, is it appropriate to let our reflexive reactions to events dictate our tactics.
What Is Tactical Decision-Making?
Put simply, tactical decision-making is thinking through your day-to-day operations, with an emphasis on taking responsibility and control over improving the way you and your team get things done.
Tactical decision-making is easier to understand in terms of what it is not. If you are running on autopilot, spectating your metrics, or responding reflexively to events, you are not engaging in tactical decision-making.
Running on Autopilot
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds …” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Running on autopilot” is doing what you did because it is what you have done. Maybe you looked at your metrics first, or you see that your customers and team are happy, or perhaps you’ve thought through what you’re doing extremely well, and that’s why it works. But nothing works the same way forever. And was it not tactical decision-making that led you to such a smooth-running operation in the first place?
Responding Reflexively to Events
We must respond to events, but if we’re letting events dictate our reactions, repetition will turn those reactions into policy. When we find ourselves reacting to the same crises, know that we are creating policy whether we think it through or not. A leader sets policy with intention; a follower is led into policy unaware.
“Fear is the mind-killer.” -Frank Herbert, Dune
Nothing sets the reflexes in gear and the mind in neutral like fear. Despite the note of urgency of the metaphor of putting out fires, most leadership crises aren’t so critical that we can’t afford to think before we act. One way to create some space is not to fight the fear but embrace it as problem-solving urgency. When you feel that pit opening in your gut, stop. Take a moment to absorb the situation. Consider your options, pick one, and then proceed. If your “fight or flight” response is set to “fight” and the way you fight is to “solve,” you’ve set yourself up for problem-solving over panic.
It also helps to try to anticipate time-constrained problems before they arise. Of course, no one can predict everything. The best we can do is learn from experience and never be taken by surprise twice.
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A Spectator to Your Metrics
You’re close to tactical decision-making, but you’re not quite there. You’re looking at your financials, tracking your project’s critical path, and checking your metrics. You’re keeping track of your progress, whatever form that takes. Fantastic! How are you acting on those metrics? Running on autopilot? Reacting reflexively? Or are you really using your tools to make good decisions?
Tactical Decision-Making
You have the metrics and the mindfulness to actively choose to make or remake operational decisions. You’re looking at your processes, policies, and methods and asking yourself, “How can I make this better?” You’re thinking and acting, not responding reflexively. This is tactical decision-making.
Balance: Management by Exception vs. Tactical Decision-Making
We have many duties as leaders, and no advice we take or method we employ should ever draw us away from keeping our responsibilities balanced. Tactical decision-making should never be a reason not to give prompt attention to immediate needs and emerging problems.
When Tactical Decision-Making Is an Excuse
Everyone has worked with — or worse, for — a Laputan so wrapped up in abstract ideas you can count on this person to do no actual work. Such a person might even hijack a meeting to discuss a concept in uselessly abstract terms or quibble over issues not related to the work at hand. The Laputan will also talk a lot about “vision,” “strategy,” and perhaps even “tactical decision-making.”
Obviously, a good leader has to dig in and do the work. A good leader must respond promptly to crises, particularly those involving customers or legal affairs. A good leader needs to be in the moment when the situation demands it. “Don’t bother me; I’m thinking,” isn’t an acceptable excuse when you are needed. When we lead a meeting, we need to justify every minute we hold the floor to justify the time cost for every person there, including ourselves.
When Management by Exception Is an Excuse
The customer walks away happy, the dispute between the employees dissolves before your wisdom, the blockage in the production line bursts open at your command, and you feel pretty good about that. “I’m doing a great job!”
Yes, you did a great job and have every right to feel proud. But you’re a leader, and a leader has many responsibilities. If we never think about tactical decision-making, if we never think about underlying processes, some of which might well be contributing to the fires we’re constantly putting out, we are neglecting one of our duties as a leader. It costs us time, but intelligently addressing the cause of a problem saves us the time of repeatedly solving that problem.
Conclusion
Tactical decision-making is as important as responding promptly to the immediate challenges of our leadership environment. A wise leader understands and carries the burdens of both planning and execution. Find the right balance between responding to events as a leader and taking time to think through the day-to-day work processes so that “emergencies” and “exceptions” become fewer as our plans for dealing with them become better.
The Eighth Mile offers an online leadership training course to help find balance and think and act like a leader. Get in touch to find out how to can improve decision-making processes.
Change management is more than a term to describe the process of making adjustments within a company. When done well, it is a process that can lead to outstanding results, lower risk, and better outcomes for companies. It doesn’t have to be complicated. However, it must be done in such a way as to ensure the best full view of the problem and the best solution. So, what is change management?
What Is Change Management in Business?
Change management is the overseeing and facilitating of significant change within an organization. The management team must decide how to properly address and plan for change, developing a comprehensive process for doing so. They then implement that process and manage it from start to completion, assuring success and adjusting to challenges.
When Does a Company Need Change Management?
There are two common scenarios in which change management is a necessary, beneficial investment.
1) A New Project or Process
One of the most common instances in which change management is necessary occurs when the company plans to implement a new project or process into current operations. In doing so, they want all employees and stakeholders on board with the change. This could include massive changes in operations or more minor procedural changes. The key is that the adjustments will impact business operations. Most businesses will go through this process at least once.
2) Acquisition or Mergers
A merger or acquisition changes the game for most companies. This is often a very significant adjustment for all stakeholders and employees. What is change management able to do in this case? Typically, this type of adjustment carries tension and stress with it. Integrating two workforces can mean that many jobs must adjust to new procedures and expectations. Managing this process properly may help to preserve top talent, outline organizational expectations, and help the company move through this process with less strife.
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How Do You Know You Need Change Management?
It’s not always simple to know when to invest in specialized change management support and when to make a few new rules and hope your team follows. Consider the following questions when deciding:
What is changing?
Why is that changing?
What are the implications if the change does not succeed?
What is the impact on the employees when this change occurs?
What is the impact on the day-to-day operations of the business due to the change?
Is the business set up to manage a change of this size, or could it cause frustrations within the workforce?
In many organizations, the goal goes further than implementing rules or changes. They want to explain, educate, and support the people from upper management down who will have some type of impact as a result of this adjustment.
Many people have an aversion to change. Just changing their habits can be a challenge. It’s easier to keep doing things as usual. That occurs whether they get a new manager or the company sells to an investor. By creating the right change mindset from the start, it’s possible to circumvent the negative and achieve more of the desired outcome without as many risks.
Consider the forces for change within your organization that can create stress that may make the investment in change management wise:
Government changes are typically critical, as not following these could lead to costly fines or other risks.
Social or political events within the organization or from outside the organization that impact the employees of the company can warrant a more delicate process of change.
New technology or procedures that require new training or new employee expectations are often best managed with a more hands-on approach.
Capturing market opportunities and organizational growth can be essential for a company to continue to operate, making overseeing the transition critical.
There are other pain points that could impact the employees, management, or leadership that must receive sensitive handling.
How Does Change Management Start?
Every situation requires a carefully created plan to address the underlying concerns and to create a roadmap for following through. There are often several core components of this process:
Prepare the organization and team for the change. Communicate the details of what may occur and when.
Create a vision for the ideal outcome and make a plan for putting it in place.
Implement the changes and monitor conditions.
Embed changes within the culture and practices of the organization to support the ongoing changes and adjustments.
Review the progress over time and adjust as needed.
A leader’s attitude affects everyone. To ensure the best long-term outcome, ensure your leadership team has the strategies in place to facilitate success.
Find the Help You Need to Facilitate a Better Outcome
Without a doubt, change management often impacts the bottom line and long-term success of companies. Getting it right matters to most organizations. As a result, it’s best to hire a team who can guide and support you through that process. Contact The Eighth Mile Consulting today to discuss your options and to support your growth through these changes.
Client behavior can seem like a mystery. This is because purchases are made on emotion first and rationalized later. With this in mind, how can you approach marketing strategy development to position your brand and message in a way that stands out from the rest?
Marketing strategy development is fundamental to creating and running a successful campaign for your organization. What are the values you stand for? What is it that your audience really wants to hear?
In this seminar, Dan Rowell shares his expert insight for those feeling a little lost in the marketing space. By encouraging you to think about your constraints, delivery methods, and evaluation processes, as well as introducing the AIDA model of building content (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), viewers will walk away with some new approaches to infuse their marketing strategy development with creativity and purpose.
9:45 – Putting Yourself on the Same Level With Your Customers
12:57 – How to Strategize and Manage Your Resources
18:05 – Simplifying and Clarifying Your Marketing Message
19:40 – Defining the Problem You’re Solving
22:09 – Creating An Emotional Response
27:55 – Habits and Rituals to Tap Into Creativity
45:05 – Closing Points: What Is the Biggest Challenge and Greatest Opportunity for Businesses Right Now?
49:56 – Q&A and Wrap-Up
Company Overview
Eighth Mile Consulting is a leadership training and consulting agency focused on creating and supporting better leaders in all industries. If you are seeking to develop yourself professionally, we have created an online leadership course to help revitalize your marketing strategy development and communication plan.
For more helpful videos to help you grow your people and your organization, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/marketing.jpg6001200Samantha Pickeringhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngSamantha Pickering2022-12-27 11:50:142023-01-12 11:12:19Marketing Strategy Development to Revitalize Your Brand
When determining how to hire the best leaders, let’s take a step back and start with a more basic question:
What does it mean to be “fit”?
If I had to guess, I’d say you’re probably picturing someone lean, muscular, and athletic. Someone who is likely to excel at any sport they attempt. But what if that sport was sumo wrestling?
The ideal sumo wrestler looks nothing like the Western ideal of “fit.” They strive to be as large as possible, and in doing so, are idolized as sporting gods.
The term “fitness” will always be relative to a given scenario. This is especially true when determining how to hire the best leaders. No matter how strong a leader appears to be on paper, do their skills and style suit the requirements of that role?
Are they “fit”?
A Bad Leader? Or a Bad Fit?
We often works with organizations in developing their leadership and project capabilities. In doing so, we have learned that different tasks, environments, and strategies play a big role in determining how to hire the best leaders. By taking these all into account, you can determine which leadership style will be the best fit.
Fitness based on leadership style is a crucial point that is largely overlooked in the hiring process. When figuring out how to hire the best leaders, interviewers tend to focus on the “Previous Experience” section of a candidate’s resume when that has the least relevance in relation to your company’s needs.
Another common reason for choosing a candidate is because they are “really intelligent.” But having an IQ of 170 doesn’t automatically make one qualified to lead. In fact, there have been many studies on the correlation between IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient). While the results varied in their specifics, the general conclusion is that most people tend to be strong in one or the other, but not both. Therefore, a candidate with a high level of traditional intelligence may actually be at a disadvantage for emotional intelligence, making it more difficult for them to communicate, cooperate and, in short, lead.
Leading The Blind
When determining how to hire the best leader for your company, ask yourself:
Do you have a thorough understanding of the organizational issues this leader will need to address?
Can you communicate the expectations for this role in its entirety?
Do you know how do the position’s goals play into the company’s larger plan?
If you are hiring a replacement, have you considered exploring a new style of leadership in this role?
If you’ve answered “no” to any of these questions, don’t put up that Help Wanted sign just yet.
Many organizations try to hire for leadership without first knowing where they want to be led. All too often those choices are put off “until we find the right candidate.” This attitude makes the hiring process like trying to hit a bullseye blindfolded. You can keep throwing darts, but without knowing what to aim at, you’ll be lucky to hit anything at all.
The future of your company is not a game of darts, and neither are your employee’s careers. It is unfair to fire a leader who has been hamstrung by limited resources and nebulous expectations, and yet this is exactly what will happen. Eventually, you will have to let them go because they “aren’t a good fit”–a fact you would have known if you’d determined what a good fit was in the first place.
How to Hire The Best Leaders
To avoid any questions about how to hire the best leaders for the open position, make sure you do the following prep work.
Understand The Problem and the Need
When determining how to hire the best leaders, you must first figure out where the company wants to be led to (or away from).
What is the issue you are trying to solve?
Is this a people, processes, product, or profile problem?
What are the expectations of the leader in terms of time, cost, and quality outputs?
Know Your Desired Outcomes
Based on what you know about the position, what strengths and styles are needed most?
Someone who focuses on the details? Or someone who keeps the larger goal in sight?
Someone who has a high level of technical, governance, and/or risk experience?
Someone who will gel with other members of the team?
Someone who is not afraid to challenge the way you do things? Or someone who will operate in a similar way to the person in the role previously?
Finally, of the traits mentioned above, which one is most important?
Same Conditions = Same Results
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
-Albert Einstein
If the reason you looking into how to hire the best leaders is that your last one was unsuccessful, think twice before hiring someone with a similar style–especially if that style involved not rocking the boat. If there’s a potential problem within senior management (such as limited resources or lack of direction), hiring a candidate that will push back could be an asset.
Hiring Is Only The Beginning
Just because you’ve figured out how to hire the best leader doesn’t mean your work is done. Evaluating the company’s strategy and goals in relation to your new hire must continue even after they come on board.
Commit to Continuing Education
Even the best leaders have room for improvement. But if you’ve hired someone fit for purpose, then you should be able to develop them appropriately, especially in areas where the team needs them to be stronger.
New Software Won’t Fix Bad Management
Many organizations mistake a personnel issue for a technical problem. What looks like a failure with one of your systems may in fact be a communication issue between sub-organizations or individuals. Companies can spend millions of dollars trying to implement software solutions whilst avoiding the actual people-based problem.
In Conclusion
There’s a saying in the military: “Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.” The same mentality can be applied when figuring out how to hire the best leaders for your company. By taking a methodical approach to identifying what the problem is and finding the most appropriate solution, you will be more assured of finding the right leader for you. Otherwise, you may end up with a slalom skier when what you need is a sumo wrestler.
When it comes to hiring leaders, it may be beneficial for you to experience what good leadership looks like firsthand. The Eighth Mile Consulting offers an 8-week self-paced online leadership course perfect for those looking to improve their skills through honest self-evaluation and disciplined dedication. To understand what “good” leadership really looks like, visit our course page or contact us for more information.
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Athlete_Body_Types_-_Source_Bored_Panda-q8b2d.jpg365880David Nealhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngDavid Neal2022-10-05 15:38:002022-11-29 12:10:54How to Hire the Best Leaders
We have all heard someone say, “I am not a pessimist; I am a realist.” It is a phrase that has many different layers to it, and it is definitely a topic worth discussing.
There are many that would argue that the world is a terrible and chaotic place characterised by suffering, confusion, and destruction. In many ways they are right. It is not hard to find mediums depicting the destruction and degradation of our societies. If one were actively looking it would take them less than 10 seconds and would probably be as easy as turning on the news. These people often self-characterised as ‘realists’ would reasonably argue that there is no point in burying one’s head in the sand, and that we should deal in facts, however uncomfortable that might be.
On the other side of the coin there exists a group of people, often called ‘optimists’ who seemingly do not care about the impending doom approaching them, and it would appear to external observers that they are living in blissful ignorance. These people are often characterised as blasé and Laissez-Faire. Some look at these people and become frustrated at their lack of involvement or seriousness in the situations around them. They can even come across as non-committal or immature. What adds salt to a realist’s wounds is that these people often live up to 12-15 percent longer than our aforementioned group.
Friction occurs between these two groups because they are often speaking a different language. Conversations become disjointed as both parties are approaching the detail from different existential viewpoints. Add to the mix people’s ego and pride and we have the perfect concoction for an impassable roadblock.
Like most things in life, finding commonality requires a genuine willingness to listen and learn. It must also be nested alongside an admission that every interaction is an opportunity for growth.
You will find what you are looking for (“confirmation bias”)
Earlier we identified that it would not be difficult to find examples of the world in disrepair if someone were actively looking, and this is true. But what if we chose to actively look for the positive things as well? What if we accepted that the world is one of a balancing act between good and bad things simultaneously?
It is not difficult to find evil things. It is much harder to find positive and admirable things. But, does it have to be? Or is that a choice we make? Is it actually harder, or do we make it harder by releasing ourselves of our ownership of how we react to what happens around us that affects us?
“Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.” – Wikipedia
We are all guilty of confirmation bias and it takes a significant amount of discipline and self-awareness to consider that our brains are often seeking to validate our already existing belief structures. This is not good when you are seeking to find commonality with others.
We must enter every discussion with an understanding that we likely have something to learn.
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Re-framing and empathy
We find commonality with others when we genuinely seek to learn their perspective. What we often find is that both parties are simultaneously right and wrong at the same time, and the distinguishing feature was context and perspective. For example, challenging questions to an optimist:
What challenges do you think you might encounter which could slow your progress toward your goals?
Have you encountered other challenges in the past that you had to overcome, and how did you do it?
Do you have a set of tools in your tool kit to deal with those challenges, to help you overcome them?
Who could you partner with to help you overcome your challenges?
Challenging questions to a realist:
Do you know anyone else who has had this or a similar problem and has overcome it?
Do you know if this has ever been done before?
What do you think is different between the example that was successful, and your situation which you believe cannot be?
Do you believe it is worth it for you to try to overcome this challenge?
It takes a level of discipline to pull yourself out of your own narrative and forcibly see the world through another lens. Your perceptions of other groups run a risky prospect of categorising everything they say as silly, irrelevant, or wrong.
One question we might all ask ourselves: Which is more likely?
Option 1: That they are completely wrong, and I am completely right.
OR
Option 2: We are both partially right and have different pieces of information drawn from different contexts and experiences.
If you are brave enough, you might ask the next question: Am I trying to be right or correct?
Nobody wins a binary argument
The wiser someone gets the more they realise that the world is a complex place. Problems are almost invariably multi-layered and faceted. The temptation is to assume that there is a right answer to every problem, wherein reality it can sometimes be the choice between two or more terrible options. Quite simply we must on occasion, pick the lesser of two evils.
There is a movie starring Harrison Ford from 1994 called “Clear & Present Danger”, in which Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan (based on Tom Clancy’s series of books.) Jack Ryan is at earlier points in his career quite the do-gooder (and mostly stays that throughout), and in this book, and as reflected in the movie, comes up against Deputy Director CIA Ritter, who is quite the opposite. It’s very much a black-and-white set of characters, and when they finally clash, you have this great scene that details good vs. bad, positive vs. negative, black vs. white, or yin vs. yang…and it’s this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKsDjpKr2Mk
Ritter explains simply, “Grey. The world is grey, Jack.”
Moving Forward
It is incredibly easy in the short-term to discard people’s opinions by categorising them as a type (pessimist vs optimist), but it rarely bares fruit in the long-term. Moreover, it speaks to an unwillingness to learn new things due to the risks it might have on our existing belief structures.
What is incredibly important to note is that everyone is winging their way through life. In doing so we are all choosing the schema that we think will best support us at that time. What this means in practical terms is that some people are most likely protecting themselves by choosing to frame the world through a ‘realistic’ (or pessimistic) lens, whilst others are trying to find the positives in a world that can otherwise be quite confusing, depressing, and chaotic.
The moment we realise that our choices lead us through problem-solving and onto solutions, then we also realise that there is a choice to learn something from everyone. In doing so, we might end up one step closer to a more refined and balanced opinion.
The moment inevitably comes in our lives when we realize that we have it within our control to choose, if not the problems we face, then at least the tools we make to deal with them. It is then, at those times, that we truly start growing into our most refined and balanced selves. Particularly, when we use the right tools, make robust and informed choices, and begin directing our own path through the chaos of life.
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Blog-Posts.png5001100David Nealhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngDavid Neal2022-02-04 09:12:502023-02-08 09:27:14'I am not a pessimist; I am a realist'
I recently posted a number of content pieces that explained ‘The Principles Of War’, a set of broad and overarching guidelines that acted as a filtering system for the operational and strategic efforts we conducted within the Military. In response to these posts many asked me to collate the information in a central source so that they might apply more reasonably to their businesses and teams.
There is no point in providing a set of principles, guidelines or considerations unless we build a context behind them that establishes relevance. This is my shot at doing that for the Principles of War in a corporate context.
The Principles of War are a set of guiding principles that act as considerations for military planning and strategy. It has become apparent that there is some utility in using them in the corporate environment. In this article, we look at the analysis and interpretation of the principles with that concept in mind.
Simply put, the principles exist to help frame ‘how’ to think and not ‘what’ to think. This means that we are free to explore whatever is needed to solve the problem. However, we must be careful to balance our priorities and resources to enable the best possible outcome.
These are the principles in order but not in importance. Each plan or initiative will see a different prioritisation of each of these principles in order to achieve a different effects or outcome.
The selection and maintenance of the aim
Concentration of force
Cooperation
Economy of effort
Security
Offensive action
Surprise
Flexibility
Sustainment
Maintenance of morale
The situation will see each principle being utilised differently and should be weighted depending on the circumstances, what needs to be achieved and the priorities set out by the planner. As an example, when developing a concept for client focused service (aim) we may need to bring in another organisation to cover an identified need (cooperation) which we could only build ourselves at a much higher cost (economy of effort). This joint venture may necessitate an exchange of restricted information (security) to ensure the team is established, trust is built, and we can be demonstrating our ability to adjust to our client’s needs (flexibility/aim).
For this scenario, the client focused service has primacy. It may look something like this.
Note – ‘the doctrine’ comments are excerpts from Land Warfare Doctrine 1 – The Fundamentals of Land Power 2014 – The Principles of War
THE SELECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE AIM
The doctrine – Once the aim has been decided, all effort must continually be directed towards its attainment so long as this is possible, and every plan or action must be tested by its bearing on the aim.
“ Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future ” – Walt Disney
In broad terms, it means to keep the object/ end in mind at every level of the operation. The creation of the aim (end state/ outcome) takes time, energy, and some serious thought. This is true for military and corporate action.
When selecting and maintaining the aim:
Ensure it aligns with your values
Communicate it simply and effectively to those involved
Reinforce the aim at all levels
Resist the urge to ad hoc stray from the aim
Maintain open lines of communication with key stakeholders
Test any changes against its impact on the overall aim
Bring subject matter experts in for objectivity
Know where you are heading before you start. It allows you and your team to align to a common outcome and make decisions as well as maintain momentum in your absence. From CEO to a jobseeker, selecting and maintaining your aim provides the purpose to make sound decisions.
CONCENTRATION OF FORCE
The doctrine – Concentration of force is the ability to apply decisive military force at the right place, at the right time and in such a way as to achieve a decisive result.
“ The talent of the strategist is to identify the decisive point and to concentrate everything on it, removing forces from secondary fronts and ignoring lesser objectives. ” – Carl von Clausewitz
To be successful we need to be able to concentrate our capabilities, at the appropriate time and place, to achieve success. This means knowing what we have, what it can do and where it is going to have the most impact. Then doing it. This principle is about be deliberate and even more so, decisive.
In a corporate context this would mean:
Having the funding to support a new project or capitalise on an opportunity
Aligning staff, capital and messaging at a key point to achieve and outcome
Defining areas that are irrelevant for expenditure
Having a surge capability to reinforce success
Knowing the strategy and communicating key locations and times for action
Making decisions within the time to be effective
Building alignment, momentum and energy to decisive points in the plan
We cannot spend everything on anything. Prioritise those actions that will have the highest impact and align to the strategy. Then build up the required resources, staff and capital to seize an opportunity. This is a deliberate and defined process.
COOPERATION
The doctrine – Cooperation within joint combined arms interagency teams, allies and coalition partners is vital for success. Only in this way can the resources and energies of each be harnessed so as to achieve success.
” It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. ” – Charles Darwin
Vital to success is the ability to bring together multiple agencies to achieve an overall effect. What this means in a practical sense is to build teams that cover each other’s gaps. We cannot know or be great at everything, so we join forces with others to create something better than our own individual capability.
What cooperation looks like:
Admitting that you are not strong in an area
Aligning with a team that is
Leaving your ego at the door and being prepared to be led depending on the priority
Acknowledging a greater purpose
Sharing information freely and in a timely fashion
Synchronising the efforts in space, time, and priority to create the best impact
Putting the team needs first
Protecting each other and representing them in areas where they don’t represent themselves
Combining efforts takes a great deal of trust, authenticity, and respect. It may be for a short period or an enduring strategic partnership. The vulnerabilities of your joined team must be protected at all costs.
ECONOMY OF EFFORT
The doctrine – Economy of effort is the prudent allocation and application of resources to achieve the desired results.
“ The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. ” – Bill Gates
Economy of effort. This principle deals with ‘playing smart’ and making the full use of available resources. It is in this space that we create a balance in priorities and what we can realistically achieve and sustain. Appropriate allocation must be nested with the strategy as they are finite. Priority allocation must go to the main effort that and supporting efforts will be created to enable it.
In a corporate setting this might look like:
Priority resourcing to finding new opportunities
Supporting effort in retaining and consolidated current projects
Reserve resources segregated for identified contingencies
A changing environment requires adaptability and if the main effort/ supporting efforts evolve then the priority of resourcing will change. At all times maintaining your economy of effort must be nested with the other principles like sustainment. Appropriate allocation of effort can mean the difference between success and failure.
SECURITY
The doctrine – Security is concerned with measures taken by a command to protect itself from espionage, sabotage, subversion, observation, or surprise. It is of basic concern during any campaign or operation. Security is required to operate effectively with minimal interference from the enemy.
“ Protection and security are only valuable if they do not cramp life excessively. ” – Carl Jung
To be able to continue to operate and/ or obtain opportunities we must first ensure that our own capabilities are as secure as required by the strategy. Now in times of need, sacrificing security for speed may be that strategy but it must be a planned, deliberate, and precise decision. Offensive strategies can also be a method of security as we stay mobile, maintain momentum and aren’t targetable.
In a corporate context, this could mean:
Securing your information, strategies and plans from your competitors
Ensuring you have consolidated resources to mitigate uncertainties
Future proof your employee relevance by developing them
Maintain quick and deliberate decision-making cycles to stay ahead of the competition
Securing financial viability by maintaining cashflow
Diversifying to create redundancy to secure operational viability
Mitigating priority risks to reduce critical events
Security of our businesses in physical, financial, strategic, operational and resource-based decisions is important to enable us to operate effectively with minimal disturbance. This principle allows us to analyse risk and mitigate it before crisis occurs.
OFFENSIVE ACTION
The doctrine – Military forces take offensive action to gain and retain the initiative. This has often taken the form of building momentum and fueling it to snowball the opposition. In most circumstances, such action is essential to the achievement of victory.
“ A little deed done very well is better than a mighty plan kept on paper, undone. Wishes don’t change the world; it’s actions that do this business! ” – Israelmore Ayivor
We need an offensive action (read, a bias for action in this case) to either regain or maintain initiative, or in a corporate context; maintain your competitive advantage, be first to market, launch on a project or create and seize opportunities. This action must be deliberate and decisive and must be driven towards achieving the established aim.
To effectively implement offensive actions, we should:
Empower people who have a bias for action (as long the strategy supports it)
Consolidate and make use of adequate resources
Ensure the action is sustainable to the end
Be linked to other key stakeholders to support
Use an element of surprise
Make effective use of available resources
Be deliberate and decisive
Be oriented towards the overarching aim or strategy
Be balanced with security of our own capabilities
In a military context this may necessitate combat however, it can also be the use of information actions and achieving influence as well. Overall, it is important to understand the importance of having a bias for action as it creates momentum, speed in decision making and advantage over your competitors. This bias will ultimately allow you to create opportunities not just be reactive to them.
SURPRISE
The doctrine – Surprise can produce results out of all proportion to the effort expended and is closely related to security.
“ In conflict, straightforward actions generally lead to engagement, surprising actions generally lead to victory ” – Sun Tzu
In a military term this might require deception or simply being able to disperse and concentrate rapidly, concealing your activity, appearing weak when you are strong etc. The idea is to be where you are unexpected or where you are expected at a time when you are not, in forces that weren’t planned for. In a corporate context, this may mean the release of a new strategy, software, market entry, product release in a time and manner that is not expected so that your competitors can’t mimic or get the inside track.
To achieve successful surprise:
Be where you are not expected to be
Appear vulnerable when you are in fact strong
Appear strong when you are weak
Approach markets from different methods
Create strong allies who enable you to scale and disperse rapidly
Know your environment in detail
Understand the importance of timing
Have a strategy and a plan
Show the minimum amount of activity in an area people are expecting so that they don’t know what your actual aim is. It is called a feint.
Be adaptable and ready to respond to your changing environment
This list is ultimately endless but, in a nutshell, utilising surprise not only keeps you and your team excited about new plans, it also enables you to capitalise on opportunities before others know you are even looking at them.
FLEXIBILITY
The doctrine – Flexibility is the capacity to adapt plans to take account of unforeseen circumstances to ensure success in the face of friction, unexpected resistance, or setbacks, or to capitalise on unexpected opportunities.
“ It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. ” – Charles Darwin
This is your ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment (your AQ). I would also include your resilience to setbacks, ability to deal with friction, chaos and complexity and to make decisions in uncertainty. The aim of flexibility is to maintain dynamic decision making across multiple lines of operation and still be synchronised.
To build flexibility:
Identify and communicate the overall aim
Understand your environment
Build a redundancy or reserve of resources
Empower decision making at the lowest level
Simplify communication
Provide realistic and relevant boundaries
Create an environment of innovation
Absorb risk, friction and anxiety for your team
Giving your team and organisation the confidence and capability to accept risk and seize opportunities is a deliberate process. As leaders we have a responsibility to create the environment and set the conditions for success. Build and train your teams to be able to understand intent and feel confident to take risks knowing that you have their backs. Ultimately, gaps and opportunities will be found by them. If they feel confident and capable, you will be able to pivot early and often.
SUSTAINMENT
The doctrine – Sustainment refers to the support arrangements necessary to implement strategies and operational plans.
“ You won’t find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics ” – General Dwight. D. Eisenhower
The new executive with the grand ideas will often forget about the sustainability of a project or strategy. Logistics and sustainability don’t just happen and can underpin an entire campaign.
Deliberate planning of time and resources for both offensive and defensive strategies should be a priority if you want an enduring impact. The sustainability or logistical elements of are also those things that are easily targetable by a competitor who can bring more support to the game.
To be sustainable we must:
Accurately plan the requirements of our missions
Have a redundancy
Identify the needs and requirements of our teams
Be prepared to do more with less (should not be the ‘go to’ move)
Be creative and use initiative
Allocate resources to those areas with the greatest impact
Prioritise resources (especially time and energy)
Have a strategy and a plan
Sustainability of our initiatives is the life blood of enduring impact. In change management, fatigue and obstruction are the result. In projects, loss of capability occurs or a failure to meet scope.
Be clinical and decisive in your application of resources.
MAINTENANCE OF MORALE
The doctrine – Morale is an essential element of combat power. High morale engenders courage, energy, cohesion, endurance, steadfastness, determination and a bold, offensive spirit.
“ An army’s effectiveness depends on its size, training, experience, and morale, and morale is worth more than any of the other factors combined. ” – Napoleon Bonaparte
For those that know and understand the power of good morale, it is understood that this can be the power that turns the tide and make the unachievable…achievable.
Teams with high morale based on being highly trained, determined people with a shared value set, cohesion and trust will outperform even the best ‘qualified’ teams (on paper) with low morale. This is the secret force multiplier that changes the game.
Morale is built on:
Trust
Shared experience
Open communication
Success (short/long term) and performance
Influential leadership (at all levels)
A shared purpose and identity
Commitment and conviction to succeed
A genuine and authentic care for each other and the team
Culture and a feeling of belonging
A willingness to put the team above yourself
If you have worked in a team with high morale, you will understand the power and addictive nature of it. You feel indestructible and associate the impossible as the possible. However, it takes work and commitment to being a part of something bigger than yourself.
SUMMARY
The principles of war have been developed over the years as a set of factors and considerations for successful planning and implementation of strategy.
Depending on the environment, the adversary, experience, available time and any other amount of identifiable conditions will determine what weight is applied to each principle. We cannot achieve every principle perfectly every time. Sometimes we may have to sacrifice one to achieve another as a priority of circumstance. That means that careful consideration and analysis must be applied to each strategy and plan. The consideration itself will lead to a better plan than had it not been done at all.
Ultimately, having a set of principles that can help aid in planning and decision making helps you to create better outcomes. The principles of war are one such set.
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-principles-of-war-1.jpeg302536Jonathan Clarkhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngJonathan Clark2020-10-28 14:43:522020-10-28 17:03:40The Principles of War - A Corporate Translation
One of the most distinctive memories from my early days within the Army was one of my respected Sergeants suddenly and abruptly correcting one of my trainee peers.
My mate had mentioned the unmentionable…
We were discussing what we should do if we encounter an enemy that was larger or more dangerous than we had originally predicted, and someone mentioned the word ‘retreat’. The response from my sergeant was immediate, ‘Australians DO NOT retreat!’. He went on to explain that we might withdraw in the interest of finding a terrain that was more conducive and favourable for us, but we do not retreat.
This is a statement that has stuck with me since that time. It speaks of the importance of always moving forward and regaining the initiative. Of remaining focused and deliberate in everything we do. It accepts that at times we might have to take a step back, but this should only be done to regain our footing in which to be able to take more steps moving forward. Over the years this phrase has spread its utility into most aspects of my life such as:
But here is the catch, it is predisposed on an assumption that we know what direction we should be heading. What point is there moving forward if it is entirely the wrong direction?
This is why having a strategy is so incredibly important. A strategy is a framework which sanity tests our decisions in short time, in order to allow us to stay focused on heading in the right cardinal direction. I have seen so many people get this wrong at their detriment.
We need to ask ourselves does our strategy (personal or professional):
Detail what we are seeking to achieve (Mission)?
Explain what it looks like when we achieve it (Vision)?
Include a sequence of how we might actually transit there (Goals, pillars, objectives, measures of success)?
Contain an acknowledgement of what we are willing to invest (or give up) in order to achieve it (resource allocations)?
It is an area that is too often paid lip service, but it is this defining feature that separates good teams from the absolute best.
A strategy allows a team to make quicker decisions, allocate precious resources towards those efforts with the highest impact and effect, as well ignore those shiny distractions which enticingly seduce people off of the centre line of their success.
Stopping the rot
‘Moving forward’ all the time is extremely difficult. It requires consistency, dedication and focus. Traits that can be increasingly hard to come by these days.
Our world is full of ever-increasing distractions and information that act as ‘white noise’ to our concentration. This white noise can incrementally increase for some people to the point where it becomes debilitating to their decision-making abilities. Some teams can become so confused by the pressures associated with these distractions that they reactively overcompensate by creating more and more high priorities. Leaders become withdrawn as the idea of moving forward appears less and less tenable.
For these teams, a ‘circuit breaker’ is required. Something that can stop the spiralling confusion and provide some level of clarity. This often requires a combination of the following:
Strong leaders & managers with clear roles and responsibilities. Kotter once described the distinction between Leadership and Management, explaining that leaders coordinate ‘change’ and managers coordinate ‘complexity’. I particularly like this description as it is a simple reference for teams to make in order to refocus and distribute their team’s efforts. It is a common observation that the teams that are drowning have not clearly identified the distinction in roles and responsibilities between key roles. Everyone is trying to do everything, and no one is doing it well.
Objectivity. Sometimes people are so saturated in their problems that they cannot see the overall context. They are literally living minute by minute and the idea of popping their head about the parapet in order to refocus their direction is unimaginable. This is where objectivity is so key. A third set of eyes, from someone who is not so absorbed in the problem, can be invaluable in asking the right questions and assisting in resetting the focus.
Horsepower. Some teams are under-resourced and under-supported – plain and simple. These teams have often been heading in the right direction but just do not have the horsepower or workforce to get their project over the line. They have been doing ‘more with less’ for so long that they have reached culmination, and they just need reinforcement. Jonathan Clark once said to me, ‘sometimes you don’t need more people standing around the hole telling you how to dig better, you just need them to jump in and help dig’.
Prioritisation. It is common to see teams that have a massive list of ‘what to do’ they have forgotten to detail what they ‘do not need to do’. The list of what is not required is often more important than what need to do. It stops people being lured down the enticing trip falls we eluded to earlier…
Some of the readers might resonate with some of these observations. If you have, I would love to hear your comments, case studies, and ideas.
The Eighth Mile Consulting team has founded a reputation for helping teams navigate through this confusion. There is an amazing feeling of elation as a team steps over the line of success when things months prior looked dire and unachievable.
For those slugging their way through problems at this very time, remember:
We don’t retreat, we withdraw to more favourable conditions
We ensure the actions we are doing are working to an overarching strategy or design.
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/british-library-8US1_1QMHi0-unsplash-scaled.jpg25601984David Nealhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngDavid Neal2020-08-03 20:05:212020-08-07 14:05:57We Do Not Retreat
In this 60-minute workshop, we discuss techniques for presenting ideas that gain buy-in.
TOPICS WE DISCUSSED IN THIS WORKSHOP
Understanding your manager
Nesting your ideas within existing objectives
Micro Skilling
Matrix Teams
Managing Obstructionists
Using yours and your team’s values to support the cause
INFLUENCE REQUIRES UNDERSTANDING
Successfully presenting new ideas requires you to do the background research and set the stage for change. Take a look at what may be affecting your coworkers and how your idea will impact them. Forbes research shows that 70% of all organisational change efforts fail. Have you done the analysis that will enable you to achieve a break in with your idea?
There is an art to preparing information in such a way that it encourages transformation within your business. If you present your ideas with no strategy you may experience push back. The Eighth Mile Consulting offers executive coaching for individuals looking to develop their understanding of the motivating factors that determine the outcomes in their workplace. Developing self-awareness and social awareness can give you the edge that drives your career forward.
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 presenting new ideas? Are you seeing positive results from investing time in your own self-development? Let us know in the comments below!
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/eighth-mile-consulting-testimonials.jpg8761313Samantha Pickeringhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngSamantha Pickering2020-05-17 18:54:132020-05-17 19:40:49Managing Up - The Art of Influence
This article was originally shared by Ian Mathews onForbes
David Neal spoke with Ian Mathews about his transition from his career in the military into founding his own consultancy alongside his partner Jonathan Clark.
David shares with Ian the considerations he and Jonathan explored when establishing The Eighth Mile Consulting strategy development.
They also covered these points in their conversation which can be seen in this short 8-minute video posted to Linked In.
The costs of not acting on instinct
The lesson on letting your ego impact your leadership
Why do we fall into the trap of micromanaging?
How much time do you invest in developing people who have not yet met their mark?
From Active Duty To Startup Founder: An Interview With David Neal
If you interview an executive and a military leader, many aspects of the conversation will sound remarkably similar. Both are responsible for adapting to change, leading people, thinking strategically and delivering results.
But several times during the conversation, you are reminded of just how different the stakes can be for the military leader. An executive might recall delaying the removal of a poor performer, resulting in a disruption in business. The military leader provides a similar example but with much graver consequences.
I recently met with David Neal, CEO of The Eighth Mile Consulting, to discuss his journey from the Australian Army to founding a successful business. David spent 13 years with the armed forces before leaving to build a company that helps private enterprises with change and project management, strategy and leadership consulting.
What was your first experience in business? When I was 14, I worked in a liquor store. Sweeping, stacking shelves and all that sort of stuff. I learned the value of talking to people and building rapport, particularly at a young age, because a lot of the customers were rough around the edges.
Your focus now is on leadership. What were your early influences? In my adolescence, I did Shotokan karate and worked my way up from a very young age, competing in the World Championships. That drew a lot of my time throughout my younger years. I was coached predominantly by my dad and spent time on the national team.
You mention your father as a coach. What other examples did your parents set for you? My parents worked in the tax office. That’s an interesting story by itself because my mom and dad come from pretty rough stock, a suburb called Elizabeth in Adelaide, which for many years was the highest crime rate suburb in the whole country. My dad scored a scholarship by randomly attending a school hall once. He went into the air-conditioned school hall on a very, hot Australian summer day. To stay in the air conditioning, he had to take an aptitude and IQ test. He is a brilliant man and his scores landed him an accounting scholarship funded by the government. He created a career there with my mom, working shoulder to shoulder on many of the same projects. It’s a pretty cool story when you think back to how they pulled themselves out of tough times through education.
What was your first leadership role with the military? I went to two institutes: The Australian Defence Force Academy and The Royal Military College – Duntroon, where they designate army leadership officer training. It’s a very competitive environment and you get used to being uncomfortable. I also did some infantry-specific training and deployed immediately to Afghanistan. Straight out of military school, I spent 10.5 months on combat operations in Afghanistan, as a 22-year-old in charge of up to 27 soldiers at any time.
What was that like? That was very gritty work. My role was as part of an Australian force that could support the Afghan National Army and make sure that our soldiers were getting back alive. Wherever there was trouble, we got dragged in and would get our hands dirty. That’s where I developed my close affiliation with the U.S. because we supported each other during some tough times.
What was an early observation in that role that stuck with you? One of the things I observed was a difference between the U.S. and Australian forces in style and approach. I used to talk to my soldiers on a first name basis, regardless of what rank they were, and they’d be like, “Yeah, boss,” and walk off. I had a US lieutenant struck by the casual approach to the way that we deal with our soldiers. And he was like, “How can you do that? This is your rank, and this is their rank, and we’ve got to maintain discipline.” I learned not to rely on my position because the Australian Army is less structured in our hierarchies. And so what works for one military did not necessarily work for the other. We both have the same tactics on the battlefield, but the way that we communicate with our teams is drastically different. He thought they were insulting me by calling me boss, but in our world, that was a sign of respect. If they started calling me sir, I knew I’d stuffed up.
Does that lesson apply in business? There’s a level of respect in assuming that the people who work with you can poke fun at you. It shows that we trust your ability to deal with it. And if we don’t talk to that person or we don’t want to offend them or whatever, then that’s probably a more concerning sign in our culture.
Tell me about a mistake you made as a new leader in the field. I did not make the hard decisions early enough. An example of that, I had someone in mid-level leadership that was in charge of other people. I was easily influenced and didn’t want to break up the team just before we deployed. I thought that I could change or educate that person in time, and I was wrong. We had a gunfight, and this person froze at a time that I needed them not to freeze. And I now look back and know I could’ve done something about that.
Why didn’t you act on your gut sense? I didn’t want to ruffle feathers, and I didn’t want to upset the status quo. I paid the price for that at the gritty end. If I had groomed someone else, I wouldn’t have risked people’s lives. So for me, have those hard discussions early and be willing to justify the reasoning behind that.
I went through the same thing as a new leader. My naive way of thinking was, “I can change everybody.” It was my ego saying, “I’m a good enough leader to overcome this.” Absolutely. The lead up to that, we’ve gone through four years of relatively intense training where everything is graded, marked and assessed. You’re compared against your peers. The day you graduate, you’re rated from one to whoever is left in the class. You know where you sit in terms of your cohort, your peers, and these are arguably the best leaders in the country. And you’re getting rated against those people. I mean, that’s always in the back of your mind. There’s a competition about who is the best. I’ve got to be the fastest, and I can’t be the weakest — all these really kind of misaligned perceptions.
How did those rankings impact your judgment? I didn’t want to be the one with the weaker team. I didn’t want to cause problems for my headquarters. I didn’t want to be that guy. I wanted to be the guy with solutions. I’ll fix it. And really what I was doing was slapping more band-aids on the problem but not curing the infection underneath. And ultimately, I paid the price for that. And then I had to endure the rest of the tour with that individual. And it hurt me. I had to micromanage to make sure that my soldiers were safe and this came at the expense of the overall operation. With a few hard discussions early, we could have fixed that entire thing.
What were the consequences as you got dragged down to a lower pay grade? The soldiers see that, and they’re like, “Well, why is the boss mucking around at our level? Why is this, why is that?” And I’m trying to work behind the scenes to make sure that everyone’s safe and we all get back alive. That weighs heavy on your conscience. You’re trying to make sure that we’re all going to get back. The other thing I learned, and I think it relates to corporate, military, and personal life is the value of context.
The times when my staff were most frustrated with me were when they didn’t know how or why we were doing something.
If I could talk to a younger version of me, I would say spend that extra 60 seconds on every engagement you have with people to explain the context about how and why you’re doing something. If you can cover both of those things, it will prevent 90% of the problems before they start.
What happens when a leader isn’t transparent enough? It always creeps out anyway. Whatever you say to one person will get back to the original person. It builds strong rapport and trust when you go up to another human and say, “I have a lot of respect for you, and I’m not going to talk behind your back. I’m going to say these things to your face because I believe that you can deal with it.” If you can frame conversations in that way, people will take it positively. One thing that took me a long time to figure out is that the more vulnerable I am, the stronger I am.
Can you elaborate on the importance of being vulnerable? It is counter-intuitive for someone trained to protect their reputation. The more I share about my vulnerabilities, the stronger the rapport I have with people. And I am able to leverage my network to achieve a disproportionate impact.
I find that the most productive people simply have more people willing to do them a favour. Absolutely. And what that looked like was, “Hey Bill, could I borrow some of your trucks? Could you give me a drop 20 km down the road with your helicopter, Harry? Because that would be a great asset for us not to walk that far.” These were favours, not orders or demands. This was over a mobile phone going, “Hook a brother up, and I’ll do you a favour later.”
How do you share vulnerability in a business context? When we meet someone, we tell them how bad we are at some things. We put those knives on the table before we start. We approached two-star generals with, “Hey look, this is where we’ve personally let you down. Let me explain where we’re weak. We haven’t hit the mark on this particular project.” The more we did that, the more those people protected us because they were like, “I can trust this person. I don’t need to hunt for the negative things. They just tell it to me straight away.”
As you approached the end of your term, how did you decide to start this company? I had no intention of creating a business. I jumped into a project manager role in a large not-for-profit organization to roll out an enterprise project. It was similar to some of the projects I worked on within defence. But while I was in that organization, I observed what I thought were Leadership 101 problems. It was a toxic environment, and I was like, “How can this business run when leaders can’t even talk to their staff? They can’t say one thing without bullying them.
So, you saw a problem first-hand and decided to build a solution? Yes. I started taking notes in the background with my friend Jonathan, as we were working on this project together. We got to the end of our contracts, and I said, “Do you think there’s merit in us starting a business where we can help people based on our lessons learned?” We got so comfortable working in high-performing teams, and there seems to be a complete vacuum of it. And working with high-performing teams is addictive. It’s an amazing feeling when you’re on a humming team, and everyone knows their place, and everyone’s getting stuff done. I thought, “Why don’t we start a business helping companies create great teams?”
Your company’s motto is, “Good people helping good people.” What does that mean to you? We look at projects and change initiatives holistically, but with a lens of, “How do you engage with people?” Because so many problems are disguised as something else. Most of what we deal with is people. What looks like a technical problem is often one person won’t talk to another because they don’t like them, and the company is trying to patch it with a new system that costs a million dollars. We ask why they don’t get the two talking to each other or get rid of the offender.
You started Eighth Mile Consulting with your longtime friend, Jonathan Clark. How important has it been for you to start this business with a partner? It’s massive. We made a deliberate choice that we would fulfil two roles, as we have two different styles. Behind the scenes, we do very different things. I’ve adopted the part of the gap-finder, forward-leaner, opportunity-finder, relationship-builder. Jonathan has adopted the systems, processes, structure, design, organization, management and operational side. Knowing your place in the team and defining it is crucial. We hold each other accountable, and I think our team thrives on that.
How did you think about positioning for Eighth Mile? In true military fashion, the first thing we did was purchase a whiteboard and a big marker. Jonathan and I sat there over bourbon and wrote about where you might not see two knuckle-dragging ex-infantry consultants. Where can we be a point of difference? And we focused on not-for-profits, clinical care, medical and education. We’re going to lean into these areas where we are a point of difference.
What was your marketing plan? We tried LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with different messaging. I aimed at these various industries to see where we might provide value. LinkedIn quickly rose to the top, and I developed a few tactile skills on that platform. So we started building our personal brands concurrently while we were making the company brand. Our messaging slowly switched to, “Well, if you like me as a human, you should see the rest of my team, because they’re incredible.” Since our business has been running, we’ve spent less than $500 on advertising.
What advice would you give to someone starting a company today? In the small business world, you do everything for a while. You don’t have the capital, and you don’t have the revenue coming in. Your margins might be small. Write down your strategy. It’s a contract with yourself and that should incorporate a linkage to your personal life. Do not commit to starting a new enterprise or a new business if you think that it will not affect your home life.
https://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dave-and-Jono-e1589448674500.jpg730881Samantha Pickeringhttps://learning.eighthmile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8th-mile-logo-white-ID-0e8d1f36-8698-4694-c814-e4bb5fc4fdc9-2.pngSamantha Pickering2020-05-14 19:30:002020-05-15 15:47:41From Active Duty to Start Up Founder - My Interview with Forbes Contributor Ian Mathews
