Mission Planning II

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take - choose the bolder.
-- General William Joseph Slim

A recent study by the US Army War College investigated critical behaviors of senior military leaders. Few skills ranked higher on the required attributes list than the ability to plan missions, solve problems and make decisions.

Times like these demand leaders who can plan, make decisions, and maintain a steady hand, especially under duress or during times of crisis. This series of posts on decision-making will highlight the four step planning process. These steps can be applied to any problem, whether to start a business...or to save one, whether to deploy an Army or to deploy a new product.

Step 1. Define the Problem

Mission planning cannot start without a deliberate effort to define the problem. Thus, this step begins with a thorough understanding of the big picture and the operational context for the mission. Leaders must have good situational awareness and be able to “see themselves” (organizational capabilities, individual skills and strengths, and activities of other “friendly” units with potential impacts on the mission), “see the enemy” (competitor actions), and “see the terrain” (operational environment, future trends, customer demographics). The business equivalent might be a formal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. This becomes a base from which mission planning can begin.

Next, facts and assumptions that apply to the problem must be analyzed and understood. Quantify what is known and make logical conclusions about what is not. Good situational awareness (SA) about the operational environment will generally allow for assumed future conditions that are close enough to support decision making.

Problem definition must then define specified and implied tasks and address:

-- What tasks are specifically required to complete the mission?
-- What tasks are not specifically required but are implied in order to reach the intended objective?
-- Of these tasks, which are absolutely essential, and must be highlighted as such in the final problem statement?

As with facts and assumptions, write out this list of tasks and make a special designation for those tasks deemed as “essential.” All tasks, whether specified or implied, must be assigned to some member of the team in order to successfully complete the mission.

Finally, restate the problem. Write out a mission statement that addresses the “Five Ws” – Who, What, Where, When, and Why? Ensure it addresses all essential tasks. The restated mission should be posted throughout the problem solving process to eliminate energy and time applied against the wrong problem – a common shortcoming in mission planning.

Following a detailed mission analysis and definition of the problem, leaders must provide the input that will shape the final plan. Issuing guidance later in the process results in wasted time and subordinate frustration.

Working with leaders at the Army's National Training Center, mission planning can be an exasperating exercise. Frequently, commanders would express their frustration about plans that were not what they wanted or that they knew would not achieve their intentions. Unfortunately, they never shared their intentions with anyone else! They failed in this critical step and had not provided the guidance necessary to shape the final plans. This is a critical leader task that cannot be delegated…or skipped.

Nor can this input be provided later in the process. I have watched numerous subordinate staffs “implode” after an all night planning effort was destroyed by commanders who interjected their guidance long after the “train had left the station.” Not only was critical planning time lost; so was the staff’s confidence in their leader.

Leaders influence the problem solving process by giving their vision for the end state and their general intentions for a solution. They identify what they are looking for in a viable course of action and those evaluation criteria (i.e. cost, speed, impact on customers, etc.) that have the greatest importance in the final evaluation. If leaders are willing to accept risk in some areas, and not in others, they make it known. Budget or time limitations are identified. The goal is to empower subordinates, to give them the freedom to develop creative solutions. Subordinates generally need only their left and right limits, if there are any. They’ll figure out the rest.

Step 2: Develop alternatives.

In mission planning, leaders should attempt to identify at least three possible courses of action, all of which must be viable alternatives for solving the problem. Each course of action must meet the following criteria:
-- Is it feasible? Don’t waste time on alternatives that have no possibility of accomplishment.
-- Is it sufficient? Does it address all the elements of the problem statement outlined above? A half-solution is no solution at all.
-- Does it meet the leader’s intent? If not, don’t consider it as a viable alternative.
-- Is it bold? At least one alternative should be audacious and blow through the boundaries of “business as usual.”

We'll review the final two steps (Step 3 - Analyze alternatives; Step 4 - Make a Decision and Communicate the Results) in the next post.

Leaders who fail to plan – plan to fail. These first two steps get the process rolling. They ensure that the mission is well understood and that available alternatives are identified before moving to a solution. These are skills we demand from our leaders, no matter the operational context. That makes the planning process…Leader Business.

Mission Planning

A recent study by the US Army War College investigated critical behaviors of senior military leaders. Few skills ranked higher on the required attributes list than the ability to plan missions, solve problems and make decisions. In fact, the top four behaviors detailed in the Army study highlighted the importance of mission planning skills in successful leaders:

-- Clearly explains missions, standards, and priorities.
-- Sees the big picture; provides context and perspective.
-- Can make tough, sound decisions on time.
-- Keeps cool under pressure.

Times like these demand leaders who can plan, make decisions, and maintain a steady hand, especially under duress or during times of crisis. The next several posts will highlight what it takes to plan a mission. These steps can be applied to any problem, whether to start a business...or to save one, whether to deploy an Army or to deploy a new product.

Combat leaders use a basic approach to mission planning - called the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). When followed, it produces the leadership behaviors that the Army has highlighted as priorities for senior leaders: timely decisions, big picture context, logical plans, and clear mission orders. The MDMP is a reasoned approach to identifying and evaluating potential courses of action before deciding what must be done. It can be used for planning major campaigns or for discrete missions and operations. This is the battle-tested methodology that enables quality decisions and calm decision makers.

What follows in this series then, is a simple, four-step approach to mission planning:

1. Define the problem

2. Develop alternatives

3. Analyze alternatives

4. Make a decision and communicate the results

Leaders who fail to plan – plan to fail. Whether developing long term plans and strategies or putting out fires and conducting mission planning for day to day operations, leaders must be trained and equipped, with an appropriate decision making framework, to do so. These are characteristics we demand from our leaders, regardless of the operational context. It can be used for personal or organizational decision making – regardless of the scale, or the context, of the problem. Mission planning is…Leader Business.

Presidential Leadership

With all the talk in the last several months of presidents and their capacity to lead, it is no surprise to see who landed on top of C-SPAN's survey of Presidential Leadership. Yes, once again, President Lincoln takes home the top honor. (For more on President Lincoln's leadership, see the collection of Lincoln's Lessons over at Leading Blog)

Here are the top 10 presidential leaders according to the collective wisdom of the historians in this survey group: Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Jefferson, Eisenhower, Wilson, Reagan.

Three things interest me in the survey. One, it intrigues me to see some presidents rise (Grant, Clinton, Kennedy) and fall (Wilson, Cleveland, Carter) over time. It is clear that the passage of time allows us to reevaluate leadership, put it in context, and decide again on the value of various characteristics. I suspect this is what allowed the historians to better appreciate Clinton's relations with others and his overall vision and what will likely allow us to give a fair shake to the contributions of George W. Bush, much the way people have come to now view President Truman.

Secondly, these characteristics used in the survey are a good measure of executive leadership (with my interpretation in italics):

-- Public Persuasion (Communication, consensus building)
-- Leadership in Crisis
-- Economic management (Fiscal discipline and competence)
-- Moral Authority (Ethics, culture, character, guidance)
-- International Relations (Relationships)
-- Administrative skills (Management)
-- Relations with Congress (Relationships)
-- Vision / Setting an Agenda
-- Pursued equal justice for all (Ethics)
-- Performance within context of the times (Rise to the challenge)

Thirdly, on this President's Day, it is interesting to see the cream rise to the top. Lincoln received top marks for leadership in crisis, moral authority, vision, equal justice for all, and performance within context of his time. Washington was on top in economic management, moral authority, international relations, and admin skills. Between them, they have set the bar high for other Presidents and for that matter, all leaders. So you see, this is not just Presidential business...it's Leader Business.

Photo courtesy of www.americaslibrary.gov

Virtual Connections

I thought some of you might find some value in what we are doing to communicate with our workforce. Watch the video (or at least as much as you can stomach given the sorry excuse for an interviewer) and you'll see a method we are using to keep people connected.

Among many benefits, these videos do several things for us:

-- Puts people front and center. Everyone loves to see there face (or their teammate's faces) on TV.

-- Connects people spread across 3 states and gives them an understanding of what else our organization is doing.

-- Helps connect the field with the office staff, construction with contracting, laborers with lawyers. Everyone needs to see the end product and know that their contribution, no matter how small, helped make it happen.

-- Have fun. The feedback has been very positive. The videos allow people to see their leadership in crazy situations, having a good time, being irreverent.

We try to do these videos about every two weeks. They are on our intranet home page so that people see them when they open their Internet explorer. And, as you can see, we've even begun to put some of them on YouTube so that potential employees can assess if we might be the sort of team they'd like to join.

Is it working? I think so. I get a lot of positive feedback. I try to explore different hot topics or do interviews at different projects out in the field. And in this time of distributed work, I think it is an important tool to keep people connected. These connections, this sort of communication with and among our workforce, are great fun and important leader tasks.

Virtually speaking, that makes it Leader Business!

"Failing" Leaders

I had to call a senior official in Washington D.C. this week. You see, one of our projects was not turning out the way it should. People had been led to believe something that was no longer accurate. We had to correct the record. But instead of making a lot of excuses, blaming the system, or putting fault on my predecessors, I opened with a line I use way too often: "I screwed up."

I have a lot of company these days:

"I screwed up," said Olympic champion Michael Phelps for his poor judgement in using drugs.

"I screwed up," said baseball star Alex Rodriguez for his use of performance enhancing drugs during three years in Texas.

"I screwed up," said President Obama for suggesting that it was okay to not pay taxes by standing by some of his (non-tax paying) cabinet appointees.

And whether or not they will admit it, there is a lot of mea culpa to go around with the failings of so many businesses, banks, state governments, schools, etc. Occasionally (though not as often as they should), the leaders of those enterprises will let people know that they "screwed up."

No blog post of mine gets as many google search hits as my writings about "My Greatest Failures." I've screwed up plenty. And it looks like I have a lot of company out there based on all the searches on those words!

But there is no way to sugar coat it. Nor should we try. Start by acknowledging failure, by stepping up and accepting the burden of leadership and recognizing that the shortcomings of the team begin with the shortcomings of the leader. Step up and take it. Let people know you screwed up. Then learn from it, fix it, make corrections.

I appreciate the President's use of those words. That sort of refreshing candor is worthy of emulation by all leaders. It is good to see others following suit.

Now, let's see if the financial industry CEOs who testify before Congress today can do the same! Let's see if the people who got us into this mess (and there are many who share in this failure -- from people who overspent to governments and financial institutions who did the same) can step up and accept blame for their actions. Let's see who else can open with, "I screwed up!"

I know that's how I would start on the road to recovery. That's Leader Business!

More on Sully

The more we learn about Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, the more impressive his feat becomes. Yes, the pilot of US Airways flight 1549 is now the toast of the TV news circuit. He was introduced in Tampa, Florida last weekend before the kickoff of the Superbowl. He is getting his 15 minutes, for sure.

But you know what? This guy is the real thing. The more I read about his courageous and professional performance in landing his plane on the Hudson River and saving all 155 people aboard the flight, the more impressed I am with his leadership.

Watch this video (courtesy of CBS News -- sorry about the commercial at the beginning) and think about communication during a time of crisis.



Here are three key communication take-aways that I saw from Sully's situation on-board that flight:

-- Report immediately. Don't overanalyze. State what you know, let people trust that you will get back to them as soon as you have developed the situation. Keep communications short and simple. (Note to all of us: Please accept this initial report from subordinates. Give them enough time to sort out the situation before pressing them for more information!)

-- Include others in your decision making. Sully did not try to figure everything out himself. No doubt he was constantly reviewing options with his crew. In the video clip, it is clear that he explored at least four different options for landing with the air traffic control crew. Involving others in decision making, talking out various options, gives us the best chance of finding an appropriate solution. Leaders who take on all the burdens of decision making during times of crisis run the risk of missing alternatives that others might provide.

-- In times of crisis, focus less on what happened and more on what you are going to do about it. There will always be time to analyze the causes of crisis situations. That time is not when you are working on landing a plane in the Hudson River! Sully mentioned only once that he had lost his engines during takeoff due to a bird strike. No one pressed him for more information on how or why. Instead, the conversation focused on how to get the crisis under control.

In these challenging times, many of us are experiencing crisis situations. Businesses are failing. Federal, state and city budgets are a mess. We have no shortage of challenges. Let's apply some of "Sully's" communication principles and find a way to "land the plane." How we communicate, internally and externally, may be the key enabler of success. That makes it Leader Business.