Set the tone not only on the front. What can a business in the army learn

Three effective steps from US Army General Stanley McRistal - and your team's work is transformed unrecognition recently had the opportunity to listen to the speech of the former US Army General Stanley McRistal. He shared his experiences and approaches to team management in the army: how he managed to reform the work of the Joint Command of Special Operations (OSO) and to increase the speed and efficiency of work.

Speaking in the language of numbers, at the beginning of his work, the operational groups were performed by one or two raids a week, at the end of his cadence-about three to four raids a day. At the same time, the quality of group training and planning did not fall, but on the contrary, it improved, which could be judged by statistics of the success of operations and the number of losses of personnel. What was the secret of this transformation.

Three steps towards victory The speed of communication and the relevance of operational information The main problem in the performance of OCS operations was at the speed of communications between command and executors and the relevance of operational information. Therefore, to make weekly calls that anyone from a soldier to the general could join was one of the proposed transformation decisions.

During these calls, the command actualized their plans and strategy, after which everyone was able to ask questions. This has created at all levels a sense of full involvement and awareness. That is, the command should share information on global plans and adjust the way of achieving them, taking into account the current operational situation, and give freedom to choose about ways to achieve results from lower level workers.

When people are involved, informed and motivated, they become a real team. The transfer of responsibility to the performers was the next step to transfer responsibility for making decisions to a lower level - to the executors who directly participated in the operations and were responsible for the result, as well as the teams gave the opportunity to coordinate at parallel levels without involving command.

The general formulated it as follows: "If the order is incorrect, then execute the order we had to give. " In fact, Bottom-Up Approach was implemented when the tactics were adjusted on the basis of information and decisions made from below. On the example of the Russian army, we see that the Soviet centralized and directive team approach does not work. The lack of flexibility, speed in decision -making and mobility leads to the defeat and irreversible losses of the army. In business the same.

The company should not intervene in its operational work and coordinate each decision, it is the responsibility of teams on the ground and their management. After Action Review or feedback, the main factor of future success is also to build a feedback system to work on mistakes and to study success. The team can be more efficient and move faster in achieving their goals if a culture of open communication and feedback is implemented. In the army, this is called After Action Review.

The basis of this approach is the following questions: what did we expect? What actually happened? What did they do well? What mistakes did you make? What could do better and how? This approach allows teams to study successful strategies in the future and not repeat mistakes. In the army, as in business, it is very important that this process is as transparent as possible and the opportunity to accumulate knowledge and share them with other teams.

Understanding employees that this process is focused on accumulating experience, not punishment, allows you to get the most likely information and in the future it is true to use it. It is also important that the All team, not just the leader of the group responsible for the command, is involved in the After Action Review. At the end of General McRistal's meeting, he was asked what he was thinking about the situation in Ukraine and the Ukrainian army.

He praised the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the achievements and innovation in the war. The work of small mobile groups, the use of non -standard technological solutions, experiments with different tactics and approaches - this is all possible through the use of similar approaches described by the general. The main conclusion is that we need to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility at all levels. The key to a quick and efficient decision -making approach is to liability at lower levels.