Mil-spec management lessons

 

"A calamity can often strike without warning. Whether it be generated by humans or a natural disaster, leaders need to be ready to direct their teams in the aftermath. In order to be ready for crisis, leadership skills, like any others, must be practised over and over beforehand. So the way you lead in the quiet times helps to build the skills you need when you have to dig deep."

That paragraph plucked from this month's impressive NZ Airforce newsletter about the military response to the devastating flooding caused by cyclone Gabrielle here in Hawkes Bay caught my beady eye this morning. 

The idea of practicing incident management as well as incident handling or operations on relatively small incidents makes perfect sense.

It feels odd to refer to the severe regional impact of Gabrielle as 'small' but it's not hard to conceive of far more significant or widespread situations, incidents or disasters where a military response would be appropriate.

The same concept applies to other aspects of management. We can practice and refine change management skills on small, routine changes, preparing to tackle larger, more challenging changes. Practice and refine information risk management skills on everyday information risks, preparing to tackle larger, more challenging information risks ...

In fact, every incident or activity, regardless of scale, can usefully be treated as a learning and improvement opportunity. No doubt the Chancellor of the Exchequer looked after his pocket money, a long time ago.

This is why I recommend thinking and talking in terms of business continuity exercises rather than BC tests. Testing or checking out the BC arrangements happens either way, but 'exercise' puts a subtle emphasis on the people (staff, management and specialists) practicing, refining, improving, working and learning together both as individuals and, in time, as a high-performance team - one more capable of identifying and resolving issues that escape the usual test-fix process, including those that crop up unexpectedly in serious incidents or disasters.  Through BC exercises, the organisation becomes more resilient: result!

More broadly still, I'm sure the military can teach us civvies leadership and man-management skills of the highest order, since that is such a large part of What They Do. Elsewhere in the same excellent newsletter, I read about:

  • Structured and systematic yet flexible responses to unpredictable, chaotic situations, focused on establishing information and communications as well as logistical support;
  • Giving trained and competent operational teams the latitude to act autonomously within their capabilities, without micro-managing them;
  • Encouraging and facilitating collaboration with other organisations and communities, whether organised or disorganised, all under stress;
  • Leadership providing clarity and direction, rising above the 'noise' of chaos;
  • Appropriate governance and comms structures passing pertinent information (commands, responses, updates, concerns ...) efficiently to those who need it;
  • Having additional capabilities to respond to emergencies within the disaster (!);
  • Harnessing and releasing individual passions and energies in productive ways; 
  • Facing challenge of securing sufficient resources to maintain or even enhance the performance expected of high-performance organisations.
All in all, an outstanding newsletter, well worth studying.

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