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BY COL. STEPHEN T. MESSENGER
Commander, Fort McCoy Garrison
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
– Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Understanding what our people do is the foundation to better decision making. How can we make informed decisions without continuously reassessing and understanding the functions of our organization? This applies in our work, homes, and civic organizations.
The uninformed decision
I often find myself quick to judgement and decision making, sometimes by necessity and sometimes by desire.
This is ironic, since often leaders don’t fully understand what’s happening but are the ones to make the decision.
We can only experience what we experience, and when we see things outside of what are felt and heard, we default to our previous mental models to inform our decisions.
While this isn’t necessarily bad, it’s better to have a deeper knowledge base of what our people deal with every day, so we are more effective at helping them.
Often, the only way to understand their work is to walk a mile in their shoes.
Be like Mike
The people who work for you live in their own world and have their own challenges; just like you. It’s important to understand what they go through.
I try to get around and learn different jobs that people in my organization do.
Like Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs, in the last year, I’ve shot weapons, maintained vehicles, repaired ranges, watched kids, inspected fish, donned firefighter gear, checked IDs, counted butterflies, and a host of other tasks.
Each time, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for what our amazing people encounter at the grassroots level.
It allows me to understand their requirements, resources or lack thereof, and risks they assume on my behalf. It’s incredible the great things that are happening at so many levels and the autonomous decisions that others make to keep the organization moving.
Getting out there broadens your experiences. How can you make good decisions by sitting in your office all day? Just as important, it’s given me a chance to connect with others that I normally don’t engage with very often.
Clear the traffic jam
In World War II, George Patton famously stood in the middle of a muddy intersection directing his armored tank traffic out of a congested mess. He was near the front of the column, as always, and could understand what was happening because of his previous skills, knowledge, and experience in tank operations.
He knew what to do because he was intimately familiar with all tasks his men accomplished.
Joint military doctrine defines operational art as the cognitive approach by commanders and staffs — supported by their skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgment — to develop strategies, campaigns, and operations to organize and employ military forces by integrating ends, ways, and means.
I want to highlight the part on “skill, knowledge, and experience.”
These three attributes of leaders are essential to the art of leadership. The best ones grow their skill, knowledge, and experience within their organizations by getting out to see their people and do what they do.
Experience equals decision making
Retired United States Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis once said, “I spent 30 years getting ready for that decision that took 30 seconds.”
His experience and preparation allowed him to make quick and effective decisions. This was through reading, writing, studying, and most of all, experiencing.
I’ve found the more I understand the people and functions in the organization, the better I can help them achieve organizational goals while creating lasting bonds across different echelons of leadership.
There’s always more to do
Now, I write this knowing I have a lot more work to do.
While I’ve seen a lot of people and jobs, I haven’t gotten to all of them—nor will I.
But I plan on doing many more this year for three reasons: to understand the functions of the organization, improve decision making, and value people.
| Date Taken: | 09.22.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.22.2023 12:47 |
| Story ID: | 454063 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 34 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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