I have never been a fan of comparing combat to corporate. That is the attitude I brought to the keynote speaker at a recent banking conference I attended.
An elite army unit inserted into Northern Afghanistan to work with a warlord to flush out Al-Qaeda militias? Yeah, just like that rough and tumble world of hammering out a strategy over lattes and planning its execution over conference calls. Does anyone die if a deadline is missed?
This is why I resist comparing whatever it is that I do to war.
Then Mark described how their best-laid plans went to hell due to changing situations on the ground, and then I started connecting the dots. In a speech to military planners in 1957, Dwight Eisenhower famously said "Plans are worthless. Planning is everything." As soon as things go wrong, your plan must change. Much of it at least.
This brought me back to another military figure, James Murphy, former Air Force fighter pilot, Bosnian War veteran, and author of Flawless Execution. In that book, Murphy described strategy development and execution using the Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief method used by fighter pilots to plan missions.
This method emphasizes the debrief mentality when mission participants gather after execution phases (in a fighter pilots parlance, after the mission was completed) to identify what worked, what didn't, new information, changing situations, and course corrections. Murphy's firm, Afterburner Inc., would later adopt the more expansive model below.
Future Picture is a vivid description of what success would look like if the plan was executed flawlessly. In Flawless Execution, Murph used the example of "Taking out 75% of the enemy's surface-to-air missile (SAM) capability" as a Future Picture. This might be considered a Vision in corporate terms. I tend to call it the Aspiration because Vision has gotten a bad rap. Mostly as a result of bad visions that communicate nothing to those responsible for executing the strategy on what success would look like. Murphy's example is pretty clear.
Mark from the Horse Soldiers used Commander's Intent in his speech, which is much like what Murph has as Leader's Intent in the above model. Commander’s intent is a clear and concise expression of the purpose of a military operation and the desired end state, guiding subordinate leaders in decision-making and execution. Recognizing that the original Plan would be altered as situations changed and the execution is modified.
I recently told a bank CEO, about to embark on their strategic planning process, that it is disheartening when we as consultants review the in-force plan that has not been changed since it was adopted years ago. If the plan was used as intended, there would be post-it notes and changes all over it. Ok, maybe not post-it notes and dog ears, but the document would be marked up to the point of near non-recognition than when it was adopted.
Except for the Commander's Intent, or the Future Picture, the Aspiration, or the Vision. That would not change, or it would change minimally.
So how does your financial institution create the culture to "Win" as Murph's model demonstrates? Here are 3 ideas:
1. Have a clear Commander's Intent/Future Picture/Aspiration/Vision. Whatever you call it, make it clear where your financial institution is going from the Board room to the teller line. "Be number one or number two in every market we serve" is pretty clear. Don't let the ups and downs of the current situation cause you to lose sight of your brass ring.
2. Build an execution culture. Depending on what study you read, strategies fail somewhere between 70%-90% due to poor execution. Identify those hopefully few metrics that define success in strategy execution. Assign the tasks that need to get done in order to lay the bricks that get to your strategic objectives and vision. Name names. If Marsico is Project Leader on the "implement integrated cash management" suite by December 31st, I don't want to show up to the Management strategy update (debrief) meeting with nothing to report. Imagine if I were tasked with taking out a SAM site in the Flawless Execution example above, and I said "I didn't have time because of my day job" in the mission debrief.
3. Use the debrief method to modify the plan. I tell management teams that they should meet regularly about strategy execution and to make plan modifications. If the modifications are immaterial, a term pre-agreed upon between the Board and Management team, then make the changes and inform the Board by including the immaterial plan modification in the next Board meeting package. If it's material, then propose it to the Board and make the changes after Board approval and/or modification to the proposal. Financial institutions already do this with policies. At least quarterly, brief the Board on plan execution. You may find their perspectives extremely useful in getting to "Win." They are from varied backgrounds and professions, want the institution to "Win", and you pay them anyway. What great consiglieres!
None of these things will lead to death if done poorly or not done at all. So I still resist comparing combat to corporate. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from the military on how they plan and execute when the stakes are so high.
For us, the stakes are not so high. But death to our institution is a real possibility.
~ Jeff
P.S. Mark and a few of his comrades started Horse Soldiers distillery and I intend to partake in some soldier-strong bourbon!
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