Achieving High Performance in Uncertain and Complex Environments

As a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, I had the privilege of being part of a high-reliability, high-performing team known as a U.S. Air Force Fighter Squadron. Over my military career, I flew hundreds of combat hours and combat missions where the stakes were literally life and death. The uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments we faced as fighter pilots - what we called "VUCA" (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) - required us to build teams and foster cultures designed for peak performance under pressure.

Through my experience as a Lieutenant Colonel and fighter pilot, as well as my background as a professor in human factors and aviation safety, I've distilled the key principles that enabled our fighter squadrons to achieve elite performance, even amid ever-changing, dynamic conditions. Critically, these same principles can be adopted by any team or organization striving for excellence in the face of uncertainty and rapid change.? This Leadership methodology known as Human Factors Leadership will drive better alignment, decision-making, accountability, communication, and motivation within your teams.? But ultimately it will lay the foundation for improved performance.

Clear Intent

It starts with establishing a clear intent. As a Harvard Business Review study on high-performing teams found, elite teams exhibit an intense focus and alignment around their objectives. Without this "commander's intent" providing clarity on the desired end state, teams risk getting bogged down by competing priorities, and losing sight of what truly matters. While we all have a tendency to pride ourselves on "multitasking," cognitive science has proven that the human mind simply cannot effectively focus on more than one thing at a time. Elite teams and leaders recognize this limitation and narrow their intent to the most narrow and clearly focused message possible, resulting in team members establishing focus on what truly matters.

As fighter pilots, we dealt with countless variables and information to process when executing in a fighter cockpit moving close to or faster than the speed of sound…an environment the human brain was never designed for.? Only through mentorship and intense training which taught us when and where to focus at the right time were we able to succeed.? Otherwise, we would have fell victim to a very high human error producing environment.

Additionally, when flying these missions, we were separated hundreds of miles from any “leadership” authority.? But we were empowered with a high level of autonomy to make decisions…decisions which could have national security level implications.? We could only accomplish this with a CLEAR Commander’s Intent.? NOT HOW to achieve our mission, but rather WHAT the end state looked like.? This was the only way to allow for flexibility and adaptability.

Situational Awareness

But even with a clear intent, complex operating environments inevitably create friction that threatens to throw teams off course. This is where cultivating keen situational awareness becomes critical. Situational awareness involves perceiving the key elements of your environment, making meaning of those inputs, and - vitally - projecting how the situation may change in the near future.

Building this skill requires extensive training and realistic rehearsals, with an emphasis on surfacing the information and assumptions that truly matter to the mission.? In the early days of military aviation, many of our accidents were because we didn’t know HOW to teach situational awareness.? Soon enough we learned it wasn’t enough to just teach “stick and rudder,” but rather to also develop our pilots’ situational awareness.? Our training programs shifted to a “train like you fight” mindset, and more importantly teaching how to build situational awareness and mitigate human error.? What’s important, where to look, and what to ignore.? The first step in decision-making.

When fatigued or under intense stress, situational awareness is one of the first capabilities we lose. Therefore, you want to build your situational awareness before you even go into execution…in the planning phase.? What people do we need on this team, what environment are we working in, what has worked well in the past, and what resources do we need to bring in that we haven’t thought of.? Combat missions took hours, or sometimes days to plan.? A highly collaborative effort analyzing intelligence, weather, terrain, other assets to bring in, friendly ground forces, weapons effects, enemy capabilities, and much more.? The goal of any team should be to walk into your operating environment with the highest possible situational awareness, considering ALL factors which affect your performance and situation.

Mutual Support

After establishing clear intent and building our situational awareness, we have to ensure we stay on target and on task in uncertainty and complexity.? These VUCA environments drive human error.? In high-performing teams like fighter squadrons we mitigated this with mutual support. Mutual Support refers to the ability to anticipate the needs of other team members in order to offer support.? Also, to put their peer’s success and ultimately team’s success above that of your own personal self interests.? It’s ultimately Peer Accountability.? Providing backup, particularly amid uncertainty and change, allows teams to catch and quickly correct errors before they mushroom into a crisis.

Importantly, mutual support must be more than a slogan - it has to be woven into the fabric of the team, with peer-to-peer accountability that guards against any "normalization of deviance." From day one of Air Force Pilot Training, we emphasized a culture of having each other's backs, incentivizing teamwork and collaboration over individual achievements. Our fate was inextricably linked with our formation members.? We NEVER flew a mission, combat or training, as a “single-ship,” but rather always with a wingman (sometimes multiple wingmen) for mutual support.

Additionally, this mutual support did not just happen because we were “ordered” or told to.? This happened because we wanted to.? Mutual support MUST be established with camaraderie and care/concern among teammates.? It taps into that tribal mentality of collective survival.? In an Air Force Fighter Squadron we worked together and socialized together.? We knew each other’s families and what was going on in your life.? When it was time to provide mutual support in a combat, training, or even office setting, we did it not because we had to, but because we WANTED to for our teammates.

Debrief Culture

Yet even with the best intent, sharpest situational awareness, and strongest mutual support, mistakes still happen. Elite teams don't seek to eliminate human error - they seek to learn from it…a “Debrief Culture.” Without this, nothing really matters because nothing will really improve.

In a debrief, the focus is on uncovering the truth of what happened and why, free from blame or retribution, in service of improving future performance. These sessions, held after every mission, are the "secret sauce" for how high-reliability organizations accelerate their learning. By making it psychologically safe to put even the ugliest of mistakes on the table for open discussion, teams tap into their collective insights to understand root causes and implement systemic fixes. A debrief culture represents a trust culture of learning and growing.? At the end of the day, the sole purpose of the debrief is to IMPROVE PERFORMANCE.

Fostering such a learning-focused debrief culture requires building deep trust and a tone of accountability among teammates. As humans, our evolutionary wiring makes us naturally defensive in the face of negative feedback - we perceive criticism as an existential "threat," activating a fight-flight-freeze response. Overcoming these knee-jerk defenses requires establishing a tone of accountability.? This is only established with leaders acknowledging their own shortcomings first.? By owning their own mistakes, you begin to lower that threshold of defensive communication.? Furthermore, your people must see you as a leader take those inputs from the team on areas you could improve on.? By opening up this trust environment of open and honest communication, leaders lay the groundwork for an open and honest debriefing.

When I reflect back on the incredible teams I was privileged to work alongside in the Air Force, these principles stand out as the foundation for our ability to perform under pressure. Though the vast majority of teams will never operate in contexts as extreme as a fighter cockpit in combat, the same fundamentals -? clear intent, situational awareness, mutual support, and a debrief culture - can help any group pursue excellence in the face of volatility and uncertainty.

By studying how elite teams execute in VUCA environments, we can all become more resilient and adaptable, ready to tackle even the most daunting challenges ahead. When our intent is laser-focused, our awareness is attuned to what matters most, our teammates truly have our backs, and our culture prizes learning above all else, we set the stage to soar to new heights, together.

How does your organization train leaders to lead through uncertainty, complexity and change?? Do you have clear, focused intent, or do you hand down too many strategic priorities for your teams to wrap their minds around?? How do you build situational awareness for your teams so they are setup for success in their environment?? Does your team embrace mutual support, or is the mindset more of an individual achievement approach?? And ultimately, is there a tone of accountability and debrief culture, where the focus is to improve and grow rather than blame and train?

I speak and work with organizations on building this Fighter Pilot Mindset with Human Factors Leadership.? My high-energy keynotes and workshops are designed to equip leaders to lead through uncertainty and change, and ultimately build high performing teams.? If you’re looking for a high-energy, inspirational, and impacting speaker for your upcoming event, please reach out!

www.brandonwilliamsspeaker.com | [email protected]

Brandon Williams graduated from the US Air Force Academy, and is an accomplished leadership business speaker, business owner, and adjunct professor in human factors. As a decorated Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force, he led men and women from diverse backgrounds and managed millions of dollars in assets.? As an F-15E Fighter Pilot, Brandon flew hundreds of combat hours and missions over the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan, operating in some of the most challenging and dynamic environments imaginable.

Over the past decade, Brandon has built his speaking and coaching business to become an accomplished keynote leadership speaker.? Having taught at several universities for almost 15 years as an expert in Human Factors, he leverages his in-depth knowledge of human performance analysis to equip leaders for uncertainty and change.