The Apprentice 18.1: Communication-impoverished Environment

'Well done, gentlemen/ladies' said Lord Sugar.

No. It wasn't well done. Really, it was poorly done. Just not as badly done as the other team.

But what can we learn from the performance of both teams in the first episode of The Apprentice, season 18?

Anchors

Through the episode, I had thought I was going to be writing about negotiation. Especially skills around anchoring: setting anchors and resisting those that your counterparty sets.

But once the show was over, I realized that this was not the most important lesson from the show. And it's not the main reason for the outcome. There is something fundamental to address.

And we need to understand that the show creates a special environment. In the modern business world, it is highly unrealistic.

'Time for a check-in' says the Off-screen Narrator

In the real business world, dispersed team members can speak by phone whenever they need to. It seems that, on the show, they are only allowed to call one another once they have done a deal. They cannot know the conditions the other sub-team are facing, and adjust their strategy accordingly.

This Creates a 'Communication-impoverished Environment'

And it is a real thing, when communications are down, or when you don't have time to communicate. Or even when, perhaps in the context of uniformed services, there is no safe place from which to pause and share information.

In preparing for a communication-impoverished environment, you must plan carefully. And you must ensure everyone understands, and commits to, the plan.

However, you also Need to Understand that Events can Overtake your Planning

So, your plan must include scenarios and contingencies. And, above all, your team needs to know it can adapt to evolving events and changing outcomes.

This Means Adopting Lord Nelson's Idea of 'Commander's Intent'.

Now is not the time to get into the question of how, in this show, that should emerge. I note that one team leader adopted an authoritarian approach while the other took a more democratic line. Both can work.

But, as the team forms its plan, the leader needs to spell out their over-arching goal. This is what they want to achieve. It sets parameters within which team members on the ground can adapt the details of their plans. This needs a whole deeper level of understanding - for every team member. They need to explore scenarios and ask, 'What if?'

A Plan with Fixed Points

But, when the plan has fixed points, it will fail if some members ignore that reality. I'm not saying we can always hit our deadlines. But, taking a detour from the plan, without giving a thought to your milestones is just reckless. Especially when you don't or can't communicate the change to the other half of your team.

In The Apprentice, that costs reputations. In the real world, lives can be at stake.

Sophia's view

In this series of articles, I have asked my daughter - who is taking GCSE Business Studies - to comment on each episode. We deliberately do not coordinate our thinking. (Like some of the candidates!) So, sometimes we'll discuss the same ideas - and sometimes we will spot something different. Here is what Sophia says:

Watching the show the first initial team meeting can be seen as a formality to choose a project manager and decide the basics of the plan. However, this time needs to be better spent. I can only imagine what it would be actually like to be there, so my judgment is not with any specific people. But, when they decide who is going into each sub-team, it seems to me that the most important use of the time is making sure they are on the same page and stick to the same plan.

I like the phrase that gets repeated during this episode 'underpromise, overdeliver'. For profit-making tasks that are at risk of getting a refund, it is worth a smaller profit margin if your team ends up receiving all the profit you’ve made.

Goodbye

As usual, we said goodbye to one or more candidates. We saw so little of them.

To all the candidates, I wish you well; in the process and out:

Amina Khan, Dr Asif Munaf, Florence Edwards, Foluso Falade, Jack Davies, Maura Rath, Noor Bouziane, Oliver Medforth, Onyeka Nweze ACG, Paul Bowen, Dr. Paul Midha, Phil Turner, Rachel Woolford, Raj Chohan, Samantha Saadet, Steve Darken, Tre Lowe, Virdavinder Singh G.