AVOIDING THE ‘’SNAFU’ EFFECT in the OFFICE -Daniel Theyagu [28 May 2021]

SNAFU actually refers to an acronym coined by US Military personnel to describe sometimes the adverse situation they are in. It is a kind of a comic interjection that means: Situation Normal, All Fouled Up.”

There were many disastrous military missions undertaken during the Second World War. The commanders at the top wanted to be regularly apprised of the situation on the ground. Rather than reporting the real situation to the higher management, the commanders on the ground used the expression SNAFU in a sense of frustration and as a jest. The reason for this was that the commanders on the ground and in the heat of the battle knew what they were up against with limited resources, firepower, and manpower. Under these circumstances, to explain the real situation to the higher management were just beyond words and thus: SNAFU.

A parable can be drawn between the effect of SNAFU and the modern organization. Too many times the lower management do not keep the higher management apprised as to what the real situation is. This is sometimes exacerbated by the higher management turning a deaf ear or blind eye to the unpleasant issues that is broiling down below.

A typical scenario: Peter is the supervisor of a large MNC. He reports to John his regional manager on the day to day administrative affairs. Recently the company has engaged itself in a large project that requires everyone’s undivided labour. Peter realizes that there is many equipment that are outdated and need to be replaced if the project is to succeed. He mentions this to John on several occasion and most of the time John brushes this off stating a variety of reasons and appealing to Peter to just manage the situation as best as he can. The head office is wondering why they are unable to hit their operation target and ask John to submit a situation report. John replies that everything is under control and things are basically SNAFU.

As a leader in your organization, you need to be wary of the SNAFU effect. This can occur when you do not have your ears and eyes on the ground and assume that everything is fine. Things might look fine, at least for the moment, but you have to ensure that you nurture the organization and remain vigilant to any signals that you may get that shows signs that the situation although looking normal it is really fouling up.

Here are some guidelines not to get SNAFU-ed:

Get in sync with your people

Just like you sometimes sync your smart phone with your PC so that you have all the relevant and important data backed up and updated, you need to be in sync with the people that you lead. This will entail that you have constant communication with your staff either through formal meetings or impromptu get together to allow your sub-ordinates to keep you in the loop on what is happening in the organization.

It does not matter how busy or how high up the corporate ladder you are. Your people are your greatest resource and excellent feedback mechanism. If you do not sync with them, they might not tell you what is really going on and this is when you might get yourself SNAFU-ed.

Keep on questioning your actions and decisions

As a leader you have to make decisions and take actions. Some of these actions may be unsavory and sometimes you wish that you have not had to go to that level. But this is the leadership challenge. Tough situation requires tough actions. If you do not make them then you are going to get SNAFU-ed again. 

However, the decision you make and the actions you take is something you need to review over and over again to ensure that you are absolutely clear as to why you are doing this. Once done you have to live with the consequences. But if you are crystal clear about what is happening within your organization and you have established an effective channel of communication between you and your followers you do not have to worry about the situation fouling up on you.

Learn to take the bull by the horn

When you face an unforeseen challenge the true mark of your leadership ability is to go head long and tackle the problem. In another words catching the bull by the horn. This might not be the easiest thing to do, and you might not even have the resources nor the strength to do this. But unless the situation or challenge goes away on its own you have to stay your ground - no matter what happens. You have to become extremely resourceful and creative to get the situation resolved. The only way you can achieve this is to have clear and un-bias factual information of the situation that you are facing. Only then will you be able to ascertain the magnitude of the crisis and implement the appropriate action plan. Otherwise, the situation will foul up.

Organizations facing the SNAFU effect are usually the ones with a weak culture of trust and ineffective communication. As a leader you can turn such a weak culture into a strong one by being empathetic to the real issues faced by your subordinates and addressing these issues in a measured and consistent way. This will bring about a genuine trust in your leadership style which will have a positive impact in your organization.

Article by Daniel Theyagu [updated 28 May 2021]