It’s Time to Resign Command and Control Management to The History Books
This is not another post on agile, it's a call to arms to fundamentally change organisations systems like the NHS, Civil Service, and multinationals.
If your organisation uses hierarchal (detailed) command and control, you are living in the past. The military saw the flaws in this model as far back as the Napoleonic Wars. Modern forces use mission command principles, although the capability is still called command and control, which can be confusing.??
In the UK, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which trains British Army offices, the motto is 'Serve to Lead', and they explicitly spell out the principles of servant leadership. The British Army leadership doctrine is based on:-
"Mission Command focuses on achievement of intent. It promotes decentralised command , freedom of action, initiative and speed. It relies on trust, mutual understanding and initiative at all levels, all nurtured by good leadership and balanced by sound management."
The practical upshot of the above is a force with great flexibility and constantly punches above its weight. Lower-ranking officers and NCO have considerable freedom to decide how to achieve the mission. Importantly the mission command doctrine is supported by leader training at all levels, not just the senior leaders.???
When working with the US Marine Corps, I saw first-hand their servant leadership principles
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"Mission command and control accepts the turbulence and uncertainty of war. Rather than increase the level of certainty that we seek, by mission command and control we reduce the?degree of certainty that we need"?MC MCDP 6 - Manual Command and Control
I cannot overstate how important the above statement is; it is the King Canute principle. No leader can bend or force a complex system to their will like Canute could not stop the sea. Learning how to navigate VUCA and mobilise the system
OK, I will leave it there. We could go into the Theory of X, Y and Z but it's Friday night. Enjoy.