Complex world, ever-changing challenges,
Is your team ready?
Keywords deep well organization structure, closed information system,
Leaders who only give orders, confused members,
Does your team suffer from it?
How to break a deep well? How to empower?
The experience of American special forces,
Tell you the secret of building a super team.
Brief introduction of the author
Stanley McChrystal [America]
A four-star general of the U.S. Army, commander of the U.S. Army and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and former director of the Joint Staff and commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. Under his leadership, the Joint Special Operations Command rose rapidly and became an organization that can carry out small-scale operations outside the battlefield in many countries around the world.
Jinghua Du Jie
The following content is an interpretation of the essence of empowerment for book lovers' reference. Welcome to share, and it may not be used for commercial purposes without permission.
catalogue
First, deal with uncertainty.
Second, break through the deep well and simplify the complex.
Third, information * * *
Fourth, empowerment
Upper guide bearing
First, deal with uncertainty.
As we learned in Anti-Fragility, the fragility of the world is increasing day by day, and more and more uncertainties are happening. How to deal with such unknown challenges and risks in a world full of variables?
1. Reality: "Advantage" becomes uncertain.
When it comes to uncertainty, nothing is more representative than the battlefield. The situation on the battlefield changed suddenly and dangers broke out one after another. The so-called powerful American army also suffered a lot in such an environment.
In Iraq, the US military quickly defeated the dictator Saddam Hussein, with obvious advantages. However, in the face of chaos and terrorists in the post-Saddam era, the US military has fallen into an unexpected passive situation.
It turned out that the superiority of the US military was disintegrated. They were able to defeat Saddam Hussein's army because the other side, like them, is a war machine under the modern system, and the American war machine is more sophisticated and naturally can win. On the other hand, terrorists are completely different. They don't have a strict organization, program and mode of action, and they are often elusive and at a loss.
The challenge brought by this uncertainty makes commanders have to reflect on their own systems.
2. Analysis: the relationship between team and organization
What is our system like? What's the difference between the American military system and the terrorist system?
The most obvious and serious difference lies in the difference between team and organization. The us military has a strict hierarchical organization, with commanders, administrative personnel and logistical supplies. When it acts, it is coordinated at all levels and gives orders at all levels. After the action, I will sum up my reflection and make a decision.
The organization of terrorists is completely different. Their organization is loose and concise, without strict structure and procedures, and they maintain a high degree of flexibility. They don't even need a commander, and a small group of terrorists can launch a serious terrorist attack, which makes people unprepared.
This difference does not only exist in the relationship between the army and terrorists. Our enterprises, organizations, and even communities and societies are close to the organizational model of the US military, but they have to face the challenges of new organizations like terrorists. It is for this reason that large enterprises are often vulnerable to humble entrepreneurs.
3. Tracing back to the source: the evil consequences of reductionism
Why do the military, as well as more enterprises and social organizations, believe in such a strict organizational structure, even though it may bring danger? Rooted in "reductionism"
Reductionism originated from Newton, a great scientist, and matured in Taylor, a modern management scientist. He founded the theoretical system of "scientific management" and a strict management system, and improved the efficiency through continuous optimization and improvement of the system.
This scientific management under the guidance of reductionism is very popular in modern times, and gradually goes deep into the social texture and becomes the code of modern society. Observing our company and social organization structure, we will find that they are exactly the same as Taylor's proposition, and naturally establish a neat and clean hierarchical system, and then the managers will give orders in a unified way.
However, the reality is alarming, and the era of reductionism has passed. Just like maginot line, "scientific management" is not enough to deal with the threat of a new generation, and the efficiency it can achieve cannot meet the new practical needs.
4. The ultimate expression of reductionism: KPI and 3F-E-A.
KPI widely used in modern enterprises is the extreme product of reductionism. The principle of KPI is to assign the tasks of the company to individuals, and specific positions will complete specific tasks at specific times, thus achieving the performance goals of the whole company.
In the American army, the final expression of reductionism method is a standard process called "3F-E-A".
3F stands for search, repair and completion, e stands for utilization, and a stands for analysis. This is similar to the famous OODA process: observation-positioning-decision-evaluation, which is applied to the operation process of fighter pilots.
5. Butterfly effect: from complex to intricate
Why can't reductionism cope with the present? Because the situation we are facing has changed from "complex" to "complicated".
complicated
A complex thing may have many parts, but these parts are connected with each other in a relatively simple way: when one gear rotates, other gears also rotate. Even a complex device like an internal combustion engine can be decomposed into many small parts with internal relations. Once a part of the device is activated or changed, we can definitely guess what will happen next.
perplexing
It is complicated and contains many parts, but the relationship between the parts is stronger and more, and the interaction density is higher and more active. If the complex system is characterized by "linear operation", then the complex system is characterized by "nonlinear operation".
Nonlinear operation is an important cause of uncertainty, which makes the development result of things difficult to predict and often leads to "butterfly effect". Meteorologist edward lorenz first discovered this phenomenon.
The butterfly effect is often misunderstood by the public, which is equivalent to the "lever principle", but the actual meaning of the butterfly effect is that in a complex system, the change of any part may or may not have any impact, and the final outcome is unknown.
Second, break through the deep well and simplify the complex.
1. Building a super team: mutual trust and clear goals.
To cope with the uncertainty of the world, we need to build a resilient super team, which should meet such conditions: mutual trust and clear goals.
situation
1978, United Airlines 173 encountered a problem before landing: one landing gear indicator light did not light up. Because the crew did not have a detailed emergency plan, they chose a conservative strategy and circled over the airport again and again until the fuel ran out and crashed.
In sharp contrast, the "Captain Sally Jia" incident in 2009. Using a clear list, Captain Sally's team adopted a timely response strategy, completed the U-turn landing task within 4 minutes, and successfully landed on the Hudson River, leaving all passengers unharmed.
analyse
The biggest difference between the two units lies in the coordination mechanism within the team. 173 crew members held their own opinions and said their own words, which could not be unified, while Captain Sally's team had a clear process, a clear division of labor and rapid decision-making. Facts have proved that "mutual trust and mutual assistance" and "clear goals" in the team are extremely critical.
The myth of 2.2. MECE
The full name of MECE is mutual exclusion and collective exhaustion, which means "mutual independence and complete exhaustion". This is a common way of thinking in consulting industry. It may be effective in dealing with organizational categories, but it is not a good way for organizational teams.
The traditional military command structure and company operation structure, including the structure of United Airlines 173 troops, are MECE-style-leaders assign tasks from top to bottom, and everyone stays in their posts, completes their work, and does not cooperate or even know each other.
As a result, the combat team does not understand the internal intelligence of the intelligence department, and the sales department does not understand the conceptual design of the product department. The whole team became fragmented, unable to form cohesion and combat effectiveness, and formed a "deep well".
3. SEALs: No heroes, no swimming partners.
How to build a small team and break through the dilemma of MECE? Navy SEALs have their own unique solutions.
Contrary to popular belief, SEALs don't train "super soldiers" and don't welcome soldiers who want to be "superheroes". Here, team spirit is more important, and team success is higher than individual performance. This is the goal of team building.
At the same time, SEALs stipulate that each member should have his own close partner, and the members should live together, train together, fight together and swim together, so they are called "swimming partners". The purpose of doing this is not only to cultivate team spirit, but also to create an atmosphere of mutual trust.
With the help of these two aspects, SEALs can have excellent combat effectiveness, and they have also become a model for building flexible small teams and breaking through deep wells at the bottom.
4. Break through the deep well: build a flexible team
There is only one SEAL, and the scale is very small, so it is easy to achieve deep well breakthrough. How to expand such a small team and build a large team composed of flexible small teams is a problem that more organizations need to solve.
The traditional "deep well" organizational structure is shown in the figure. Small teams are independent and unrelated, only listen to the words of the top leaders and pass on information and instructions at different levels.
If you want to break through the deep well, you must improve the flexibility of the team. So we can often see an improved team structure: flexible deep well. In this system, the lower level is a team structure, but the upper level still maintains the command and control structure.
The ultimate goal is to build a highly flexible team. In this system, there is no deep well, but a flexible small team to build a flexible big team. Everyone in the organization doesn't need to know other people, just contact someone in other teams.
This is also the ultimate form of the US military on the battlefield, which can be used to compete with terrorists.
Third, information * * *
1. The importance of information exchange
It is not easy to break through a deep well. In addition to enhancing the flexibility of organizational structure, we should also fully enjoy information. Information communication and coordination between departments and groups is a necessary condition to realize the overall flexibility of the organization.
situation
In the September 20065438 10 incident, a terrorist named Midhar hijacked a plane and crashed into the Pentagon. He entered the suspect list of the FBI a year ago. However, when the FBI investigated him, it was uncooperative by the CIA.
The CIA knew that Mikhail was connected with some terrorists, but because of the gap between departments, it did not inform the FBI in time, which eventually led to bad consequences.
analyse
Due to the lack of information awareness, there are a large number of "information gaps" in the overall anti-terrorism system of the United States, and these gaps are precisely what terrorists can take advantage of. This information gap exists in almost all deep well organizations and becomes the root of ineffective organizational structure. The importance of information communication and sharing is self-evident.
2. Cultivate * * * consciousness
Break down physical barriers
Just like the popular "open office" in Silicon Valley and the "Pentagon" in the U.S. Department of Defense, a good * * * sharing team should strive to break down the physical barriers between teams and individuals, so that team members can communicate more smoothly and realize * * * sharing.
Create team culture
Corresponding to physical openness, we must create an organizational culture of communication and enjoyment. The enjoyment of information is incompatible with traditional bureaucracy and seniority, so team members must be relaxed, equal and harmonious, and the vitality and creativity of the team must be stimulated.
It should also be noted that enjoying information does not mean that everyone should become a "generalist" or disrupt the division of labor of the team. In a non-deep well team, everyone still maintains their professionalism, but it will be easier to play their expertise.
3. Embedding: Liaison Officer Scheme
In the practice of the US military, there is a set of concrete and effective methods: embedded plan and liaison officer plan.
This operation is similar to our traditional "secondment" mode, that is, employees from different departments and regions are transferred to other departments or regions to join the team as outsiders. This can not only stimulate the vitality of the original team, but also facilitate communication between different teams and break down barriers.
On the battlefield, a navy seal officer was seconded to the embassy as a liaison officer. The attitude of embassy staff towards him changed from disdain to trust, which contributed to the in-depth understanding and cooperation between the military and government departments.
Step 4 break the prisoner's dilemma
Prisoner's dilemma is a classic sample of human behavior, which also causes various dilemmas in practice. Using information sharing and global thinking, we can overcome the prisoner's dilemma between different branches and members of the organization.
In the prisoner's dilemma hypothesis, the reason why the decision-makers can't reach the optimal solution is because everyone thinks and makes decisions separately, starting from their own interests, pursuing the maximization of their own interests and trying to avoid disadvantages.
For this reason, making good use of the sharing and mutual trust within the organization can make team members think about how to maximize the interests of the team, not their own interests. In this way, everyone has the same goal and strives for a place, and naturally there will be no dilemma faced by prisoners.
Fourth, empowerment
1. authorization: the key to deal with uncertainty
The meaning of empowerment is to empower others. From the leader's point of view, it is to trust team members, constantly exercise their abilities, improve the organizational structure, and avoid giving orders in deep wells.
This is not only the choice to build a new team and enhance competitiveness, but also the inevitable result brought by realistic challenges. With the increasingly complex organizational environment and competitive environment, the visibility and control of organizational leadership are undergoing greater tests.
Take the battlefield in Iraq for example. Commanders often wake up in their sleep to decide whether to attack the target. With little knowledge of the scene, it is obviously unrealistic for a commander to make decisions related to human life in his sleep. Empowerment is inevitable.
2. Authorization = Let the right person do the right thing.
How to empower? In short, it is to let the right people do the right thing. In other words, let the right people do the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
Team members vary widely, often with distinctive features, and each member has his own advantages and disadvantages. Letting members do what they are good at and satisfied with will get twice the result with half the effort and improve the efficiency of the whole team.
But this kind of empowerment is not to meet the self-demands of members endlessly, but to find a balance between individuals and teams. "Decentralization" is not an end, but a means. Leadership is still very important in a team, but the decision of the leader and the implementation of the members need to run in and find a suitable balance point.
3.*** Enjoying consciousness is the foundation of empowerment.
Empowerment is by no means a simple "deregulation". The result of asking team members to do it is often a mess, and finally the leader has to clean up the mess.
In a good authorization model, leaders, like team members, have a strong sense of enjoyment. The enjoyment of information is the foundation of empowerment. Only in this way can the team be energetic and not chaotic.
Do a good job of information sharing, so that everyone in the team can become a leader.
In the Battle of Trafalgar between Britain and France, Nelson, the leader of the British army, was shot and killed, but his fleet did not panic and remained calm, and finally won. The reason is that Nelson is really authorized.
French vice admiral Villenave commented: "For any other country, the loss of a senior general like Nelson is an irreparable loss, but in the Cadiz fleet in Britain, every captain is Nelson."
4. Lead like a gardener
The meaning of empowerment is not "leadership is useless", but the role of leadership is still great. It's hard to imagine a team without leadership. So, what should a good leader look like?
Leaders should not be like heroes, but rather like gardeners. Heroes take the lead and have the determination to surpass ordinary people, but in modern society, there are fewer and fewer heroes and teams are becoming more and more important. One man is hard to defeat ten thousand people.
Unlike heroes, gardener-style leaders are responsible for creating organizational environment and maintaining organizational atmosphere, which are the two major tasks and primary responsibilities of modern leaders.
To be a gardener-style leader, team members can give full play to their own light and heat and accomplish the team goals set by the leader. The future world needs a leader like a gardener and needs such a leader to empower.
conclusion
Reflecting on our organizational structure, we will find that "deep wells" are everywhere. However, breaking the deep well is not achieved overnight.
The change of organizational structure is the foundation, and the establishment of * * * enjoyment culture is the guarantee. Leaders change their thinking and team members give full play to their specialties. Only through such systematic transformation can we build a super team and be invincible in the uncertainty of the world.