Inspired Leadership

Chapter 10In Command, Out of Control

The most powerful words in the business aren't necessarily spoken, they are understood.

The previous chapters have emphasized the importance of planning, and of following a process when you connect your vision of change to the business. But decisions constantly have to be made along the way, and unexpected problems constantly show up.

In this chapter, we will look at why it is vital that you trust your team to move fast and make decisions for themselves. They may make mistakes if they cannot be avoided, but we will look at how to learn fast from them and fix them. To do this, you need to create a culture in which everyone has trust and everyone understands their role.

The plan, and the way you manage the plan, is our guide to making the impossible possible. The daily detail of how we get there relies on the ability of everyone, not just you, to manage themselves.

Out of Control is Natural (and Good)

The title comes from the military: “command and control” is what we imagine military leadership does. In 2002, General Paul van Riper of the US Marines memorably undermined this idea in a US military wargame using sophisticated computer simulations, called “Millennium Challenge ‘02”, which accidentally became a national news story when the US Army managed to defeat itself. Van Riper had been picked to command Red Team in the exercise (the enemy). ...