The Program

34Controlled and Uncontrolled Environments

IN ORDER TO take care of our teammates we must ensure that they can succeed in the confusion and chaos of competition. As stated in the previous chapter, taking care of your teammates does not necessarily mean making sure they are comfortable and always having fun. In the Marine Corps it meant demanding our teammates did everything necessary to ensure that they would arrive home alive to their loved ones after accomplishing our mission. It means making sure your teammates are truly prepared for their competition so that they can accomplish the mission and reap the rewards for doing so.

There are two clearly delineated types of environments: controlled and uncontrolled. A controlled environment is one where we control the variables: we choose the location, duration, and intensity level of any training. An example would be practice, or the weight room, for most athletic teams. For corporate America, examples include a simulated cold-call training session with sales staff, or simply a “normal” business day.

In an uncontrolled environment, there is an enemy out there trying to kill us, figuratively (athletic or corporate) or literally (military combat operations; police, fire, and other emergency first responders). For corporate America, we can think of an uncontrolled environment as any “normal” day that becomes abnormal: our biggest client unexpectedly leaves us, our firm lays off 10% of its workforce, or we are rushing to meet a tight ...