Absence of a Clear Vision And How Do The Military Overcome This?
Successful CEOs lead the organisation to where it needs to be and find ways to get buy-in at all levels.
This is hard. After all, if it were easy all organisations would do it well.
If you were to ask an employee what your shared vision is, how confident are you of the answer?
Done right, clear vision can substitute for the field manual, empowering everyone to make crisp decisions in the company’s interest.
An equivalent of this is ‘Commander’s Intent”.
This is a practice used in the military to achieve swift progress where the need for overly detailed instructions is over-ridden by a clear intent which initiates a force’s purposeful activity.
It represents what the commander wants to achieve and why and binds the team together.
The principal result of decision-making, it’s normally expressed using effects, objectives and desired outcomes.
The best intents are clear to subordinates with minimal amplifying detail.
An example would be when attempting to take an outpost.
Rather than minutely detailing the actions as the enemy advances or withdraws, the force knows the intent and is skilled, empowered and motivated to act swiftly and effectively, ensuring the safe capture of the outpost.