2
Chad Clinehens | Publisher cclinehens@zweiggroup.com Sara Parkman | Senior Editor sparkman@zweiggroup.com Tel: 800-466-6275 Email: info@zweiggroup.com Online: zweiggroup.com/blogs/ news
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/ company/22522 Instagram: instagram.com/ zweiggroup Twitter: twitter.com/ZweigGroup Facebook: facebook.com/p/ Zweig-Group-100064113750086/
Published continuously since 1992 by Zweig Group, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. ISSN 1068-1310. Issued weekly (48 issues/year). Free electronic subscription at zweiggroup.com © Copyright 2024, Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
PO Box 1528 Fayetteville, AR 72702
TOM GODIN, from page 1
4. Commander’s intent 5. Mission orders 6. Disciplined initiative 7. Risk acceptance.
Our firms are businesses – not sports teams, families, or military units. Concepts and frameworks that work in those domains don’t always work in ours. (My attempt at running a triangle offense in an engineering firm did not go well.) But mission command principles apply well to AEC firms. Let’s take a look: ■ Competence and trust. Both are bedrock characteristics of healthy, effective teams. C-suites, studios, project teams, any team. There is abundant literature about trust in the business context. The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni is a personal favorite. Lencioni writes about the presence and importance of vulnerability-based trust, not behavior- based trust, inside leadership teams. Vulnerability-based trust is when team members feel safe enough to be open about their weaknesses, mistakes, fears, and behaviors. It’s about being comfortable showing vulnerability without fear of judgment, ridicule, or negative repercussions. Vulnerability-based trust is a necessary condition for robust, healthy communication; the type of communication that supports new ideas and innovation, problem solving, and conflict resolution. ■ Shared understanding, commander’s intent, and mission orders. Leaders and their teams need to have a common, fact-based understanding of what is happening inside and outside. They need to understand their firm’s mission, vision, values, and strategy. They need to have access to the same information and a common lens through which the information is processed. In a business context, “commander’s intent” translates to providing clear, concise, and actionable objectives and expectations to the people or groups who need those things. Mission orders are clear but provide flexibility. “You know our intention and our expectations. Now go do that inside this box bounded by company policy, strategy (and your team’s role in it), and budget. How you play inside the box is up to you.”
■ Initiative and risk. In business, taking calculated risks is essential for growth and innovation. Leaders must encourage and support prudent risk-taking. They must provide frameworks that their teams can use to evaluate risk and reward. They must tolerate the mistakes and poor outcomes that occur – infrequently, one hopes – from even good process. And they need to put in place mechanisms to learn (and adapt) from both successes and failures. Evaluating your readiness to empower your teams begins with asking and answering these four questions. If you answer “no,” then you need to stop and work to get to “yes.” 1. Is my leadership team working productively together on a solid foundation of vulnerability-based trust? 2. Do we have good information and is it widely shared? 3. Have we made our intentions, our objectives, and our expectations clear? 4. Have we torpedoed any chance of success by refusing to accept the risk that comes with our teams operating with disciplined initiative? I hid in this article three clues to the branch of the Navy I served in. Email me when you’ve got the answer. And please get in touch with me if you want to talk about how the art of command and the science of control are in play in your own firm, about your readiness to give mission orders, or if you have a sea story to share. Tom Godin is a consultant at Zweig Group and director of the firm’s strategy group. He can be contacted at tgodin@ zweiggroup.com or 703.213.9689.
THE PRINCIPALS ACADEMY Zweig Group’s flagship training program encompasses all aspects of managing a professional AEC service firm. Elevate your ability to lead and grow your firm with this program designed to inspire and inform existing and emerging AEC firm leaders in key areas of firm management. Join us June 27-28 in Kansas City, Missouri. Click here to learn more!
© Copyright 2024. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 27, 2024, ISSUE 1539
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker