Faster Strategic Decisions
By Jack Mixner
Blink Gladwell tells the story of Paul Van Riper, a Marine who served in Vietnam, headed the Marine Corps University at Quantico and, after he retired, served as the rogue commander in one of the most expensive war games ever staged by the Pentagon. In his successful Vietnam stints, Van Riper led from the front, continually trained the team, relied upon decision making in the ranks and analyzed “unavailable” information before the battle. The team practiced enough that during the battle it reacted almost instantaneously without having to pause to analyze.In the war game, Van Riper embarrassed Pentagon brass by winning the initial rounds without relying upon state-of-the-art communications tools or modern tactics. He reinvented technologies not used since WW II and won with a huge pre-emptive strike after the opposing team, feeling themselves invincible, demanded his surrender (Blink, page 109). The analysis was done before the battle; reactions during the battle came extremely fast, allowing his team respond without the pause to reflect normally suggested when teams are about to make large, crucial decisions.
The Strategic ImplicationsIn order to respond quickly in competitive situations, complete considered analysis and training well before the battle.
Strategic planning is not a waste of time. Training allows your team to respond expeditiously during the heat of “battle” without your micromanagement. When your team responds, seemingly without thought, they are responding with trained senses that are more likely to make the right decisions without sitting down to rehash the situation.Reference
Blink The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown and Company. 2005.