Next Level Blog
Simple, practical, applicable
Not as Easy as Advertised March 23 2011
A few weeks ago, New York Times Columnist Nick Kristof was arguing for the imposition of a no fly zone over Libya and cited a quote from retired Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak to make his case.
"I can't imagine an easier military problem," McPeak told Kristof.
As we know now, it's not as easy as advertised. The military aspect of the exercise appears to be going well. But, as widely reported, there are big problems with defining objectives, determining who's in charge of the joint operation, what the end game is and lots more.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on The Questions Leaders Need to Ask About No Fly Zones. After a few days of the no fly zone operation, it seems a lot of those questions still need to be answered. You can read the full treatment in the original post but here are the basic questions:
- What’s the goal?
- What’s in scope and out of scope?
- What are the required steps?
- What are the true costs?
- What are the pros and cons?
- What are the possible side effects?
Sometimes I coach executive leaders who are known for underselling the complexity of what they're asking their team to do. Their team members know when they hear, "This will be easy. It shouldn't take you anytime at all," that they should be getting themselves ready for something really hard.
One of the jobs of a leader is to help the team define the nature of the work that needs to be done. Often it's not as easy as it might look at first. If you're the leader, you can raise the chances of longer term success by raising the questions that clarify the goals, the roles and responsibilities, the plans and processes for the work and the norms that define how everyone will work together.
What questions do you think need to be asked at the beginning of a complex endeavor?
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 
G'Day Scott, For years I've been rattling on about what I believeare the two most important questions to ask when working with people At the "beginning of an endeavour" complex our otherwise.
1. What are we trying to achieve?
2. How will we know for sure that we've got there?
I'm not suggesting that coming up with the answers is easy or that defining the process will be simple.
But you did ask.
Best Wishes
Leon
Good post, Scott.
In his book, "Beating the Street" legendary investor, Peter Lynch argued that, unless you can explain with a crayon what a business does, you shouldn't invest in it. Though it's a little bit late, the President needs to break out the crayons. Until and unless he can explain with such a blunt instrument what the mission is, we have no business putting troops in harm's way in Libya, or anywhere else.
To your point, the same can be said for our corporate missions.
Bill Catlette,
co-author, Rebooting Leadership
Hey Bill and Leon –
Thanks for the comments. Tough situation for sure but it does beg a lot of questions, doesn't it?
Best –
Scott