Extremely well trained. Reliably successful in highly dangerous environments. Superior situational awareness. Disciplined mental toughness. Sharpened self-control. Tech savvy. Self-starting. Elevated initiative. Take command mindset. Excellence under pressure. Hyper attention to detail. Innovative. Masters of situational and resource improvisation. Process dedicated. Respect for rules. Unassuming. Nerves of steel. Inspiring leaders. Protectors of life.
Bomb squad teams and their Commanders; Superheroes in anyone’s book, except for the playbooks of enemies.
I wanted to learn from these real-life, champions. So, I did. Who better than bomb squad experts and their commanders to learn from, about how to assess hazardous business threats, disarm dangerous business risks, and how to power up winning performance?
If You See Me Running….Follow Me!
A bomb squad commander I’ve worked in the past, knowing my fascination with his team’s work invited me to an on-site demolition training. The event’s topic; blow stuff up. Measure and evaluate technique. Assess explosive charge capability. Review standard operating procedures. Analyze detonation impact. Blow more stuff up. What more, could any grown up kid at heart, ask for?
Class participants on event day were members of the three exclusive special forces teams. First squad was the Hazards Device Team from the County Sheriff’s Department. Second, a group of US Marine Explosive Device Specialists. The third squadron force was an elite group of the US Navy’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Technicians.
EOD Officers, for those unfamiliar with their command, operate on land and underwater to render safe all types of ordnances, including chemical, biological, and thermo-nuclear devises. This unit is the undisputed and preeminent subject matter expert leaders in tactical and technical explosive devices.
Clearly, I was among rarified talent. I don’t know what the pooled DNA patterns look like of this group but, it definitely doesn’t look like and act like what the rest of us look and act like. I was in a high voltage, electrical force field.
My purpose for this article is two-fold. First, apply the best of their know-how to yours, to better deal with dangerous threats to business growth. Second, encourage you to better handle explosive work situations before they get out of control and do lasting damage.
What follows here is business wisdom I learned from veteran bomb squad experts and their commanders during my offsite.
3, 2, 1….Boom!
There are three elemental components to any bomb device; its powers source, its circuitry, and its load.
All three components are needed, either to create a powerful source of power or to disarm and diffuse one. Each can be directed to power up or down, business performance output, capabilities, and desired situational outcomes.
When applied to business, a power source can be seen as one’s position or role. A circuitry set can be seen as the organization or system we operate in and across. A load which is the actual explosive source, is analogous to the performance capability of whoever operates in the role.
The first component of any explosive device is its power source.
The source of power in any role, situation or event depends on the clarity of we have of exactly what we’re dealing with. The greater the functional role clarity is – the greater the power source of that role can be.
Role clarity here includes understanding not only how you see the role but also how others around you see that role. Others would include your boss, your peers, your direct reports, suppliers, vendors, and business partners.
Four critical questions to ask when assessing the power source of a role, event or a situation are:
- What is role/situation specifically accountable for to insure repeatable success?
- What is the precise business purpose of the role, event, or situation?
- What are the unambiguous boundaries of the role’s functional responsibilities?
- When was the last time these questions have been was asked and by whom?
When any of these four power source areas are not clearly defined, articulated for oneself, communicated across others and agreed on by all involved, the role, situation or event will in time either under-perform against its capability or over-perform outside the boundaries of its scope.
In either case the inherent power source will underperform or blow up. Either outcome will impact all those who will be influenced by the output of a role’s function, situation’s intent, or event’s purpose.
Examples of diminished performance power are obvious. Indicators range from unmet goals, to not knowing how to meet goals to a lack of self-starting initiative.
When a role blows up it usually is because we have become over-identified with it. We start interpreting the role in terms of what we need from it rather than what it needs from us. Big difference.
The preconceptions and misconceptions we bring into things will distort the power source of a role, situation, or event. Biases distort reality and are a threat to performance accountability and stability.
An example of overpowering is a highly qualified rising start project manager I knew. Her unfounded assumptions blew up an important project timeline and her career status as well. She assumed authority she didn’t have, responsibility she didn’t own and operated outside of the boundaries of her lane.
Before I arrived on the scene to clean up the dysfunction her actions cause, the project manager was the target of all the blame. I had to point out to the executive team that the power source of the damage didn’t lie with the project manager but rather her boss.
It was the boss who never articulated what the role boundaries were. It was her boss that never clarified and communicated exactly how her role fit into and across chain of value all along the project flow and those who touched it.
It took valuable time the company didn’t have to correct the project error. The project ran over budget. They almost lost their client. All because role boundaries were never clarified, articulated, communicated, and agreed to; a situation that could have been disarmed before it exploded.
The second component of any explosive device is its circuitry.
Circuitry in a business context can be seen as the organization or system that we and others operate in. How well or not well, we navigate in and across the systems we are a part of and tied to, will determine how positively or negatively our impact will be to system and others operating in it and relying on it.
Four critical questions to ask when assessing the operating circuitry, organization, or system you’re interfacing with across a role, event or a situation are;
- What is role of the system here and how will it influence the outcome we want?
- What is the precise business purpose the system we’re operating in has here?
- What are the system’s unambiguous boundaries in how it will function here?
- When was the last time these questions have been was asked and by whom?
When we over-value any organizational system we can become too reliant on its structure. Dependency can be asset. Over dependence will become a liability. It will cause missed opportunities. Over-reliance on structure can result in overlooking rich perspectives that lie outside of traditional ways of thinking, seeing, and doing.
Samples of valuing traditional systems can be seen by those who continue to operate in legacy positions. They become closed operating loops engaging in rote-like routines.
Legacy mind does what has always been done. It finds security in fixed thinking and permanence. It reflects rearview mirror vision. It produces value as defined in the past. It does not add incremental value. Gradually these routine practices undermine performance. They act as a drain on dynamic contribution rather than a driver of it.
Justin is a perfect example. He is CEO of a media and marketing agency I worked with. His attachment to his legacy media software system is a perfect case study of how not letting go of outdated processes can cost us big time. His attachment blew up his client services department and their account management capabilities.
“I’m a prophet, I predict future markets and products for our company.”
Justin took pride in the ad tracking software he created. The more outdated it became though he more work-arounds he paid for. The more Band-Aids he applied to the weak system the more complicated and time-consuming user-interface became. His staff complained. Reporting suffered. Clients complained. Margins fell due to overwork and poor servicing.
I was called in after a number of failed consultants took his money and ran. I suggested the CEO’s issue wasn’t the underperforming software system but rather his over-valuing of it and his attachment to it.
He couldn’t admit that what was designed to work in the past when reporting was less complicated was failing today and would eventually explode on him and destroy his business growth in the future.
He was furious with my assessment. Fought me fiercely on it. His rage continued until, he realized what all his people already knew but, were too afraid to tell him; that he needed to let go of his pride, see the issue objectively, cut his losses and find a software system that would power up his business rather than blow it apart.
Under-valuing the worth of a system or a set of processes – will also produce its own constructive or destructive impacts on business outcomes. Understanding this under-valuation requires counter-intuitive thinking.
Undervaluing ourselves, a thing, any situation, or event, can create a positive impact if it drives us to contribute greater value to it rather than less. Undervaluation doesn’t have to be associated only with a perception of low value. It can be the recognition that full potential of a role, situation or event hasn’t yet been wholly realized.
We’ve all tossed away great tasting oranges before we gotten all the juice out of it. People and situations can be like this; good fruit that hasn’t yielded all it can.
Those who under-value a system or organization are those that are less reliant on structure and because they are, can see possibilities that lie outside and beyond its confines.
We recognize and appreciate those around us, with high future-thinking ability. They are the ones that color outside of the lines, imagine what’s possible, draw our attention to it and inspire us to bring the vision to life. This mindset focuses is on what can come into existence not on what already is.
I worked with an IBM veteran years ago. When I asked him to define his role, his answer was a great one, “I’m a prophet, I predict future markets and products for our company.”
We see the positive side of powerful forces in this thinking. These are companies that create new markets by disrupting current ones. Uber. Airbnb. Bitcoin (visit bitcoin360ai official for more information). Netflix. Apple.
Another illustration of this mindset is found in a statement of start-up co-founder who just received 100,000,000 in funding. He expresses the reason for his success this way; “I love ideas and creating value people really need. I have no respect for the status quo.”
These thinkers express the voice of Seneca, the stoic philosopher of the Roman Imperial period of history. He emphatically stated back then, “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
Players that undervalue existing order can be rebels or the innovators, or both. They push or break the order rather than follow obey it. They can damage circuitry or improve it.
The third critical component of any explosive device is referred to as its load.
The load is where the detonator lies and where the actual explosive is.
Put into a business perspective, the load is characterized by the performance capability a person brings to their role, a situation or event.
The better the fit is between what the role needs and what the person’s ability and attitude are – the more positive their load power will be.
Four critical questions to ask when assessing load power are;
- What accountable performance is needed for success here?
- What will the precise business impact be in performing as needed?
- What are the unambiguous boundaries surrounding optimal performance?
- When was the last time these questions have been was asked and by whom?
The right load closes the gap between what’s needed and the personal power required to get what’s wanted.
Right load takes into account needed skills, behaviors, motivators, acumens, and EQ factors. When these factors come together a load has the right power to get right results.
Abby is a senior partner I worked, with at leading architectural firm. Her role was being threatened by a new and more experience architect she was recruiting. Her other partners warned, knowing who she wanted to bring on warned her that given her weaker leadership style, the new more assertive incoming guy would not only out bill her but would in time, out maneuver her into a more powerful partnership position within the firm.
“Instant Success or Total Failure.”
That destructive threat no longer exists for Abby. The new guy is onboard. But Abby has established unambiguous control. Abby understands the nature of her role (power source). She extended the boundaries her role within the firm’s operational structure (circuitry). She adapted her natural behavior to be the dominant leader her role demanded (load).
Bomb squad experts and their commanders know how to situations. They also understand how to harness explosive power to bring about positive outcomes.
Bomb squad technicians understand how to fast identify the critical components of any explosive charge. They’re trained to fast look at any device in play and get to its power source, circuitry, and load.
As business leaders we should know the same to get the outcomes we want across our people, situations, and events we face.
The motto of the U.S. Navy’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team is “Instant Success or Total Failure.” While that formula cannot always be applied to the explosive business situations we encounter, each of us and our teammates can be trained to better understand what a “get-it-right-first-time-out,” readiness-mindset is and what it can accomplish when put into practice.
Written By: Jay Steven Levin with generalleadership.com
