5.5 How do we work together?
On Tuesday 6th June 1944 Allied forces landed in Normandy and began the invasion that would eventually lead to the downfall of the Nazi War Machine. D-day. D-Day was and remains one of the most complex logistical activities the world has ever undertaken with thousands of direct and millions of indirect lives depending upon its success. Planning for D-Day began in 1943. Deception, amphibious landings, airborne assaults, naval bombardment, local resistance fighters and over 350,000 military personnel had to be coordinated perfectly to pull off victory. Except the weather was bad and they had to delay by 24 hours. There is an irony in English weather being bad in ‘flaming June’. Even then, when they did launch the invasion the weather was far from ideal, but they had to launch lest they miss the window and be delayed by a further two weeks.
The landings did not all go to plan. In fact, at the end of the first day the Allies had failed to achieve their goals. Carentan, Saint-Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and only two of the beaches had been linked. Fierce air resistance had caused parachute forces to be dropped into unmarked landing zones, gliders had landed in the wrong areas, and thousands of soldiers from different units were mixed together in the night. Yet only hours later the Allies managed to establish a foothold and the original military objectives were soon accomplished by ad-hoc units.
‘No plan survives contact with the enemy’ goes the adage. Planning is difficult in any situation, which is why clarity of mission and purpose can never be replaced. Military planners start by defining the Commander’s Intent: a clear definition of what success looks like. ‘We will take an hold this town until 14:00 on Tuesday,’ is an example of Commander’s Intent. Whether the enemy deploy tanks, attack from an unplanned flank, or arrive by night, however the plan needs to be adapted the mission is clear. Commander’s Intent recognizes that chaos, lack of a complete picture and other factors not considered can make a plan partially or completely obsolete, and empowers initiative, improvisation and adaptation from subordinates while still ensuring focus on the big picture at the conclusion of the mission.
How a team operates is more than the sum of its processes and hierarchies. Though the body of this site isn’t on the values and principles of team dynamics “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” as Peter Drucker is oft quoted as saying. Repeated slightly less often is another of his quotes: “Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.” Culture is how you execute, which is why it is so fundamental to get right.