[August 24, 2016] Lately I’ve been reading about how to think and communicate in complex environments. The subject of complexity itself and, in particular, how great leaders have successfully navigated the murky waters of a complex world is important to those who want to understand and be a senior leader.
Great leaders are more than lucky; they seem to have some innate ability to synthesize a multitude of inputs and data to cut right to the heart of a matter and then guide their organizations to a successful end-state. General Douglas MacArthur, for example, was able to do it after World War II as he led a defeated Japan to recover from their disastrous attempt at colonization.
If we look to academia and to the many detailed scientific studies that look closely at complexity as a subject of serious study, one common theme is that humans by our very nature and our thought processes are insufficient to understand the cultural, technical, biometric, situational, and even functional details necessary to conduct a successful but highly complex undertaking.
What Hall and Citrenbaum say in their book Intelligence Analysis is that the basic leader can only scratch the surface of actionable knowledge.1 They look at waging war and its complexities. Humans need help and Hall and Citrenbaum provide us with ways to develop intelligence power with distinct advantages over all enemies of the future regardless of the level of war or type of operational environment.
Leaders need help in developing their ways of thinking that move them beyond the basic tactical understanding on how systems work; how the enemy functions, how a competitor fights, etc. The U.S. military provides formal schools that help develop this but only begins to truly develop senior leaders once they complete their schooling at the Colonel level. It’s their General Officer courses and mentoring that truly helps establish a good leader. Experience rounds out the rest.
I was fortunate to work for a Lieutenant General who was able to not only understand the complex world of a current and dangerous enemy dedicated to destroying America. But he could also talk to us and provide clear guidance on what we should do as senior military officers. That is a rare talent indeed. I’ve only known a dozen or so Flag officers that could do this. In academia, I found no one at this level.
Great leaders do thrive on complexity. They are able to understand complex situations and make the complexity understandable to those are also involved. While a rare talent that does not mean that other leaders cannot improve upon their understanding. Formal schooling, experience, and mentoring is the key to developing those who will be future great leaders.
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- Intelligence Analysis: How to Think in Complex Environments, Wayne Michael Hall and Gary Citgrenbaum, 2010.