[January 16, 2016] While in the U.S. Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, all new second lieutenants learn about Grazing Fire and to watch out for it when in the attack against a determined enemy. It’s the type of combat technique that will quickly cut an attacking force to pieces. Leaders will experience grazing fire, symbolically anyway, whenever they go about their duties.
People get comfortable in what they do and people adapt. Change is something they don’t like and change represents not only stress but also the unknown. It means risk, potential loss of a job, property, ideas, or even one’s life (in an extreme case). In the military when we say “watch out for grazing fire” we mean to watch yourself and be careful in what you say and do, especially if it involves change of any kind.
Grazing fire is the response a leader should expect when they lead change, however minor the change may be. It is also a response from those above the leader in an organization; those that may not like the introduction of new ideas or anything bad that may reflect negatively upon them. The military like any large organization is a bureaucracy and there will be bureaucrats who protect themselves at all costs.
The U.S. Congressional committee investigating the death of a U.S. Ambassador and others at Benghazi, for example, has come under attack from numerous sources. This illustrates that despite findings of improper handling of classified material there has been a concerted effort to discredit both the committee and individuals on it as partisans attempting to ruin Clinton’s reputation for purely political reasons.
Whenever change is to be driven by a leader it is best to get some level of ‘buy in’ from those who may be affected by it. Easier said than done, this begins with the socialization of the concept of change, leading to a process that involves as many people that can reasonably be accommodated.
Watch out for grazing fire.1 Leaders are targets and when we study social trends in Western nations, we see that leaders more than ever have been targeted simply because of their positions. It takes considerable moral courage for a leader to still do the right thing and not be scared off by those who will attack them.
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- http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/23-65/ch62.htm#s2p9