[Music]
so it's September 2006 special forces
have been in and out of the country for
years but this is the first Australian
Regular Army deployment to Afghanistan
to the south of the country into her
account there's about a hundred of us
getting ready to roll out the gate for
the very first time all our vehicles
lined up between two massive walls these
walls are about two stories high big
wire cages filled with rammed earth
there's about a football field between
the inner and the outer wall but it
looks nothing like a football field
there's no grass no green everything's
dirty and dusty and brown and I can feel
the grit and dust in my teeth and in my
hair and in the sweat that runs down my
back underneath my body armor I checked
my rifle weapons need constant attention
in this hot and dusty environment and
it's a fine balance between our foil to
keep the working parts lubricated and
not so much you turn the whole thing
into mud we're waiting for the order to
move and I can see the nerves playing
out in front of me my own heart is
definitely racing so some people move
from foot to foot move from different
groups others jabber nervously to their
teammates some retreat into their own
thoughts and there's a ton of bravado
back-slapping high-fiving sort of
psychic behavior that goes on as well
about a thousand cigarettes a smoked and
shed
I'm thinking about the role I need to do
my job in Afghanistan was to intercept
and analyze enemy communications and
give advice on the battlefield I needed
to find out what the enemy was saying
what their intent was and then tell the
boss so we could decide what we wanted
to do about it
there are a lot of unknowns in
Afghanistan so lots of us had never
actually worked together before and we
didn't know how the community really
felt about us or what the enemy were
going to do and there's always a lot of
unknowns in the military you get
comfortable with the ambiguity and
there's this ever-present potential for
rapid and unplanned change and in that
environment when you're about to roll
out the gate for the very first time in
a new country - there's also the
unknowns of every soldier questioning
themselves how am I going to go when it
all goes down because you hope that
you'll be brave but you don't know until
you're there and until you actually know
and so that's what I think the nerves
are really about and so in that
environment the commander actually has
to get 100 odd people or with different
roles and responsibilities to focus and
to deliver how do you do that despite
those nerves
despite that fear despite all that rapid
and unplanned change that's going to
come how do you get people to understand
not just their own role but how they
contribute to the overall mission so the
military actually does this amazingly
well and it's called commander's intent
and there's a lot we can learn from
commander's intent - when we think about
it leadership in other organizations
also so lots of teams lots of
organizations spend huge amounts of time
and money trying to figure out how do I
motivate my people
how do I get them all working together
towards one goal now commanders in turn
can actually help them achieve this
commander's intent starts by clearly and
articulately explaining what the end
state looks like it's what the
battlespace should look like at the end
of the mission its what success looks
like and it works because it describes
what needs to be achieved without
prescribing how so your commander's
intent might look something like this
capture Brownhill utilizing all enemy
and capturing all roads and bridges
between the Nomad Beach and the candy
river now below this each unit will have
more details about what they're going to
do so your armored unit will know where
I'm dropping my infantry patrols and
what bridges I need to go back and
secure those infantry soldiers will know
exactly how I'm securing the drop zone
for the paratroopers to land safely the
paratroopers will know when and where
they're landing and what they need to do
once they get there everybody knows
their own role and their unit's role but
what guides them when settings don't go
as planned
is that commander's intent it's pretty
much a mission statement and I know all
you leaders out there are going yo-yo
lady I've got a mission statement this
is nothing new but what I ask you is
this is your mission statement strong
enough so that when you're not there and
other leaders aren't there do people
still know what to do
if I join your team today and you ask me
what are you doing will I say I'm
capturing bridges and roads between
Nomad Beach and the candy river or will
I only know my own role now this is
particularly important when we start to
think about the future of work so the
gig economy looks very much like the
military on operations there is
centralized intent but dispersed execute
so one big goal with multiple people in
multiple locations doing the executing
and if all those people don't know what
they're contributing to in terms of that
big mission then organizations could
find themselves with lots of people
doing lots of work without achieving the
desired outcome now commandeth attend
also calls on a sense of purpose for me
in Afghanistan my sense of purpose came
from my job I need to intercept what the
enemy is saying provide great advice
when I do this well I can get us out of
harm's way when I don't
there are dire consequences and this is
true for all my teammates too each has a
role that's essential and important and
with dire consequences if they get it
wrong every under everybody understands
what they need to do and also the
critical outcomes if they fail now the
military has an advantage here I give my
all because lives depend on it and
although work may not be a matter of
life and death I believe organizations
can benefit from a similar sense of
purpose research out of Deloitte and the
Journal of occupational health
psychology suggests that organizations
with a sense of purpose
enjoy an improved employee well-being
but a team performance and greater
financial outcomes and we see this time
and again in successful companies so
rather than talking about cheapest air
fares Southwest Airlines talks about
democratizing the skies when I buy a
pair of glasses from Warby Parker
they'll donate a pair one for one to
someone in need
instilling the value that what you do
not only matters but also is for the
greater good has a profound impact on a
team's productivity and no amount of
bonus can create the same personal Drive
is doing something that really matters
and so if a commander's intent to work
it's not enough to simply know the
endgame and have a sense of purpose you
also need some trust going on because
without trust none of the rest of it
works and the more trust you give your
people the more they can make decisions
and the faster you can move
it's that centralized intent but
dispersed execution again one mission
but power to those who can actually make
the decisions on the ground as a leader
you need to realize you can't be there
all the time and so you need to give
that power away that power on the ground
is really important not just for people
making decisions but also for making
decisions without sign-off so in the
midst of a firefight you don't have time
to get 45 people sign off on a one-page
memo I don't have time to change the
pack from area 12 to times new roman' 11
so some bloke who's not even there can
make one decision if that's a
decision-making process in the military
everyone's dead
it's the people who are right here who
have the most information and the most
current information they're the ones
that understand the subtle nuances of
that situation and so they are the ones
that should be making the decisions and
when it comes to decisions speed matters
too because when you're making decisions
you're moving forward and the faster you
can make decisions the faster you can
move forward so in the military we talk
about 80% on time is better than a
hundred percent late if that infantry
patrol that needs to secure the drop
zone for the paratroopers is supposed to
be there at 3:00 and they don't get
there till 5:00
all those paratroopers will be shot out
of the sky what's important is that you
get the job done not how you do it or
not whether you follow the plan exactly
and this trust is going to be essential
in workplaces our future to people we
work in remote teams remote workforces
and so leaders and workers will need a
much deeper level of trust between them
I believe it'll be those leaders that
can develop that trust that will see
their teams move faster so they'll fail
faster produce their Minimum Viable
Product faster they'll be the most
successful teams it'll be those that can
distribute their decision-making power
down the chain that will enjoy the most
engage workers the most agile thinkers
and the most adaptive teams and from
what we know about the future of work
those will be the skills that will be in
critical need of and so I'd encourage
you to think about how commander's
intent might work for you
your leadership of yourself and of
others how do you communicate your
mission create a sense of purpose and
build trust because the future of work
will need flexible and adaptable leaders
just like the military does thank you
[Applause]