See More Like A Soldier

BursaSnipers

Publish date: Sun, 13 Oct 2019, 12:04 PM

6 In business, keen observational skills give leaders an edge. In military leadership, scanning the landscape and noticing easy-tomiss details can prove the difference between life and death.

How do troops capture details that less observant people miss? It starts with their training that revolves around precision and careful observation — and carries over into their behavior on the battlefield.

Yet even if you never serve in the military, you can sharpen your attention to detail by applying what soldiers do. Here’s how:

› Create a system. Get in the habit of scoping out your surroundings in a thorough, consistent manner. Following a series of simple steps increases your odds of success.

“The military gives you templates to use such as the ‘SALUTE report,’” said Maria Britt, a retired U.S. Army Major General. When gathering information about an enemy, troops use the SALUTE acronym to assess its size and strength, actions, location, unit identification, time of observation and equipment.

“Every soldier learns this framework of analyzing what they see,” said Britt, author of “Navigate the Climb.” “When you have a template like that, you start seeing everything that way. You start thinking, ‘What’s important here?’ “

› Know what matters. You’ll notice more if you prioritize what you’re looking for. Asking the right questions guides you to focus on what matters most.

“You’re always doing CCIRs (Commander’s Critical Information Requirements) in the military,” Britt said. “It creates an awareness of what leaders need to know.”

Completing these reports involves answering questions such as, “What should I include?” and “Who should get the information and when should they get it?”

› Collect wide-ranging input. If a group of nine co-workers shares a similar perspective, bringing in a tenth individual to inject new thinking can help. Britt says that this “diversity of thought” enables leaders to make better decisions.

She cites the “tenth man rule” from the 2013 movie “World War Z.” An Israeli official explains to Brad Pitt’s character that Israel’s security team consists of 10 advisors. If the first nine dismiss a potential peril to the country, the tenth man must overrule them and treat even the most farfetched peril seriously.

“He’s charged with coming up with an alternate scenario, even if that gives you headaches and challenges your team,” Britt said. “You’ve got to be able to see where the gaps are in the details before you make a decision.”

› Invite more observers. Even if you’re highly observant, you can’t see everything on your own. Enlisting colleagues to serve as additional lookouts adds extra layers of detection.

“There’s a term we call ‘redundancy of observation’ in which you have multiple eyes on one objective,” said Mike Guardia, a U.S. Army veteran. “Then you communicate in real time with each other. Maybe the others will see things that you don’t.”

Executives can take the same approach when studying a competitor’s business. Assign teams of employees to watch how a rival interacts with customers or designs its products — and then compare notes.

“Everyone has different experiences,” Guardia said. “They bring a fresh set of eyes to a situation.”

› Confirm understanding. Once you’ve gathered key details of your surroundings, don’t assume you’ve collected accurate information. To be safe, share your observations with an associate who has analyzed the same scene to determine if you both agree on what you saw.

Co-author of “Hal Moore on Leadership,” Guardia says that during his military career he often paraphrased what he heard to prevent misunderstanding.

“This is what I’ve received,” he’d say. “Is there anything in my understanding that isn’t correct?”

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