Marine spec ops12/20/2023 ![]() Going forward, all organizations will need to learn how to adapt quickly. Several months into the crisis, most companies are still figuring out how to adapt, and belatedly wishing that - like the SOF community - their organizations had been built to adapt. IT functions suddenly found themselves elevated to core strategic positions. Employees working with in-person product or service delivery found their projects deferred and were forced to learn new skills. In March, when Covid-19 upended the way most of us worked and lived, many businesses realized that their leadership hierarchies and job descriptions needed to change, and fast. Instead of many individual leaders running many individual teams, we began to connect ourselves as a broad network of units.Īmerican businesses can learn a lot from this flexibility. Our mandate was to scale the effectiveness of small, elite teams onto the enterprise level. Instead of leading a top-down, highly efficient bureaucracy, we began to lead ourselves as a network. The result of this organizational flexibility is what General Stanley McChrystal - an Army special operator and leader of the Iraq “surge” in 2007 - refers to as a “team of teams.” Chris Fussell, a former special operator and a current top executive, explains: In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission.” This philosophy, ingrained through training, allows units to put the fittest operators for each individual task at the front and builds interoperability between units. In the words of the Navy SEAL Ethos, “We expect to lead and be led. In SOF units, hierarchies are both flat and flexible, with little difference in responsibility between ranks or even between enlisted and officers. Special operators spend their whole careers preparing for the unexpected. Flexible Organizations Adapt Better to Crises Here are a few things the SOF community knows about operating, leading, and succeeding in a VUCA world that American businesses need to know. Amid a pandemic, executives are finally realizing the importance of bringing outsiders who are comfortable dealing with the unexpected onto their teams.Īs these crises wear on, the singular and eminently portable skills of our country’s highest-trained servicepeople are becoming more and more valuable, and more veterans like the SEAL we just mentioned are getting the job. Secret Service.Įven prior to the economic and health shocks of Covid-19, the acronym “ VUCA” - volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous - had become shorthand for the operating circumstances today’s businesses face. Those who had found jobs had salaries averaging under $90,000, frequently working for private security firms or agencies like the U.S. Less than a decade ago, only 13% of the 2,500 special operators who transitioned every year had civilian jobs lined up only a few months before their transition. military retire, usually between the ages of 35 and 45, they’ve long ended up in jobs that undervalue their unique tactical training, teamwork, and leadership skills. As we did, we noticed a clear fit between the SOF skill set and the uncertain world we all inhabit today.ĭespite their unique qualifications, we found that when these MVPs of the U.S. In writing the case, we interviewed some 20 veterans and coaches to understand the skills that this elite community can bring to American businesses. They deploy in units of all different sizes and do jobs ranging from precision strikes against terrorists to intelligence collecting to setting up local government institutions in collaboration with civilians.Ī few months ago, we set out to write a Harvard Business School case about a nonprofit called the Honor Foundation, founded six years ago to help SOF veterans transition into civilian life. They’re accustomed to high stakes, dangerous geographies, and fast learning. The community’s ranks include legendary units like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force. battlefield strategy since the end of the Cold War. ![]() Made up of elite warriors from the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines, the Special Operations Forces have formed the centerpiece of U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) hasn’t come a moment too soon. The American business community’s discovery of the U.S. “But here’s one thing I can tell you about me: There’s not a single situation that will occur at this business that will make me feel uncomfortable.” With that answer, the SEAL won himself a job, beating out a traditionally better-qualified candidate with an MBA from a leading business school. ![]() Navy SEALs told his final-round interviewer at a financial services company. ![]() “I’m sure the other candidate checks all the boxes,” a veteran of the U.S.
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