It’s a battle out there – How does your strategy align with the 9 Principles of War that the US Army has developed?

1^st Principle of War

Mass: Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time.

Our strategy: This principle is saying that there is a key place and a key time that you should spend your efforts at. For us, this is determining how we can provide the maximum value to our organization. We think this through and then we must prioritize those areas in terms of risk and reward. Once we do this, we find out where we need to focus.

2^nd Principle of War

Objective: Direct every military operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective.

Our strategy: This principle is saying that we have to define realistic goal and objectives and that once we do this, then everyone works within this focus. Having everyone on the same page is very simple to understand but in reality, we often have many directions and agendas, driven by egos, greed and poor leadership (to mention just a few). Operate within your senior leadership’s understanding of your company’s strategy. It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure the people and teams within their area of influence are focused on the main objective. Focused light cuts – we call this a laser. Unfocused light brings revelation (illuminating the surroundings), but not action.

3^rd Principle of War

Offensive: Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative.

Our strategy: Don’t have the relationship with the business as just a supplier. This type of a relationship is passive and the problem is that you become a commodity – something easily purchased on the market. We want to strive to become a partner with the business. IT is the source of great innovation, but we can only do so when we are experts in the areas of our clients. We need to be in a position to understand the business problems. Envision the solution. Sell the value. And then of course, lead the business in its implementation and harvest of value.

4^th Principle of War

Surprise: Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared

Our strategy: Well, this brings up a good point? Who is our enemy? I’ll provide a working answer for us; Risk. Risk is our enemy. We need to defend against risk. What is risk? In my top of mind response; Risk is anything that causes us to loose momentum in a direction that we were heading that was on the path of providing value to our organization. With this in mind, it becomes obvious that our surprise lies within our ability to capitalize on innovation.

5^th Principle of War

Economy of force: Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts

Our strategy: There is great danger here! This principle is an excellent check for us. We sometimes get too tunnel visioned, we get too focused. In our effort to combat risk and provide innovations and value…when we are looking at things that may be hurting our business and watching our competitors and trying to outperform them – it is easy to move massive amounts of resources and efforts to these area. After all, it is said that we must win! This principle talks about ensuring that the secondary, the peripheral projects, programs, systems, servers, customers, etc… get enough resources to guarantee success. Here we need to ensure we build into our timelines the necessary ‘stop and evaluate’ tasks to ensure that we in fact are addressing our 360 degree risks.

6^th Principle of War

Maneuver: Place the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of combat power

Our strategy: I love this one! It’s all about leveraging innovation and creativity to dislodge risks! Our combat power is our creativity harnessed through the lens of innovation and expressed in forms of systems and systems of systems. For us IT warriors, we live for this principle – become curious with things that don’t work, learn the risks and then lets level the big guns of IT to blow those risks away!

7^th Principle of War

Unity of command: For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander

Our strategy: Common sense, right? There can be no projects without someone serving the role of project manager – and please let that person be responsible! Also, there can be no projects with more than one project manager – ok a complex project may have many, but isn’t it really just a series of smaller projects that roll up into one another. It is also saying that every objective needs to be accounted for by someone. There are many layers of benefits with the unity of command; proper project management, built-in upstream communication channel, top-down understanding and support to name several…

8^th Principle of War

Security: Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage

Our strategy: Remember that risk is our enemy. This principle is about taking them serious…all of them. It means that we ensure we know all the risks and monitor them over time. We don’t want to get caught off-guard. What are your risks? Do you know them all? I can tell you that the sum of your team’s risk assessment will get you about 80-90% of the way there (if not more)! It’s always a fair question to ask; “What can happen if…”

9^th Principle of War

Simplicity: Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding

Our strategy: Have you ever played the game telephone…the simple message at the beginning is usually nowhere close to the message at the end once it went through a bunch of people! Everyone listens differently. Everyone brings a unique perspective because we all have our own understandings, experiences, goals, passions… In our industry we are challenged by an enormous amount of new information – things are always on the move. How much more important is it that we ensure standards, strategies, goals, objectives… are clear and simple. Any large initiative can be broken down into smaller more simpler initiatives. Take the time and ensure that understanding is apparent.

~ Scott Felten