Taking the time to consider your situation, play to your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses might be the smartest things you can do in a tough spot.
If you hang around someone with a military background long enough, you might end up hearing a term called “force multiplier.” Too often in military culture it’s a term that is misused to mean “something that’s good” or “something that makes us better.” Despite this, it has a real and useful definition, and it’s interesting if not critical.
Since the age of Napoleon — and likely going back to the beginning of warfare, battles were often decided by the side that brought the most troops and firepower to the fight. Since that time there have been notable examples where a numerically inferior force — even by a significant margin — won the battle. The success of the inferior force is often due to factors other than numbers and firepower: elements that could include weather, season, terrain, fortifications, mobility, air superiority, surprise, and relative combat effectiveness. These factors are called force multipliers. Some or all of these factors, applied to a numerically inferior force, could allow them to prevail in battle. The idea is that by taking advantage of certain aspects of the situation, the inferior force could make themselves more formidable — in essence multiplying their size or strength against an enemy.
For example, a military shorthand rule is that a group of fighters in a defensive posture — often with fortifications, their choice of terrain and time for preparation — can prevail against a force three times their size. If their attackers wanted to even the fight out, they could apply force multipliers — and let’s say it’s during a bout of bad weather. The attackers could approach during a rainy period which would mask noise and reduce visibility, allowing the attackers to get close to the defenders without giving away their position or intent. Surprise — often regarded the most effective of force multipliers — could be achieved by the attackers, who could get close enough to make their weapons more effective, close the distance faster and overrun the defenders.
In the business world, the idea of force multiplication applies just as well (It’s also overused/misused as a term and can be a tactical catch-all word):
How can one achieve business outcomes with a minimal amount of resources required?
How are efficiencies created or how do teams congeal to eliminate wasted time, unneeded meetings or processes?
How are efficiencies created or how do teams congeal to eliminate wasted time, unneeded meetings or processes?
How do I outsmart, and not necessarily out-muscle my competitor?
The military term I used before — “relative combat effectiveness” — simply means better training or conditioning, which includes best practices. Commanders focus on this force multiplier the most because it’s perhaps the only one you can positively control long before a fight. As a former Green Beret officer that has been working in the private sector, I’ve noticed the following areas can be optimized for force multiplication — much the same way military forces improve their relative combat effectiveness:
1. Recruiting: Effectiveness starts with identifying and selecting self-starters with moral character and drive. A recruiting program that finds and brings on those with the character traits needed to be effective is worth building. Businesses can leap ahead in culture by acquiring the right people first.
2. Asynchronous information routing and sharing: Clear communication is key for quick and well-considered action. Adopting and faithfully maintaining practices that reduce distraction, fragmentation (death by email/Slack) and confusion are worth your time and effort. As does a sense of responsibility that helps teams avoid passing the monkey. Well understood, disciplined practices can make your team run faster and smoother.
3. Meetings (synchronous information sharing): A commitment to time effectiveness and purpose will ensure people need to get information and feedback they need to be successful. Amazon’s policy of study hall at the beginning of meetings is a good approach. Only hold meetings when you must, and when you do, share information in a way that ensures you accomplish the purpose of the meet — and eliminate the need for more of them.
4. Group cohesion: Groups of people that have a shared human bond can be much more effective than those who don’t. This is why serious companies try so hard to build a culture, and why militaries are known for it. Military life taught me that cohesion is grown from hardship, which can be replicated through tough, realistic training. Holding your teams to high standards and being “brilliant at the basics” through constant practice is how to get there. You’ll begin to find your people taking more responsibility for results and each other, and coming to agreements more easily.
5. Transparency and accountability: Trust comes from an understanding that each member will do what’s best for the group before what’s best for the individual. This goes up as well as down — leaders simply have to trust those who work for them to do the right thing in their absence, and the led need to trust that their leaders’ guidance is the result of consideration, direction and integrity. With this, vital tasks will get done faster and more comprehensively than without it.
There are more force multipliers than I mentioned here both in the private sector and throughout military history — I bet you can think of a few things your company could do to be more effective and compete with bigger, more powerful competitors. The truth is, that it takes a few things to use force multipliers effectively: an honest look at your company’s situation, an appraisal of your strengths (to play to) and weaknesses (to mitigate), and a commitment to taking real action to changing your practices to achieve your goals. But most fighters who have successfully used force multipliers faced life or death based on the outcome — what can you do to drive the same kind of urgency?
Authored By: Brady Moore, Former Green Beret
Click Here to View Brady’s Bio.
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