The Marine Corps Way: Using Maneuver Warfare to Lead a Winning Organization

Decentralizing Decision Making

• Specify what needs to be done, leave the how to your people, and always remember to explain the why.

  • No one can exceed expectations that he or she does not understand.

• Trust your people to crimp detonators with their teeth.

• But demand honesty and open communication in return.

• Leadership Reaction Course: train people to make decisions and lead under simulated conditions of uncertainty. Evaluate them and provide immediate feedback.

• Teach-ins: convey your philosophy to your people from the outset so they can understand how you think; eventually they will be able to anticipate your thoughts.

• Align individual decisions by communicating commander s intent ”final result desired ”throughout the organization.

  • Provide commander s intent two levels up.

  • Remember that commander s intent is a two-way street; it requires the willing participation of both leader and follower.

  • The S in BAMCIS stands for supervise .

  • Be ever vigilant and hold people accountable for their actions.

  • Inspect what you expect.

• Reinforce the right behavior among your people.

  • Provide them with real-time feedback.

  • Correct mistakes on the spot.

  • Punish timidity, indecision, and lapses in integrity in a forceful manner.

  • Develop systems that share information both vertically and horizontally throughout the organization to increase the information available to and thus the decision-making capacity of those in your charge.

  • Be creative in leveraging the capabilities of existing ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems.

• Always remember that you are ultimately responsible for everything your team does or fails to do.

  • You can delegate authority, but you can never delegate responsibility.