Last week I wrote about dealing with curveballs and had a comment about how do you develop a strategy to cope with them. You can read that blog here. I replied that my strategies will not necessarily work for other people, then I got to thinking. The Army teaches you how to adapt to curveballs as they are a constant in Military operations. As the saying goes “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”. So how do the military do it and can we apply it to our situation?
Mission Command
The military use what is known as Mission Command to overcome changes in the situation (curveballs). Now I’m not going to go into an in-depth explanation of Mission Command as there is enough cyberspace storage and Brazilian rain forest deforestation already used up on the subject.
However, in essence:
Mission Command is a way of getting everybody on board with what you want to happen. It derives this by explaining to people what those two up the command level want to happen so that even if you cannot complete your task (mission) then you can do something to help fulfil the missions of those above you.
So, let’s put this into some form of framework:
Vision: Your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)
Intent: Less BHAG more Goal oriented
Mission: the task(s) to do to achieve the Intent thus the Vision
Initiative: Can change what you are doing if you can’t achieve your mission to something else which supports the intent.
Ok so we know what is wanted 2 up and we have our Mission to help achieve that/those goals. What happens when you can’t achieve your mission due to a curveball? Well that’s where knowing what the bigger picture is helps. You can now do something else to help achieve the big picture because you know what it is.
One of the explanations of this aspect is: Leaders at the point of action must assess the situation, make timely decisions in response to changes in the operational environment, and take actions aligned with achieving the desired end state provided in the commander’s intent statement.
If you want to find out more about Mission Command here’s a not to painful link for you. Remember this is military speak. https://www.army.mil/article/179942/applying_mission_command_to_overcome_challenges
Infertility Example
Let’s leave the Vision out of the equation for the moment and focus on the intent and mission bits:
Intent: to have children.
Mission: Initial plan is to conceive naturally.
Initiative: Look at alternatives such as fertility treatments or adoption
The mission is thrown a curveball in that you can’t/haven’t conceived naturally. You now look at how you can still help achieve the Intent by going for fertility treatments/looking at adopting etc…
Our Mission Command
Here is a very broad brush look at an Intent of ours.
Vision: to Create A New Beautiful And Courageous Existence:
Intent: to move to the Bahamas (originally with children)
Mission: to have a child before the move.
Initiative: Children not achievable so what can we do to help enable the intent.
I have covered some of the things we did/are doing in the stress of living the dream life in France blog which you can read here. But let’s just say that we didn’t follow Mission Command at all well. We are now getting back on track and using it to our advantage not only for this Intent but others as well.
Moving forward
Mission Command is a way of helping to cope with curveballs and it is an iterative process as everything can change to provide the final outcome
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese proverb.
Changing circumstances will cause curveballs and the world seems to be changing with increased speed nowadays. Or is that just me getting older?
What you need to do, in order for Mission Command to work, is find your Vision of what you want your life to be. From this all the Intents and Missions will fall out and then you “just” need to use your Initiative to circumvent the curveballs.
As I said in my reply to the comment on the blog this works for me hopefully you may find some of it useful too.
Practice makes perfect
It’s all well and good writing about things in theory: however, we need to start applying what we learn. Why don’t you see if you can put some part of your life into the Mission Command framework to see if it might help you to overcome the curveballs.
To help you keep track of all your work for the daily activities mentioned, we have created a Monthly Diary for you to record your progress. To download your copy of “My January Canbace Diary” please click here.
Be kind to yourself …
In CANBACE friendship!
If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, please let me know. I will keep your words private.
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