MM#111--Perhaps...The Most Vital Law in Business

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. Combat, like anything in life has inherent layers of complexity. Simplifying as much as possible is crucial to success. When plans and orders get too complex, people will not understand them. And when things go wrong, which they inevitably will, this lack of understanding can lead to a disastrous outcome. Plans and orders must be simple, clear and concise. This principle isn't limited to the battlefield. The business world is also complex. Keeping plans and communication simple is key to the success of any team and combat business or life. The best leaders build plans that everyone can understand all the way down to the lowest level in the organization. The simple plans are the most genius plans, because your individual contributors and frontline supervisors can go out and execute them. 

And this passage comes to us from the official companion workbook to Extreme Ownership, a book we reviewed last year in leadership week. And it just so happens that I stumbled across this companion workbook, which is quite a little gem I must say. So if you like Extreme Ownership or the dichotomy of leadership or leadership strategies and tactics, which we just reviewed, then you'll love this companion workbook. And actually think this might be what you receive when you go to Jocko and life's business events they put on called the muster. They have a business called Echelon front and they put on these business life leadership events, which based on the YouTube reviews are quite good. I have not been there myself. But nevertheless, let us return to our nugget of wisdom today. Let's grab that pool quote from our opening. The simplest plans are the most genius plans. Let that sink in. The simplest plans are the most genius plans. Why? Because everybody knows what the hell is going on. 

And I say that in jest. But have you ever worked for a leader who fell in love with every plan they created. And once you removed once you reviewed rather, once you reviewed all the moving parts of the plan, you thought I have no idea how all this is going to work. So let's go back to the workbook to figure out how to address the leader with complex plans. Quote, everyone on the team must know and understand the role in the mission and what to do in the event of a likely contingencies. If they don't understand they can't execute. The test for this is binary. Do your people understand or not? And how can you determine this? Not by simply asking them if you ask them if they understand most will simply say yes. And instead have them explain their piece of the mission to you. In the military. This is called a read back. 

Your team's ability to restate their role and critical tasks will illustrate whether you properly explained it and that they truly understand. Is that not brilliant? So we need to ask some questions. And will you as a leader. Ask the critical questions of yourself and your teammates and executing plans. Will you as the leader or as a good follower. Ask the questions if you don't understand your role or the piece of the mission and will you as The leader or the follower exhibit humility. If your teammates don't understand their task, or their roles. Here's the final quote for today's Mojo. And let's go back to the book. Quote, As a leader, it doesn't matter how well you think you have presented the information. If your team doesn't understand, you have failed.

Let's stop there. I want to point out real quick Does this sound familiar? And leadership we discovered how to grade leadership. And I believe it's check out our mojo minute number 34, if I'm not mistaken, but the quick answer in grading leadership is it's either graded by being effective or ineffective. So if we extrapolate to this virtue, this planning virtue, to keep things simple, you're not going to be graded on how complex the mission is, but how effective the mission is. And more importantly, when planning you must keep things simple. Because as we just heard, as a leader, it doesn't matter how well you think you have presented the information. If your team doesn't understand you have failed. 

So in today's Mojo minute as a leader, do we create complex plans with a ton of moving parts and pieces just so it looks like a Michelangelo masterpiece, but no one can understand their role in it? Do we create these complex plans just to feed our ego? To make it look like we're a genius, because we have so many moving parts and pieces. And as a next question, as a leader or a follower? Do we have the courage to ask questions? If we don't understand the mission, or the plan, or our critical tasks? Do we take ownership? Do we raise our hands? And do we ask for clarification of our leadership on this piece or that piece of the mission? Are the critical tasks? 

Hey, Boss, what happens when x goes wrong? What's our plan B? And how should we handle that? And finally, as a leader, we get frustrated with our teammates when they asked questions, because we thought we had created a masterpiece plan to present them present to them. And that nobody should have any questions because it's that brilliant. Let's have some humility. And to live a flourishing life and become the leader that everybody wants to work for. It is recommended that all of us follow this vital law of combat and business and keep things simple.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on