Decision-making based on the Commander's Intent

I have started reading "Made to Stick" over the last few weeks and want to share an idea the authors bring up early on in the book. They talk about the early years of military decision-making and the beautiful complexity of well laid out plans. The problem was 'many armies failed because they put all their emphasis into creating a plan that became useless ten minutes into the battle.' This is why the Army adapted a new planning process in the 80's based on the Commander's Intent (CI). The CI was designed to specify the plan's goal, but never specify so much detail that it would risk being obsolete by unpredictable events. Col. Kolditz is quoted as saying about a CI that "You can lose the ability to execute the original plan, but you never lose the responsibility to execute the intent."

In education a CI is done by finding the core element that drives a school. Yes, there are several things that can be perceived as being important, but there can only be One Core Element. Finding the most important goal to a school is no different than following through with the Commander's Intent. Once everyone is fully aware of the most important goal that defines success at a school, everyone must then base all of their decisions on the effectiveness at achieving this goal. If decisions are not effective, then they jeopardize the most important goal and focus is lost. But... if everyone is moving in a similar direction at a high level of effectiveness, the lack of resistance will insure that the most important goal is met.

So what causes a lack of alignment as seen by the first set of arrows in the picture above? I believe what keeps most schools from being aligned and failing to achieve the most important goal is:

1. the inability of administration to facilitate the identification of one most important goal or;
2. the inability of a staff to follow through with the "Commander's Intent".

With that being said, I also believe when a school is fully focused on achieving the one most important goal everyone is able to align their behavior at all levels without the need for directives from the leaders. When teachers and staff members all know the desired outcomes, they feel they have the autonomy to improvise when needed as long as everyone arrives at the same goal at the end of the day. I have the pleasure to currently be working in a school with a wonderful staff and awesome principal (Stephanie Hogan) and I can tell you when a team is fully aligned at achieving the Commander's Intent there is nothing more exciting than when that intent is recognized!