I once had a senior rater observe that life for staff officers like the ones assembled before him consisted of 80 percent making the railroad run – that is, doing the standard and recurring activities common to military staffs around the world. The other 20 percent, he mused, was for pushing things forward: innovating, dreaming, adding one’s personal mark in new ways.
I think that for most staff officers this maxim is true. For some of the most fortunate among us, however, the ratio is reversed: 20 percent boilerplate activities, and 80 percent new and different. Whereas their 80/20 peers are more like “Conductors”, the 20/80 folks get to be “Artists.” Approached correctly, it is an exciting opportunity that can result in a highlight of one’s career.
Often, staff Artists are placed in this enviable position because their office or directorate is new, chartered with creative process improvement functions, or has been recently reimagined into a new role. Examples include the Army Reserve’s new AREC Concept, Commander’s Action Groups, or Tiger Teams. Despite the freedom inherent in the position, one challenge becomes clear almost immediately: how should objectives be set and success be defined?
To that end, it is helpful to establish some broad guidelines at the outset to help steer one’s efforts and ensure that attempts at innovation doesn’t result in alienation from the rest of the staff. In that spirit, consider these principles:
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
This was some of the first advice I received from a mentor upon taking over a platoon, and I am struck by how often it has proven its utility over the years. When I met with my squad leaders and platoon sergeant over the course of the first few weeks, I think they were somewhat taken aback by the lack of sweeping changes coming from their new PL. Concurrently, I later learned, they were encouraged by the amount of active listening going on in the room.
Although I instinctively had some ideas about how to improve our outfit, I made the deliberate choice to first understand why things were as they seemed to be. What were the interpersonal dynamics at play? Who were my strongest performers? What was the core identity of the platoon I was taking over, and did it require an overhaul or merely a bit of tinkering? In the end, I sought information before seeking results, and for the 20/80 staff officer, the same principle applies.
Not only is it dangerous to move based on flawed or incomplete information, doing so also creates an air of resentment among one’s teammates whose product you are trying to overhaul. For a new shop within a staff, this can lead to a premature “writing off” of the new guys before the hard work even starts.
Talk About Areas of Mutual Concern, Turn Them Into Areas of Cooperation
Once a genuine level of respect has been afforded the pre-existing team, partnerships can begin to take shape. As part of the initial fact-finding period, the Artist should devote significant attention to circulating among peers to find areas of mission congruence and shared concern. Of course, it is important to take care with this analysis, as it is of little use to anyone to focus on things not measurable or outside of one’s control. By picking the right project at the outset, one can establish a foundational success story to build on.
Additionally, smart cooperative ventures:
- Tap into previously unavailable resources resident within your teammate’s shop
- Generate genuine goodwill by addressing something important to a teammate and their own success
- Demonstrate a commitment to staff integration to one’s peers, as well as the boss
- Continue the learning process, by doing
A great example of this cooperative approach is found in Harvard Business Review’s analysis of a high performing call center, where successful team integration was found to have a high correlation with good communications practices. Researchers standardized the coffee break schedule so that teammates from across the organization were “forced” to interact and cross-pollinate ideas in an informal setting. As a result, a key performance metric called AHT (the Average Handling Time, or time spent solving customer issues) dropped by 20% among struggling teams.
Working together, good ideas were allowed to expand their area of influence. The takeaway…working alone can be inefficient and ineffective. Pull together to move farther, faster.
Find Simple Ways to Articulate Your Value
The dark side of Artist life is the perception that you’re not “rowing” in synch with the rest of the staff. From the Conductor perspective, this is understandable. After all, were it not for the 80% of their effort making the organization hum along the tracks, Artists would have nothing to tinker with!
It is important, then, as an Artist to learn to articulate the value of your odd duck team in a concise and relatable way. Think of this as the bumper sticker approach. It can be difficult for the abstract thinkers to compress their big ideas into a few words, but it is a fundamental part of marketing your team to the rest of the team, boss included.
On a military staff, there are many ways of disseminating your “value message” outward and upward. One conduit is the staff officer’s longstanding nemesis Powerpoint. For an Artist, using a simple consistent tagline on all your Powerpoint products is a good way to hammer home your message. In that same spirit, finding ways to weave your simple bumper sticker into staff meetings at all echelons is a good way to achieve common awareness and appreciation for what you bring to the team. Finally, using one’s boss as a de facto advertiser for your team is an especially valuable approach. With luck, that boss had a hand in creating or re-chartering your team of Artists, and thus will be sympathetic to your challenges of articulating your value across the staff.
Remember that the Military is an Open Book Test
This final bit of advice comes courtesy of the same mentor I mentioned earlier. Recognize that when “new” challenges arrive, chances are someone else has already faced a similar set of circumstances and found a way to surmount it. For 20/80 staff officers, one’s newness can make it feel like every day is uncharted territory. Often though, finding a solution is as simple as knowing where to look.
Writing an entirely new doctrinal publication? The concept of blue skies research might be helpful to you. Developing a proposal for the employment of Phase Zero forces in the operating environment? The Defense Technical Information Center contains a vast trove of research papers from our Professional Military Education schools representing decades of thought on that very issue.
When in doubt, it never hurts to reach out to peers and mentors who have lived through years of challenges and found ways to overcome them. They are perhaps the richest source material of all. Don’t forget that you have an obligation in turn to pass along your findings to the next cohort of innovators. Writing is the enduring means of uniting the generations in that regard.
A Final Thought for the Staff Artist
Above all, remember the enviable position in which you find yourself. Staff detours can sometimes feel like the dark tunnel separating oneself from the joy of leading troops, pushing ships, or flying aircraft. When the opportunity arises to do something beyond the ordinary, seize it with gusto! It is the rare chance to contribute your unique talent and expertise in an unbound way. You have the chance to reject and rewrite some of the open book answers already out there. Perhaps in due time, another enterprising Artist will come along and seek out your words to help solve a challenge of their own.
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