It’s not a good time to be a dictator is it? At least it’s not a good time to be a North African dictator – South American and Asian dictators are still finding life comparatively awesome. But if you are a dictator from countries such as Libya, Egypt or Bahrain then it’s a tenuous existence increasingly reliant on military power and your ability to figure out who is with you or against you. What better inspiration then for this months Editorial as we delve into the good, the bad and the ugly of things military and things truthful from a communication point of view.

Funnily enough even in this modern technological age of social media, virtual reality and remote warfare there are still some simple basic truths. In the immortal words of Muammar al-Gaddafi… “I am not such a dictator that I would shut down Facebook. I’ll merely imprison anyone who logs in to it.”

Cry havoc, Editorial readers, and let slip the dogs of war.

Commanders Intent – A Great Lesson

How does your team respond when a plan changes? Does everyone seem to know what to do or is there complete confusion with a bunch of people standing around waiting to be told what to do next? When things go wrong how do you make a plan work? Military planners use Commander’s Intent, a key element to help a plan maintain relevancy and applicability in a chaotic, dynamic, and resource-constrained environment.

Commander’s Intent is the description and definition of what a successful mission will look like. Basically, if the plan is all about the Who, What, When, Where and Why then Commander’s Intent describes how the Commander (read: CEO) sees the outcome. It shows what success looks like. Commander’s Intent fully recognizes the chaos, lack of a complete information picture, changes in enemy situation, and other relevant factors that may make a plan either completely or partially obsolete when it is executed. The role of Commander’s Intent is to empower the people on the ground and guide their initiative and improvisation as they adapt the plan to the changed battlefield environment. It is vital in chaotic, demanding, and dynamic environments.

For example, during World War II, the sea and airborne invasion of France on D-Day had been planned for years. British, Canadian, and American airborne forces rehearsed for months a precise series of glider and parachute landings that were designed to secure bridges, road junctions, and other key targets that would enable the ground invasion forces to quickly advance inland. The airborne invasion forces took off from England and the plans went out the window. Parachute forces dropped into unmarked landing zones, gliders landed in the wrong areas, and thousands of soldiers from different units were mixed together in the night. It appeared that a military disaster had occurred. Yet, only hours later, the original military objectives were being accomplished by ad-hoc units that faced fierce German resistance. Commander’s Intent had saved the day. Leaders and soldiers at all levels understood that no matter where they landed, they had to form into units and seize the bridges and key targets. The plan was a failure, but good Commander’s Intent and superior training allowed improvisation and initiative to save the mission.

Muammar al-Gaddafi gets it but I hardly ever see it in a corporate environment!

Why “Lie to Me” is Lying to You

“Lie to Me” is a very popular primetime show with Tim Roth as the chief protagonist solving crimes by figuring out who is lying and who isn’t. It’s great entertainment but the reality is a little different. The truth is there is no tell-tale, sure-fire, absolutely reliable sign of lying. Nothing in demeanour or physiology which is always present when someone lies and always absent when someone is truthful has yet been discovered.

Some government agencies still believe that the polygraph is a lie detector. Changes in heart rate, respiration and sweating on the palms or fingers are recorded when the subject responds with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to a series of questions that have been explained before the test so that there will be no surprises. The hope is that the guilty suspect will show an increase in these measures of autonomic nervous system activity when asked a question relevant to the crime.

The polygraph can be useful if there are crucial facts known only to the police and the killer. Then what is called a guilty knowledge series of questions can be asked. For example, ‘Was Mrs Smith killed with a gun or a knife?’ The person who knows the answer, presumably only the killer, is more likely to show an increase in autonomic physiology when the correct answer is mentioned. But this method is not perfect, and very often there is no such information known only by the police and the perpetrator. In the more typical polygraph examination, accuracy is better than chance but there can be sizeable ‘false positives’ (innocents called guilty) and ‘false negatives’ (guilty persons called innocent). How many mistakes are made is not known; it depends on the examiner, the individual examined and various other factors.

Putting aside measurement of physiology, many people believe they can identify lies from demeanour: what is said, how it is said, gaze direction, posture, gesture and/or facial expression. There are many false clues in circulation, based upon conjecture, anecdote or imagination, and endlessly repeated in the media. One of the most popular, still taught in some American law enforcement agencies, is that whether you look to the left or right when asked a question distinguishes the liar from the truthful person. This is a fundamental tenet of what is called Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), but scientific tests carried out thus far are unequivocal – it is not valid. No matter where they are looking or even how they look there just isn’t a reliable foolproof indicator as to whether someone is lying or not.

For dictators all of this is made even more complicated by the fact that the fear of being disbelieved looks exactly the same as the fear of being caught in a lie. So if you are going to be a dictator and require loyalty then your best bet is to shoot everyone that makes you nervous – sound familiar?

I Wish To Make A Complaint

Recently, we have had a lot of military aircraft flying at low-level altitudes over where I live at night time. By low-level I mean low enough to make homes shake a bit and by night time I mean it’s dark and the kids have gone to bed. It is somewhat annoying and certainly a little perplexing… so much so that one of our employees decided to ring the Defence Force and find out what the hell was going on.

She was told that the air force was conducting military exercises so that their pilots could practice combat flying at night. Perfectly reasonable isn’t it? Giving pilots valuable night flying experience in simulated combat conditions over a heavily populated area. What could possibly go wrong… anyone, anyone?

Our employee (who has two small children, comes from Christchurch and is fully representative of those hardy and fiery people) was duly incensed and was given the Royal Australian Defence Force National Complaints Line number to ring. She rang it and was warmly greeted by the Royal Australian Defence Force National Complaints Answering Machine (RADFNCAM). I believe the message she left not only included details of her original complaint but also questioned the bravery of their complaints department, the cognitive ability of the planning department and the integrity of the entire Defence Force. Colourful language may also have been used for illustrative purposes.

It’s a simple thing. If you are going to give people the opportunity to complain then you need to be there to take the complaint. Again, in the immortal words of Muammar al-Gaddafi… “Protest however you want, but do not go onto the streets and squares!”

It’s been two weeks and no one has called her back.