Responding to Michael B Ayers in LO25766 --
Michael, writing about one of his staff members, writes:
>I noticed that he (as a former Marine) bristled when people equated
>'military' with 'command-and-control.' He recently gave me a book which
>describes the techniques used by the US Marines. I read it, and heartily
>recommend it:
> Corps Business by David Freedman
I spent 20 years in the Navy and, since retiring in 1974, have had lots of
opportunity to bristle when people trotted out their stereotypes of how
the military works. Indeed, I've had so many opportunities that I've had
to give up bristling because there just isn't time enough to take
advantage of all those opportunities.
One of the more fascinating observations from my perspective is that those
who tend to view the military as command and control aren't those who
never served; instead, it's those who served a single hitch. I've
concluded they got a glimpse of the way things work, a superficial view,
but weren't around long enough to study the way things work. As for my
own "bristling," it didn't and doesn't tie to any wrongheaded view of the
military in general or any service in particular; I used to bristle
because of what such a view implied about me, namely, that I was an
unthinking, compliant little bundle of muscle and bone (but no brain) that
could simply be ordered about, willy-nilly, and that I would uncaringly,
unthinkingly do as ordered. That, I can assure you, was never the case.
Does that mean there are no aspects of the military that work on a command
and control basis? Definitely not. Does it mean that there aren't any
people in the military who go around acting as though all they have to do
is bark an order and everyone will hop to it? Indeed, one of my favorite
stories about knowledge work and knowledge workers comes from an incident
that occurred on board an old WWII Fletcher class destroyer in Subic Bay
(Philippines) in 1957.
I was back aft, shooting the breeze with a Gunners Mate 2/C who was
repairing one of the gun mounts, when our division officer approached.
He laced into us both for "goofing off" and ordered the Gunners Mate back
to work. The Gunners Mate smiled and asked, "Are you ordering me to fix
this here gun mount, sir?" Our division officer stepped squarely into the
trap when he replied, "You're damn right I am!" The Gunners Mate smiled
again, saluted smartly, and said, "Aye-aye, sir. What would you like me
to do first?" Our division officer sputtered and fumed for a few moments,
then stormed off, unable to issue the orders that had been requested. I
knew from that moment on that, in many cases, the authority to issue
orders was an empty trapping of rank.
All organizations have their share of martinets, clowns, incompetents and
generally insufferable fools, just as they have their share of competent
professionals, committed contributors and exemplary leaders. But, as I've
said before, the military, unlike so many civilian organizations, is a
system governed by law, e.g., the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ)
and, in my case, Navy Regulations. Members of the U.S. military are
required to obey all lawful orders; they are not required to obey all
orders. (The reason for this was distinction was illustrated at
Nuremburg.) There is no corresponding system of laws which binds all
members of a corporation in the private sector. Consequently, most of the
arbitrary and capricious exercise of authority I've witnessed in my life
has been observed in the private sector, not the military. It is in the
private sector, not the military, where the stereotypical view of "command
and control" plays itself out.
Gee, I guess I'm bristling again.
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
"Assistance at A Distance"
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@att.net
(609) 490-0095
--Fred Nickols <nickols@att.net>
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