Have you ever heard of alignment? How about two degrees of separation?
Think of a navy — especially before technology. Mighty armadas sailing into battle …
We start on the same mission, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, bow to bow, stern to stern, pointed the same way, zero degrees of 360.
But let’s say with all our efforts we are slightly off. Say it’s only a degree or two. How much of a problem is that?
Let’s say our understanding of the mission is clear in our own head, in our room, or on our side of the ball but it’s not the same in another room. Maybe we think we all know how we are attacking Zero Blitz, but we aren’t completely aligned.
Say we are 358 degrees aligned. That would be over 99% on the same page. We have worked our butts off and we are 358 degrees out of 360 correct. That’s really good! We are right there, and we can fight together and win!
But what if we’re not exactly 360 degrees aligned? 358 degrees is an almost imperceptible misalignment.
Why does the Navy demand perfection on alignment? It’s dark — pitch black. Maybe a storm blows in or maybe it’s calm, but we can’t see each other. We may have lights, we may not. We are sailing — doing our jobs. But are we constantly and consistently communicating and checking our relevant positions?
Picture a battle group sailing throughout the night with two degrees of separation and not realizing it. The sun starts to come up and they see the enemy fleet on the horizon. They look to their left and right for their sister ships — their fleet. Where are they? Two degrees becomes four degrees, and then eight and 16 and 32, etc. Those ships aren’t an armada anymore. They’re just ships, ripe for picking. No match for pirates or opposing navies.
Think of a football team. Playing. Working. Fighting. Things seem good. But then, when things are at their most critical (December/January, when the big battles come, when the pirates show up), we look to our left and right and we are not as tight as we need to be.
That is the thing about not being lined up quite right; it shows up when it counts the most. That is when the two degrees is worth a lot more.
Even if the navy is still together but the battle formation isn’t as tight as it needs to be, that’s when the door opens for defeat.
It takes work. Every day. Practice and meeting. Communication. REAL communication takes courage in the form of vulnerability. The courage to put it out there to make sure we are on the same course. It really isn’t as much about what we do. It’s that we all do it TOGETHER — just how we said we would.
That is how you blow another navy out of the water.
Suggested Articles
