The Hot Wash

Almost every evolution that occurred in my Navy career was hot washed. That is a military term for reviewing the lessons learned. We debriefed every flight, every exercise, and almost every evolution. We looked at what we did right and what we did wrong. It never made us perfect at what we were doing but when those lessons learned were incorporated into the next event, it made for fewer and fewer mistakes. This especially helped in the planning phases.

Since joining the corporate world I have not seen that done very often. In my first job as a sales rep I went to my boss after the first win to see if she wanted a debrief. She asked me if we won and I said yes. Then she asked what there was to debrief. Being new to the corporate world, I guessed that winning meant not needing to review things. I was used to hot washing everything so I figured it was how things were done. After my first loss I went back with the same thing and the response was about the same with the exception of her asking what I would do differently the next time. That was the extent of the hot wash.

In successive jobs I have had much the same experience. Most of these were not small companies but big multi-billion dollar corporations. Even the company that had a process for what I call a hot wash did not enforce it, nor did it ever really even ask for one. I offered to do one and while they did agree to it, I would have thought that they would have been more interested to know why we lost a $30M+ opportunity. So I put the presentation together and gave it. They were grateful and said all the right things, but nothing really changed.

So why should you do a hot wash? That could be a rhetorical question, but worth addressing nonetheless. All of our lives we should learn from our mistakes. We all make them and nothing is perfect. But, if we don’t take a look at what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong we will set ourselves up to possibly repeating the same mistakes again. And in business, those mistakes make us look bad, at best, and can cost a lot of money, at the worst.

Hot washes shouldn’t be finger pointing exercises either. Establish a formal process to review every bid you make. Look at what you did right. Reinforce those actions. Give praise to those responsible for it. Next, look at what you did wrong. Don’t adopt the zero defect mentality over these errors. Figure out what you need to do to keep from doing it again the next time. No phase of any business venture goes perfectly. Some mistakes may not have had any impact this time, but it doesn’t mean that they may not hurt you the next time.

Take the time to establish a process for reviewing your business successes and losses. Be objective and be honest in your critiques. Leave your egos out of it too. That is the only way to get better. And in the long run, doing a hot wash will pay big dividends.

Happy New Year to you all and our wish is for much success for you in 2015!

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Copyright © 2015 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Zero Defect Mentality

How many of you work in an environment that is not tolerant of any mistake? It’s the one and done culture. Make an error and you’re gone.The Zero Defect Mentality occurs in places where the leadership, the culture, or the prevailing belief is that mistakes will not be tolerated. This can be in the military or in the corporate world. I have been in them and they are not fun places to work.

No one really wants to fail or make a mistake. But the truth is that we do both. Often. Most of us fear failure. That fear often makes us cautious, hesitant, and indecisive, among other things. Those behaviors can lead to no decision being made, or bad decisions being made in the hope of minimizing the risk of failing and looking bad. And it is not just the failure that people fear, it’s also the consequences of it: getting fired, getting demoted, being humiliated, getting passed over for that promotion, and so on.

I believe the good leader will make sure his/her people understand that no one is perfect and mistakes can and will happen. And when those mistakes do occur they will be addressed but not in a Zero Defect Mentality sort of way. In my Navy career in aviation, the price of a mistake could be fatal. That is way less likely to be the case in the corporate world,. So a good leader will foster an environment that lets people know that making a mistake can be turned into a good learning opportunity and hopefully preventing a repeat of that mistake. Don’t get me wrong, there is a difference between and honest mistake and gross negligence, and the latter should have a bigger consequence.

History is full of people that made what would have been career ending mistakes were they in a Zero Defect Mentality organization but went on to do great things. Take a look at Chester Nimitz. As an ensign he ran a destroyer into a sand bar. I am sure he was the butt of a lot of jokes but he later went on to be the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet in WWII. How might that war have ended if his naval career had been cut short over that mistake?

I leave you with this thought. Failure is always an option. Do all you can to mitigate the risk of failure but don’t make the mistake of NOT addressing the possibility of failure. Even in the things in life where I succeeded I made many mistakes along the way. I am grateful for the leaders that made those mistakes into great lessons learned and didn’t foster the Zero Defect Mentality culture.

Indecision is a Terrible Thing. Or is it? I Can’t Decide.

Following up my post on the 3 Ds of great leadership, I wanted to delve a bit more into the first of the the 3 Ds – Decide.

One of the things I have seen in my corporate career that has baffled and frustrated me far too often is when leadership can’t or won’t make a decision. I know you’ve seen it too. 

I rarely saw this in my Navy career. 

But in the corporate world, that was one of the first things I noticed – leaders afraid to make a decision. So, knowing that I came from a more regimented culture, I asked around to find out why.

I was told many things: 

People’s jobs are on the line. 

Or, politically, that person does not want to make the decision to go in a certain direction. 

They are afraid to disagree with someone. 

They are afraid of the potential dangers of a certain decision. And the list goes on. 

I was astonished. I thought that making a decision was, in part, the job of a leader. 

I can tell you that in the Navy there was never situation like ‘Oh, I don’t know, Admiral, I just don’t know enough about the target area to decide on the best way to attack it’. 

That would have gone over like a submarine with screen doors.

Leaders are supposed to make decisions. That's why they were put in a leadership role.

They make decisions on how to grow their business, what their business strategies are, whom to hire, whom to fire, whom to promote, which companies to partner with, which opportunities to pursue, etc. 

But as I said, far too often I have seen decision paralysis seemingly be the norm, and I’ve seen it at all levels of the food chain. This is one of the areas, as an executive/leadership coach, that I work with my clients about.

If you’re a leader of anything, you have to make decisions. 

Sometimes those decisions may be that there is not enough information to make a final decision. 

Then make the decision to gather the required information and set a time to get back together and factor that new information into a – Decision.

Here’s a simplified way to go about doing this. 

Define the issue that needs a decision. 

List your options. 

Discuss those options and take the inputs from your team. Make them part of the process. 

You probably didn’t get to the position of leadership because you were stupid, so use your intelligence and that of the team that surrounds you. 

Now weigh the possible outcomes. All decisions will have consequences good and/or bad. 

Once you have done all of this, make the decision you feel is best. 

Then go with it.

Not every decision will be right. You will make incorrect decisions and your people will too. 

But as leaders, you have to get away from the Zero Defect mentality that seems so pervasive. 

You know, one mistake and you’re gone! I've seen that happen all too many times. And good people were sacrificed at the altar of perfection.

I’ve learned more from the mistakes I’ve made than the first-try successes. 

Let your people learn from them too. I am not talking about gross or willful negligence, but we can all learn from honest mistakes.

So make a decision and monitor your progress. If the information you have changes, then adjust course where/when necessary.

Don’t let indecision paralyze you or your business. 

There is an axiom that was true in the military and it is just as true in the corporate world….

Lead, follow or get out of the way. But make a decision!

For more information about how The Cobalt Group can help you with leadership development, or any business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.