The blog Customer Experience Matters had a good weekend post that I would like to expand on. CEM described the Marine Corp technique to teach shooting as follows:
When Marines get rifle lessons, they learn the acronym BRASS: Breathe, Relax, Aim, Squeeze, Shoot.
The management lessons for startups (and any size business) come from the teaching instructions:
- Breathe By breathing you take the time to steady yourself; quick reactions are not the steady, deliberate actions required to achieve the objective
- Relax Calm action increases the likelihood of hitting the target; make the time to think about your business in a relaxed and deliberate way in order to really understand the strategic opportunities (CME made the same point)
- Aim You have to be focused on the target; Focus on the objective and do not get distracted by other sexy things, such as diversification, acquisitions, international expansion, etc.
- Squeeze Don't jerk the trigger; focus requires that you deliberately proceed to the objective and not constantly be changing direction intentionally or unintentionally
- Shoot When you are ready (BRAS), shoot; premature actions do not lead to achieving the objective
I believe that the U.S. military is an excellent source of management (and leadership) thinking. A good book on the management theory of the Marine Corps is Fundamentals of Marine Corps Leadership. Additional information is in this Marine Corps Powerpoint Download Fund_Of_MC_LDSHP
