In Praise of the Battle Rhythm

A battle rhythm is an organizational schedule, but it is more. The battle rhythm is made for each subunit and nested into the rhythm of the whole organization. 

A few weeks ago a small group of leaders in my directorate approached me asking to change the meeting schedule. Some of their employees had been concerned about the amount of time that they spend in meetings, a concern of us all, and had devised a way to improve the situation. I heard them out and then approved the change on a trial basis. Word went out to all of our employees. The new schedule didn’t last long, however, because our Commanding General (CG) needed to make a change at his level which invalidated ours. Now we needed to reverse course and let everyone know. Confusion abounded; even my executive assistant wasn’t sure what she should do and when.

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Using the Military Decision Making Process in Civilian Organizations

One of the hardest tasks in any organization is to know your strategy, align actions to it, and equip people to perform the actions. Making decisions is the first step, and the MDMP can help. 

The vocabulary of the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) is not typical for civilian organizations, but the concepts are germane.  Translating MDMP into health care can be very useful for process improvement.

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