Want To Be A Leader? Be An Old School Thinker.

By Rick Van Arnam

Northfield, Vermont

On a Thursday night in Afghanistan back in 2003, a friend of mine stumbled across an inexpensive way to entertain Afghan recruits – he would show a movie on the outside of a building. It was not uncommon to have upwards of 700 recruits sitting on the ground, leaning forward fully engaged with a movie in a language that they did not understand. The challenge, knowing they wanted to see an American film, was discovering what movie we could offer respectful of Afghan culture and that could be generally followed without understanding the language. Arnold Schwarzenegger proved perfect – specifically, the movie True Lies. Other than one seductive scene involving Jamie Lee Curtis, the movie’s action could be characterized as a collection of stunts rather than believable violence with enough of an American backdrop to satisfy the curiousity of our Afghan partners who wondered what America looked like. But if you recall the movie, you will remember that Arnold is really an American spy who leads a double life. He can’t tell his wife what he does for a living so juxtoposes a thrill-a-day life with that of a yawner careerist living in a white-collar suburb.

As an Intelligence officer, I can somewhat understand his predicament. I don’t have to lie to my wife about what I do, but I can’t tell her the specifics of how intelligence work is conducted. So I was a bit encouraged to watch my family eargerly form around me when I offered to show them what I did as an Intelligence officer in Afghanistan. Exciting curiousity quickly turned to disinterest as I described the amount of reading and notetaking I did daily perusing intelligence reports, significant activity data and story-boards as well as following news from all media sources. It was if they thought I was going to show a 3D movie and instead opened book. The reality is that intelligence work is often defined by reading, analyzing, reaching conclusions and making recommendations that end up in print or depicted on a busy powerpoint slide. And that is the point in reminding leaders that a lot of the most effective work requires thinking and solving what I call complex problems – those problems that have second, third and fourth order effects. While the Army does deploy techno-gadgets to protect our soldiers and has even cooler techno-gadgets that can find bad guys, most of today’s intelligence work remains rather old-school. Leaders balance, or effective leaders should balance, time spent in solitude reading, thinking and forming thoughts and ideas with time spent around a table with others working in groups to solve problems that do not have a math-like, scientific answer.

“Working Group” is a relatively new Army term that I encountered overseas and is used as often as any staff planning term or acronym. Working Groups have replaced many traditional meetings and the title is self-describing. Early on in our deployment, our Commander reminded the staff that our meetings were our work – that unlike a lot of meetings that all of us attend and sometimes dread, we should look forward to Working Groups because it is in these groups where we engaged others who could help solve big problems. Some Working Groups, just like meetings, were more effective than others. But what I found to be different about Working Groups and that impacted effectiveness, was the degree to which participants prepared and arrived with formed ideas that could only be arrived at through some old-school reading, note-taking and thought.

I recently read a lecture given by author, essayist and former Yale Professor William Deresiewicz given to the Plebe class at West Point about a year ago. His lecture is titled, Solitude and Leadership, and it explores the irony that leaders who are often surrounded by people and rely on others for their effectiveness, need to find quality time alone in which to think. Deresiewicz’s audience was young –the average age of the freshman class at West Point is likely nineteen – and so his listeners, and especially anyone who has been deployed, take pride in being able to muti-task, receive volumes information from various sources and communicate simultaneously with multiple devices. The problem with this, to which he alludes, is that original thoughts can’t be formed in noise-filled environs that today we casually accept as normal life. Deresiewicz says, “…and for too long we have been training leaders….who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place.”

So while I think some of today’s most complex problems are challenging AND exciting on which to work, the methodology to solve problems can be boring. Single-tasking in lieu of multi-tasking, forming ideas on paper or white boards in lieu of a screen and pausing to assess ideas in lieu of launching to action can seem pedestrian. It is this discipline that often finds the solution – which is really the ulimate prize. This approach requires not only thinking, but our best thinking. And our best thinking, like the work of an Intelligence analyst, is done the old fashion way – in a quiet place without distractions and perhaps using simple tools such as paper and pen.

We are today experiencing an overwhelming amount of Earth moving, global change. Since just the start of 2011, we have been witness to catastrophic and policitically fracturing events in Japan, Egypt and Libya that will hasten change throughout the world. These new events have moved in front of simmering interests in Iraq, the upcoming summer fighting season in Afghanistan and a globabl economy that may or may not be improving. These events are huge – they dwarf any technological leap forward no matter the hype or coolness available in an iPhone or iPad. And I have to agree with William Deresiewicz that solutions will require leaders who are able to think deeply. Among the leadership skills developed over time, don’t pass over the need, and discipline, to become an effective thinker.

RVA

Credits

Solitude and Leadership, Lecture at The Untied States Military Academy at West Point, by William Deresiewicz, Spring 2010, Posted March 1, 2010, www.theaermicanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership.