Sir
William Slim and Organizational Transformation
by Robert B. Denhardt
Director of Leadership Programs, Price School
of Public Policy
University of Southern California
Recently I posted a critical view of the notion of
organizational vision, especially as the term vision has evolved into specific
targets for production or behavioral change. I talked soon after with my
friend John Dick from British Columbia about this and he suggested that I take a
look at the life and works of Sir William Slim.
John told me that of one the most outstanding
examples of institutional transformation occurred in World War II in Burma and
is described in Field Marshal Sir William Slim’s autobiography “Defeat Into
Victory”.
To set the historical context: In early
1942 Slim was appointed commander of Burma Corps, described by a compatriot as
“a promotion one would not have wished on an enemy, let alone an old
friend”. In late 1932, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the newly
organized 14th Army Group comprised of a polyglot of British, Hindu and Muslim
Indian, Gurkha, and East and West African formations.
His 14th Army (known as the "Forgotten Army)
fought in difficult terrain against a highly committed enemy and did so with
limited resources and with one of the most ethnically diverse forces in
history. He led that army through a long retreat, restored morale, then led it
to victory.
Slim recognized that one of his first tasks
following the retreat would be to strengthen the morale of the defeated and
shattered army. He reasoned that “morale, if it is to endure, must have
certain foundations: spiritual; intellectual; and material. Spiritual
first, because only spiritual foundations can stand real strain. (Slim wasn't
using the term spiritual to refer to a particular religion - and of course he
had many different religions represented among his troops. It is likely
he intended something more like "connected to a larger purpose, emotional,
intuitive.") Intellectual next, because people are swayed by reason as
well as by feelings. Material last – important, but last because the very
highest kinds of morale are often met when material conditions are lowest.
He elaborated the foundations of morale as follows:
1) Spiritual
a) People must be made to feel that they are
engaged in a good and noble enterprise that is important to society.
b) The method of achievement must be active.
c) People must feel that what they are and what
they do matters towards the goals of the enterprise.
2) Intellectual
a) People must believe that the goals can be
achieved; that they are not out of reach.
b) People must believe that the organization they
work for is an efficient one that will provide a context for the effective
employment of their efforts; that it will not squander their time and emotional
resources on useless or irrelevant activities
3) Material
a) People must feel that they will get fair and
respectful treatment from their superiors and from the organization.
b) People must be given a voice in decision-making.
c) As far as possible people must be given the
legal and material tools to carry out their jobs effectively and efficiently.
From late 1943 to May 1945 Slim totally changed the
culture of the 14th Army Group, then fought a brilliant series of offensive
battles that led to the defeat of all Japanese forces in Burma – the single
biggest land-based defeat of the Japanese in the war.
On rebuilding the moral and effectiveness of the
British/Indian army, Slim ascribed the failures of his predecessors to overly
rigid strategies that became liabilities when situations were in rapid change.
He defined a good strategy as “a commonly understood and accepted
framework or basis from which to adapt to uncertainty and change.”
He points out that a strategy begins to enter
obsolescence the moment it’s formulated, and thus is time-limited and must be
regularly revisited. He attributes his successes to the creation of a
flexible strategy that provided both enough direction to ensure cohesion and
sufficient latitude for his field officers to make plans, take decisions and
initiate action based on local conditions and changing circumstances – not a
bad objective for any organization!
Slim also wrote about leadership and management:
“What is leadership? I would define it as the projection of personality. If
leadership is this projection of personality then the first requirement is a
personality to project. The personality of a successful leader is a blend of
many qualities - courage, will power, knowledge, judgement and flexibility of
mind.”
And, finally, he clearly thought of leadership as
an art: “Leadership is of the spirit compounded of personality and vision; its
practice is an art. Management is of the mind, more a matter of accurate calculation,
of statistics, of methods, timetables, and routine; its practice is a science.
Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.”
What strikes me is that writing about seventy years
ago, Slim captures the essence of the most contemporary thinking on
leadership! Contemporary leaders would do well to listen to this
"voice from the past."
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