In the first week we looked at The Pipeline as a leadership concept derived from the military. Now, we’ll look at a second one called Peel the Orange!
Over the many thousands of years of military history military scientists have developed and evolved what is considered the world’s most advanced techniques for training human beings. Why is this so?
I believe the answer is due to “the bottom line”. In my own career I have been exposed to training in four areas of performance and I would rate them as follows in order of effectiveness:
1. Military
2. Sport/Arts
3. Business
4. Education
I think this is due to the imperatives of the various bottom lines.
In education the bottom line is: to pass the exam. The quality of training I received to this end was erratic. Most of my own educational training was largely boring with occasional exceptions. There was very little inspiration of the “Dead Poet Society” type and even less emphasis placed on PRR (Practise, Repetition & Rehearsal).
In business, I have found much greater emphasis on the inspirational and motivational type of training and the quality, overall, is higher than at school. Perhaps this is due to the business bottom line which is: to survive and make a profit. There is often a big investment in time and money at stake in an environment which is competitive, so the standard of training is higher than at school. I wondered whether to put business ahead of sports and the arts but I did not because business training still is weak in the area of PRR (Practise, Repetition & Rehearsal).
As just noted, sports and arts is next because of the high emphasis on PRR. Here the bottom line is: to win in sport, and: to perform well in front of an audience in the arts. The competition and the audience are strong bottom lines which produce high levels of excellence in training by experienced coaches and the great masters. There is also often a lot of money at stake.
But in the military passing exams, making money, beating the competitor and audience applause play relatively minor roles to the ultimate bottom line: life or death! It’s no surprise therefore that the quality of military training is so high. True, governments have much larger budgets for training than the others mentioned above and this is an advantage.
The most entertaining, shocking, interactive and successful training I ever received by the most competent and well-rehearsed instructors was in the military. The lectures, the drills, the exercises, the operations were always laced with large amounts of PRR and invariable were better-planned and better-executed than anything I have seen before or since.
My passion has always been to liberate these training methods from the military fort or garrison and make them available to business and other careers. The same military training processes that are applied to martial arts can also be applied to career and business arts and so that is what we will be doing in this ATLC training.
PEEL THE ORANGE!
If you take ten people at random and you give them an orange and then you say to them: Peel the orange! guess what you end up with?
Well, if you are lucky you MAY end up with one peeled orange! What you are more likely to get instead is the following:
– Why me?
– Why do I have to peel the orange?
– Why can’t I cut it instead of peeling it?
– What about an apple, I’d rather peel an apple?
– I don’t know how.
– I never peeled an orange before.
– You do it.
– Get someone else to do it.
– I’ll do it later when I have time.
– I don’t have a knife, can you get me a knife?
– How do I peel it? Where do I start?
– Do you want all the orange peeled or only half?
– Shall I peel it this way or that way?
etc etc
An important leadership skill is being able ‘to peel oranges’ on command. Being able to effectively and efficiently carry out an instruction without any fuss or bother is an important leadership skill. It requires discipline, skill, initiative, motivation, self-confidence, risk-taking, achievement, energy and a host of leadership qualities.
In the military, before an NCO or officer is given the right to give orders, they must first undergo a lot of training to make sure they have an advanced level of skill in carrying out orders from others. To give and take is part of the same concept.
There are, of course, the obvious qualifications. The orders or instructions to be followed must be legal, competent and possible to carry out. In the professional military, very few are not.
Needlesstosay, in ATLC any and all instructions for you to follow will be transparent, legal and possible to do.
You have to decide up front before the pipeline whether or not you feel they will be competent.
Once you enter the pipeline then all you have to do is to ‘peel the oranges’!
DFQ #12:
List three benefits below that are likely to come from acquiring this leadership skill called Peel the Orange!1. A benefit for me (the trainee) is …
2. A benefit for you (the trainer) is …
2. A benefit for the class (the others) is …
Peel the orange.
1. A benefit for me (the trainee) is understand what is really required
2. A benefit for you (the trainer) is the student seeing what is really required
2. A benefit for the class (the others) is everyone can see the teamwork all heading in the same direction.
A benefit for me is that by embracing the concept — expressed by Alfred Lord Tennyson, perhaps in a way a bit extreme, but understandable considering the circumstances – “mine is not to question why, mine is but to do or die” will allow me to kick out extraneous and distracting thoughts and ideas, thus being able to completely focus on the task at hand.
Benefits for the trainer will include refining his ability to communicate the instructions clearly and being able to see tasks accomplished in potentially different ways, some of which are in ways the trainer may not have conceived.
Benefits for the class will be the reinforcement and enthusiasm that comes when a group as individuals are dealing with the same task and, as also for the trainer, to see that task accomplished in potentially different ways.
benefit for me as trainee is to be apart of ateam and get chance to be participant.
benefit for me as trainer is to fucose on everything and study it well.
benefit for the class is team work doing
1. A benefit for me (the trainee) is …the more oranges I peel the more effective I become
2. A benefit for you (the trainer) is …the more oranges the trainee peels the more likely it is to complete the pipeline
2. A benefit for the class (the others) is …the more oranges and the more commitments are made to complete the pipeline the more integrated and efficient the whole becomes
Pipeline and peel the oranges are interrelated and using both builds competence .
Benefits from acquiring Peel the Orange leadership skills
1. As a trainee i benefit by developing questions that I can of others to help understand what we are trying to accomplish–ask rather than tell
2. as a trainer I benefit by earning better how to bring out the est in others with my willingness to learn and to change/improve
3. As a class, we benefit from each others experience recognizing the value of PRR
A benefit for me the trainee is able to see how my decisions are made over certain issues.
A benefit for you the trainer will be flexible and able to be a selfstarter instead of waiting for a signal.
A benefit for the class the others will find decision making as a skill that needs simple and smart thinking.
A benefit for me as a trainee: clear instructions and guidelines will make it easier to learn and will make sure practice is more effective
as a trainer: how people are understanding information and assimilating change will become clearer and this will make it easier to help them
for the others: the power of the group and what has been called social learning will add value to the learning for individuals in a group, it will strengthen the dynamics for them and better the group’s performance.
Peeling the Orange – benefits
A benefit for me is to participate in this training with 100% integrity
A benefit for me the trainer is to understand that trainer/student seem to be two sides of the same coin
A benefit for the class is that we are all strong examples of the process
A benefit for me is a guaranteed commitment to participate and do the best I can.
A benefit for you is a guaranteed commitment to participate, do the best I can, and provide feedback.
A benefit for the class is a guaranteed commitment to participate, do the best I can, provide feedback, and to be relied upon to help other team members.
A benefit for me is that it keeps me focused on the training. No ifs or buts.
A benefit for you the trainor is that you will see whether the training is really implemented.
A benefit for the class is that everyone is focused on the learning and trusts the trainor. No energy is wasted.