Military to Ops…

As startups face rapidly evolving markets, operational challenges, and the need to scale efficiently, drawing inspiration from unconventional sources can be the key to unparalleled success. 💡

We've noticed that quite a few ops leaders come from military backgrounds, so we naturally grew curious about their experiences - and what better way is there to share juicy ops knowledge than a classic ON roundtable? 😎 

Scroll down to get the findings! 💡

Our panel of ops leaders with military backgrounds

Event recording and slides

You can watch the recording of this event (and our previous events) on our YouTube channel here:

Key takeaways - learn from ops leaders

“Create a stable environment so people can develop the best they can. By planning, you’re providing them stability and the stability would then provide them a better and calmer environment to work in, and develop themselves.”

~ André Mantiega, Senior Clerk at NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA); ex Portuguese Navy

“Model your behaviour as you would expect of your teams. Show everyone that there'll be consequences for people at any level. If everyone is held accountable at every level, people are pushed to do the right thing. It's not necessarily that leaders are inherently better people who have stronger values - it's the system that drives the values into you.”

~ Ben Westcott, Director of Delivery at Undo; ex-British Army

“Do the right thing even when no one’s looking. It's very important to have strong values and for that to trickle down throughout the whole process. It needs to be something that you practice and refer to, every day. Judge the decisions you make, not just on the commercials, not just on the numbers, but on whether they align with your stated values. If you can't trust that you have a shared sense of what's right and what you're trying to achieve, then I'd question whether you can trust that person fully to be able to make the right decisions when things are under pressure. This is one thing that the military is incredible at - having the moral courage to ask the right questions, ask the hard questions, and do the right thing.”

~ Paul David Mather, Startup Mentor; ex-British Army

“Optimise success by understanding and planning for ambiguity. Look at the context in which you’re operating and examine the factors that are present: the competition, the market, your internal capabilities, the time you've got at your disposal. Think very deliberately through those factors and the risks that each of those poses to your ability to achieve an objective. Draw actions from that and weave them into your plan.”

~ Rory Jones, Head of Operations and Intelligence at SenseOn; ex-British Army

“Know your people. Be clear in yourself about the role that you’re in, who the people are around you, how you can best leverage them - and focus on building those trusting relationships, by setting the right boundaries.”

~ Zoe Williams, Director of Deal Execution at Arkenstone, ex-Royal Navy

Event summary

Please note that this summary has been written by ChatGPT summarizing the event transcript.

1. Purpose and Alignment: Establishing a clear purpose and alignment across the organization is crucial. In the military, missions are defined with clear objectives, which helps guide teams effectively. In commercial operations, having a well-defined purpose can help teams understand their goals and reduce ambiguity, leading to better execution.
2. Planning and Risk Management: The military emphasizes thorough planning, identifying risks, and developing contingency plans. This approach helps organizations navigate uncertainties and adapt to challenges swiftly. Commercial operations can benefit from structured planning processes, including pre-mortems to anticipate potential failures and strategies to manage risk effectively.
3. Resilience Building: Military training builds resilience by emphasizing rigorous feedback loops and learning from failures. Commercial operations can emulate this by conducting pilots, accepting and learning from failures, and fostering a culture where teams can iterate and adapt quickly.
4. Leadership and Management: Military leadership is grounded in values and ethical decision-making, ensuring consistency and accountability. In commercial operations, investing in leadership training, fostering a culture of constructive feedback, and emphasizing values-driven decision-making can help create strong, ethical organizations.
5. Delegation and Team Dynamics: The military teaches leaders to delegate effectively, leveraging the skills of team members. In commercial operations, encouraging leaders to trust and empower their teams can lead to better outcomes and cultivate a supportive culture.
6. Culture and Ethics: The military emphasizes living values, creating a culture of accountability and moral courage. In commercial operations, this can be achieved by modeling ethical behavior from the top down, embedding values in daily practices, and implementing feedback mechanisms to ensure alignment.

In conclusion, commercial operations leaders can implement these practices to build resilient, aligned, and effective organizations, learning from the disciplined and structured approach of military operations.