Don Vandergriff served 24 years as a Marine, a Tennessee Army National Guard soldier and an Army armor officer. He teaches and writes on leadership education. We asked him about the teaming behind mission command.
Intent as outcome
Don connects objectives and key results to mission command. Mission command begins with outcome as intent. Leaders give the why and leave the how to their people.
Learning by doing
Experiential learning and debriefing are the best ways to teach and learn mission command. Don explains demo-do-teach, an apprenticeship model for leadership development. He also traces the Scrum product owner role back to mission command.
Command as leadership
Don puts orders simply: intent, task, a vision of success and the limits. Command is about leadership and appreciation.
Mission command depends on shared orientation, so people can act on intent without waiting.
What would change if your next assignment came with only the intent, the task and the limits?
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Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.