Engage to Influence
Written by Nate Palin
Control vs Engagement
Change agents in the world of warfighter human performance tend to overvalue control and under value engagement.
We want both breadth and depth of command. We want a captive audience, at scale, with the time, infrastructure, and equipment to support our efforts. We want to conduct an orchestra of operators moving their bodies with instrumental precision as they execute the highly intentional and predetermined notes we’ve assigned to their strength and conditioning program.
Unfortunately, we generally lack access to or control over the masses within the units we work so we hang our hats on the 25% of “bought-in” personnel who achieve significant, both statistically and anecdotally, improvements in measurable metrics like 1-repetition maxes and distance run times. Our success stories detail the individual selection candidates who trained 2-a-days, the squads or teams who integrated all of our HP resources into their training, the company sized element that trusted us to assign and conduct its pre-deployment physical preparation, or the cohort that graduated an extensive course hosted by the HP team.
What about the other 75%?
We might pretend they don’t exist or we might blame them for choosing not to outsource human performance expertise to educated, certified, and likely experienced coaches. We often engage with them, almost unintentionally and sometimes even begrudgingly, unaware of the significance of the influence we might achieve within seemingly meaningless interactions. Our frustration with their refusal to incorporate most of what we told them overshadows our satisfaction with their acceptance and inclusion of at least some of what we told them.
The human performance professionals who consistently seek out and capitalize on opportunities to engage warfighters - to any degree for any amount of time in any setting – are achieving the most collective influence.
The most meaningful metric in military human performance, to include programs within special operations forces, is participation. However, I believe many programs need to redefine what it means to participate.
Which is better?
90% improvement of 10% of the force vs 10% improvement of 90% of the force
Truth told, unless you’re leading the unit, it’s not your decision to make. However, I’m hopeful you feel that a smaller but still meaningful improvement across almost the entirety of the force is preferred to an astronomical improvement of a fraction of the force.
There are exceptions to this distribution because specialized units and specialized personnel who conduct specialized missions, in my opinion, have earned and necessitate greater allocation of specialized resources compared to the majority of the military. Yes, I realize that providing more HP assets to units that already demonstrate comparative superiority of physicality means that assets are aligned based on mission demands more than personnel shortcomings. But I also believe that it’s a responsibility of leadership to drive a physical culture that requires external experts to advance its fitness. Coaches, in my opinion, should not be employed to light a fire under a lazy unit’s ass. They should be hired to enhance the technique of the jump that occurs in response to the flame that LEADERS ignite.
How to Achieve Influence
How do we achieve more influence? In short, by creating more touchpoints and leveraging those moments no matter how small and inconsequential they might seem. Compile small victories by choosing progress over perfection and valuing micro engagement in the absence of macro control.
Show Up in their Spaces
Hold a Hallway Conversation
Respect Personal Preferences
Accept the Invitation
Educate at Every Turn
Be Available
Show Up in their Spaces
Knocking on the door of a team room can be uncomfortable, especially when it’s a team you don’t work with currently. Discomfort gives way to connection after a cup of coffee (which will either be unbelievably good or unbelievably awful) and some light verbal hazing. Attending funerals and participating in range activities are even less comfortable but they are also both opportunities to increase empathy, show vulnerability, and convey genuine care for the people you are entrusted to support. Don’t wait for an invitation but don’t make yourself at home either. You are usually welcome but you are always still a visitor. Do not confuse a day in the life with a lifetime of what warfighters endure.
Hold a Hallway Conversation
You’d be amazed how many military professionals have regurgitated, often preaching to their subordinates, peers, family, and friends as if it were gospel, something they heard within a 30 second long interaction with a human performance professional. They might not even know the coach’s name but they certainly know that, “Post activation potentiation is a great way to enhance power output to improve the Standing Power Throw on the ACFT.” A brief exchange by the water cooler and suddenly there’s a leader whose squad and sons are both pairing Broad Jumps with their Back Squats after years, if not generations, of never training power.
Respect Personal Preferences
Many of us rather work with a warfighter who has never touched a weight instead of a warfighter who trains religiously with a methodology that runs contrary to our own. I understand the rationale that favors working with a blank canvas but I also realize the impracticality of polarizing a relationship with someone whose training likely aligns with 75% of your professional beliefs.
“We could all do better to question our own approach more and judge the approach of others less. ”
You can add influential insight without owning or overhauling a warfighter’s physical training, even if you’re vehemently opposed to how he or she goes about business. You can also respect his or her approach without liking it. I know a lot of us love the phrase, “What you permit, you promote,” but I believe the absolutism in that phrase ignores the reality of individual ownership and just how difficult it can be to navigate the expansive field of gray that connects the unrealistic simplicity of black vs white idealism.
Accept the Invitation
I have turned down invitations because of pride and I have turned down invitations because of discomfort - Both are tied tightly to my ego. As a coach of Green Berets, I initially felt I did not need to attend their training events because I’d done a decent amount of real-world missions with Green Berets in a past professional life. However, the value was far less in observing the interplay of physicality with strategy, tactics, skills, and techniques, and far more in spending time in their comfort zone and appreciating their willingness to invite me in.
Some situations include invitations to post duty day beers or Friday skiing to kick off a 4-day weekend. Those invitations can be a little more sensitive and require a little more tact and consideration of professional etiquette. When you cannot accept, be sure to express your appreciation and maybe suggest an alternative because, as my Uncle Arnie says, “Be careful turning down free tickets because you might not get an offer next time.”
Educate at Every Turn
Poolside at the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Tactical Strength and Conditioning Annual Training (aka Conference) a few years back, a younger Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) coach introduced himself to me and, soon after, expressed his frustration with his role at the unit he served. Contrary to what he expected when he accepted the offer, the role involves considerably more time spent educating soldiers and little time spent coaching soldiers on the weight room floor.
I understand his frustration intimately because my first military coaching gig included a lot of formally teaching and only a little time actively coaching sessions. Eventually, I realized the benefit of empowering operators to make better decisions about their physical training. Their time without me was more than one hundred fold their time with me and education both scaled and traveled absurdly well. Upon arrival, I tried to create opportunities to hands-on coach. With some humbling enlightenment, I refocused my efforts toward seizing or creating opportunities to educate so they could be more independent.
Be Available
I saved the most important for last. I’ve heard stories of coaches hiding in offices and I’ve been sent screen shots of coaches bragging about leaving work several hours early because “nobody will know.” The absolute least we can do is be available.
I understand we cannot be everything for everyone. At Group, we refused to train soldiers’ hobbies and. I still stand by that, especially given that we already had a significant foothold of buy-in. However, we’d still be willing to offer advice and guide people in the right direction. Eventually, we lowered other barriers to increase our availability instead of trying to fit the operators’ world into our agenda’s.
Endex
Many of us in leadership and human performance positions overvalue control and undervalue engagement. Engagement opens the door to influence. Engagement is not passive. You need to actively show in their space, converse, respect their preferences, earn and accept invitations, educate, and BE AVAILABLE.
Creating connections that allow for your expertise to be invited to the stage is simple but not easy. It requires nothing more than consistent effort and genuine care. In the words of Bruce Springsteen, ‘You can’t light a fire without a spark.” Engagement provides a positive friction point that can generate the spark needed to ignite a cultural movement.
AGD Communications
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