Questions.

‘The Kennedy Tapes - Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis' is a verbatim account of all meetings that President Kennedy had with his advisers in mid-October 1962 in response to the Soviet Union installing nuclear missiles in Cuba - thus threatening the world with nuclear war.

Kennedy’s first meeting is a lesson in good decision-making.

He called together 12 advisers.

His advisers spoke 285 times.

The President spoke 66 times - mostly no longer than a sentence.

The first 11 times he spoke he asked questions and listened to the answers.  

The first non-question from him was ‘Thank you’.

He then asked 21 more questions - a total of 32 questions - before making a statement.

His first statement to the meeting was a summary of the information that had been given to him.

He then asked six more questions and listened to each answer.

His 40th statement was ‘Well now, let’s decide what we ought to be doing’.

His asked nine more questions.

He made four asides.

His 54th statement was to ask that the meeting reconvene later in the evening. 

He made three more statements.

He followed these with six questions.

Then two statements, a question, two statements, four more questions, one statement.

He ended with a question.

President Kennedy, the most powerful man in the world, facing a decision that could result in nuclear armageddon, asked four times as many questions as he made statements.

The only decision that he made was that they should have another meeting.

Personal

I was eavesdropping on a conversation between two men sitting just outside my peripheral vision. We were all waiting for a delayed flight departure. One was telling the other how he had asked Human Resources for leave to help his family relocate interstate where he had been posted. HR had refused, saying that it was outside their budget.

"You've seen their financial state," I heard him say to his colleague. "I've just ignored their hypocrisy in the past. But this is personal now. I shall get even. Or better-than-even. I'll just bide my time. "

I wondered how much their company had saved by denying the executive leave to help his family manage the disruption to their lives that the company had caused.  I knew as he did that the cost would never appear on any spreadsheet. There literally would be no accounting for it. There would be no information to allow the HR Department decision maker to connect their decision with its consequences on the company's bottom line. There would be no learning.

I sensed both men rise from their seats so I looked over towards them. I wanted to I see if I could tell from their appearance what their business may be, and thus how the disgruntled one could extract his revenge. 

They walked out of the café, both putting on their airline pilot caps as they went. 

Learning

John Worsfold, the former coach of the West Coast Eagles AFL team said recently: 

"We want to learn about each other in every game we play." 

What a refreshing insight. It suggests that the people who we work with aren't just a means to an end. They aren't just 'team members' who contribute to some work goal. 

They are our our teachers. 

They teach us about ourselves. 

If we play to learn.

Declaration

Good decision making is choice making.

A decision is a declaration.

‘Here I am.’

‘Here’s who I am.’

‘Here’s where I’m going.’

The moment we make that decision - our declaration - we raise our heads above the parapet of our sheltering trench of anonymity.

And wait for the sound of response.

Of the crack-whizz of the incoming sniper rounds.

Or of applause.

Or worst of all - Silence.

Teacher

Flight Sergeant Tanya Fraser, CSM, represents the hundreds of cadets, sailors, soldiers, airmen and officers whose professionalism, kindness and patience have taught me and others about the privilege of leadership during my 30+ years of involvement in military organisations.

The great advantage of military service is that unless you're an airman recruit about to get off the bus on the first day of Rookies, you're almost always in charge of someone. A Corporal points an open palm at a bewildered and pimply recruit and barks 'You! Yes, YOU! Get these people into three orderly ranks. NOW!' Instant leadership practice with compliant followers and immediate 'feedback' yelled in response to every mistake.

(It's not really Leadership of course, any more than a police officer's charisma leads you to breathe into her breathalyser. But it's Leadership with its L Plates on.)

In the military, your teachers call you 'Sir'. The really good ones patiently and generously allow you to 'lead' them, when really they are shaping and educating you. Luckily for me I have been taught by some of the best.