Lines.

On 23 November China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea and warned of military action if any aircraft entered it without permission.

A pair of United States Air Force B52 aircraft flew through the ADIZ today and nothing happened.

In 1973 Libya declared the Gulf of Sidra as closed to ships and aircraft from other nations. The US regularly sent ships and aircraft through the Gulf and in 1981 shot down two Libyan fighters that fired at its carrier based fighters.

Under International Law, if nations accept by their actions unilateral declarations by one nation about the extent of its sovereignty for long enough, then the re-defined boundaries become part of the law. Powerful countries like the United States make a point of exercising their freedom of navigation to show that they have not accepted them.

If military aircraft aren't traversing through other countries' ADIZ then they're 'tickling' them. 'Tickling the ADIZ' is flying close to a declared ADIZ boundary and occasionally ducking over it and back out. It is designed to trigger a response from the other country so that the 'tickling' military can gather information about the other's military capabilities.

Aircraft ducks in - ADIZ country activates radar, sends orders and other command and control communications that can be intercepted and analysed, aircraft might be scrambled to intercept, giving an insight into reaction times - aircraft ducks back out, laden with information collected about the other country's defences.

Despite their military utility, ADIZ are a creature of civilian aviation and military aircraft are exempt. They are intended to give air traffic control greater power over civilian aircraft that are in international airspace, but intend to enter sovereign airspace. But if there are eight radar contacts seeking permission to enter an ADIZ and seven declare themselves then it's a good guess what the eighth one is.

Laws, policies, procedures, contracts, agreements, mission statements, values statements, duty statements, codes of conduct, working hours, meeting schedules, delegation registers, deadlines. These are the ADIZ of an organisation. They declare: 'If you do this, you can expect us to do that. If you cross this line, we will respond in this way.'

The lines that we draw and our responses to them literally define us. We are revealed, tested and shaped by the decisions that we make relative to the boundaries in organisations and in our lives, and in the way that we respond to our own and and others' transgressions of them.

In a healthy organisation, boundaries are a shorthand way of an organisation saying:

'We know by our expertise and experience that our Widget is best made if you stay this side of the line. We don't want every person to have to measure out the line themselves or to re-learn what our lawyers, accountants, marketers, HR department, investors and customers have already told us about where the line should be. You've got better things to do - like making the Widget. We've got better things to do than explaining all our thinking behind these boundaries. So you just need to know - here's the line. Don't cross it.

'We also know that many of you will want to test the line or duck over it to see what happens out of your inherent curiosity, mischief, ignorance, laziness, or mistake. Please pay attention to the lines and don't cross them for any reason. Because your innocent action looks exactly the same as that of someone who has more sinister intentions. We don't want to have to inquire into each person's motives. Plus, we want people with good judgement who pay attention and respect our lines. So just stay this side of the line please. Thank you.'

In a healthy organisation, lines are drawn sparingly and only when the law or the Widget demand them, and not as mere power statements. If they are drawn when only absolutely essential, transgressions or 'tickling' of the lines must have clear and unequivocal consequences because by definition they threaten the existence of the organisation's Widget.

As even the Director of Values said in one organisation: 'Do whatever you want within the boundaries, but cross them and you'll get shot.'

Breaches of boundaries can reveal more about a person than that they merely crossed a line.

An organisation's response to a breach can reveal a great deal about the organisation.

Boundaries are the foundation of Good Decision Making. It's Step 2.

Good decision making is an essential part of an organisation's Integrity.

Integrity is doing what you said that you were going to do.

Transition.

‘How did it go?'

Her face was flushed and sweaty after her first day of leading tour groups around New Norcia.

‘Good. No - Excellent. Well, nervous at first. And I nearly lost it at one stage.

'I was walking along with fifteen people behind me and I turned to ask Belinda something. And then I realised that Belinda wasn’t there anymore. It was just me.

'I looked back and saw all those people following me. Me! I started to freak. It hit me that I was It. I’d never thought about what it would be like until then. My stomach started churning and I just wanted to run. I suddenly felt all this responsibility. It happened in a rush.’

‘You obviously didn’t run.’

‘No. I looked over my shoulder and saw that they were all still following behind me. So I just kept walking. Kept leading them to the next stop on the tour. And then the next one after that.

About halfway through I began to relax. I realised that I just had to keep walking and that they would follow me. I know the town history and they wanted to hear about it. I almost started laughing at one point because I knew that I could go anywhere and say anything and that they would follow and listen and nod. Scary to think what I could have done without them knowing any different and anyone to tell them otherwise.

'By the end, I was enjoying it.'

True Leaders - not PowerPoint ones - you remember the feeling of transition.

The churning stomach. The weight of other people's decision making loading upon your shoulders like discarded rifles surrendered by a defeated army.

The sound of a serious stranger's voice coming from your mouth with your Father's words, or a teacher's, or a book, or a movie - from somewhere but not from your heart. 

That first decision that you made to lead those people somewhere that you eventually learned - or are still learning - is leading you back to yourself.

Leaders are brave.

Disengaged.

The Gallup organisation recently released a report that 87% of workers in the world are either not engaged or actively disengaged from their work. 

In Australia, the percentage  of engaged workers is a little higher at 24%. Yippee.

Only 19% of Australian bosses are engaged in their jobs. An interesting form of leadership - 'Follow me and be disengaged!'

(If you're someone's boss reading this and you're thinking 'Meh...', then it's likely you're one of the 81%.)

Gallup estimates that disengaged workers cost Australia $54.8 Billion a year. That's almost double the Education budget.

Think about that.

It's breathtakingly remarkable.

Each day in Australia, three out of four people:

Sit in traffic.

Pull their chairs up to their keyboards.

Occupy that space.

Briefly vacate it to sing 'Happy Birthday Miriam' alongside mostly other disengaged workers in the staff room and despite a 75% chance that Miriam didn't care.

Perhaps have a meeting with three out of four other disengaged workers to report to a boss who's probably not interested.

Sit in traffic.

Grow older.

Repeat. 251 times a year. For half a century.

What to do?

Engagement begins with the act of decision making.

When we make good decisions, we declare who and where we are.

We nail our colours to the mast.

We reveal ourselves.

We connect with other workers, our boss, customers, critics, with the organisation and its Widget.

We invite, demand, call on them to do the same.

Bosses - give your workers Widget clarity, authentic support, trust and affirmation and delegate decisions to the lowest appropriate level. Teach them about how to make a good decision and model it yourself.

Back them even when there's a mistake. Back them in front of your boss. Back them when someone complains.

Most of all, back yourself to have the courage and leadership to trust your workers.

This act of bravery alone will scare you into engagement with them.

Workers - make good decisions. Don't wait for permission - just make them methodically and learn from it. Your fear will surely engage you with your boss in what happens next.

We must stand up on our desks and shout 'O Captain, My Captain!'

Customised.

Happiness is a customised Widget .

Each one is hand made.

Bespoke.

Many people set off for work each day to make the Happiness Widget.

For themselves. Or their boss. Or their boss's boss. Or their spouse. Or their parents.

Making the Happiness Widget tailored for another is difficult.

Making the Happiness Widget fitted for two is almost impossible.

It's why work is so hard for some.

No boss says: 'Here's your desk. Pay day is every second Thursday. Make me happy.'

No worker says: 'Thanks boss. Make me happy. Make my Mother happy.'

Yet many of us measure the success of our labour by how it makes someone else feel.

(I tried once and failed.)

Or expect their boss to make their happiness.

Of course if happiness is the express Widget - then that's clear. Challenging, but clear.

If we choose to make Happiness our Widget then that's up to us.

Just don't expect the boss to reciprocate.

The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia recently agreed:

'[The provision of job satisfaction, a sense of identity, self-worth, emotional well-being and dignity] may indeed be amongst the consequences of having a good job in a company run by good management, something to which every employee would aspire. However, emotions such as senses of identity, self-worth and dignity are felt in the breast of the employee, are highly subjective and would, necessarily, be felt to differing extents by different employees within the same working environment. I do not believe that the common law has come close to making the employer responsible for emotions of this kind, or to giving legal consequences to the fact that they are not generated in a particular situation.' 

Grief.

A very intelligent and competent friend of a friend was caught up in a workplace dispute recently.

He described how he felt:

'wounded',

'the kind of workplace I cannot tolerate',

'heartbroken',

'grief',

'lost my joy and cannot seem to get it back'.

While intelligent and worldly, this was his first experience of workplace conflict.

He had assumed that if he did his job well and with all his heart, that he would be protected and supported by the organisation.

He was wrong.

He's now questioning everything.

Not just work.

Everything.

Different.

The Leader creates Space.

A manager patrols it.

The Leader defines Purpose.

A manager measures it.

The Leader Equips.

A manager maintains.

The Leader Affirms.

A manager reviews.

The Leader Retreats.

A manager remains behind.

Better.

'A critical task of leadership is to protect space for the expression of people's doubts'.

Peter Block

Gordon's weekly meeting rant was an extended version that day.

I sat on my side of the desk and he on his and I did not interrupt because I had nothing to say.

I had to be ready with something wise when he eventually finished. Supportive words that would reassure him and affirm his conviction that the staff member was wrong and he was right. Something boss-like.

I had nothing.

His cadence signalled that he was drawing to a close and that it would be my turn.

Nothing.

He'd stopped talking and was looking at me. My cue. Nope. I let the silence run on because I had no boss-worthy words.

'Do your job, boss,' his folded arms taunted.

I considered whether this was the moment when I did that brave thing that I'd read about and shrugged and said 'Gordon, I don't know.' I was sure I'd read that people admired that.

But I knew Gordon too well and he wouldn't. He was smart and practical. He loved solving problems and assumed the same in others. Yet he wasn't acting smart or practical or curious today. Maybe I could get away with a lazy answer, given that he was tossing me lazy questions. So unlike Gordon.

Wait.

Yes.

Something better than admitting I Don't Know.

'Gordon,' I began, forming words as I spoke them and not retrieved from the memory of a management book.

'This is not you. You're better than this.'

I named the thing that had been choking my words.

'You're better than this. I know because I know you. I know because you've told me so.'

Gordon laughed.

'Yes. Remember what you told me at your job interview?'

'No. What?'

'Your answer when I asked you how you would respond to difficult staff members like the one you've struck today?'

'No. I don't remember.'

'You told me that it was like playing the piano. You even mimed the actions. Sometimes you had one hand playing a melody at one end while the other one kept a rhythm going down the other. 'Just keep that rhythm going,' you said. 'It all combines to make the music.'' I want to see more of that Gordon than the one whinging in front of me today.'

Gordon was smiling.

'You liked that piano metaphor? Fooled you, didn't I?' he said.

'No. Now get back to that rhythm work.'

Gordon's faith in me that I knew him led us both back to ourselves.

Do.

'You've pointed to the fact that I'm a complete business fraud. My only qualification is to look at music. I learned a lot of what I do in Management from Music.'

Kim Williams, CEO News Limited.

Not 'How I manage'.

Or 'management'.

Or 'about management.'

Or even 'in managing'.

(Not a word about 'Leadership' either.)

Instead: 'What I do'...in Management.

Words matter.

Worship.

The Spanish conquered South America and deliberately built their churches over the pagan temples to wipe out the indigenous religions. They were pleased when they saw powerful evidence of success in evangelising the Mixe Indians of modern day Mexico.

The Indians regularly attended Mass in the churches that the Spaniards built and worshipped reverently at the foot of the altars with the devotion of the most devout Catholic.

It wasn't until hundreds of years later when Archeologists began to excavate some of the sites of the churches that the truth was discovered. They found that the Mixe had buried their pagan idols beneath the crucifixes and altars.

The Indians had been worshipping their own deities under pretence of devotion to their conquerer's God.

Now THAT'S a metaphor for a workplace.

Management smiles at the upturned faces of the workers assembled at the staff meetings and strategic planning retreats. It hands out butchers paper and marker pens like wafers and wine. It is pleased as it watches the workers genuflect before the wise and just policies/visions/mission statements/strategic plan. 

In reality, all the authentic conversations have gone underground.

Personal Widgets lie buried beneath the company's glossy altars of annual reports.

Management thinks that workers are bowing in reverence before their gods of enterprise, productivity and the PowerPoint slide icons.

In reality they're kneeling for the blessing of the payroll clerk and praying for the weekend.

Verbs.

'Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.'

- Marcus Aurelius

Workplaces are full of nouns and adverbs.

Vision Statements. Mission Statements. Values Statements. Codes of Conduct. Policies.

Few verbs.

As a child I was taught that a verb was a 'doing word.'

We need more verbs to bring our nouns to life.

To move from the passive to the active.

To declare through our decisions: 'I am.'

And to learn from what happens next.

We need to become who we are.

Game.

Airmen would ring the Warrant Officer Disciplinary to ask his opinion on what punishment that were going to be given if they were found guilty.

'That will be up to the CO,' Henry would say in his booming parade ground voice modulated for telephone. 'But I suggest you bring your toothbrush.'

He would always schedule trials for Fridays. Punishments took effect immediately so the convicted airman had lost a weekend to restriction of privileges or extra guard duty by the time I reviewed the transcript on Monday. It was Henry's insurance against me finding an error of law and the conviction being quashed.

Henry's tactics to stop the Law from interfering with Discipline didn't affect our relationship. As the Senior Airman on Base, he was fiercely protective of the welfare of the hundreds of airmen who feared him. He had no doubt about his Widget. Some asked him how he felt about having a Legal Officer around. 'I was the one who got the position established and got the Flight Lieutenant posted here,' he would answer, only slightly embellishing the truth. Henry was too good at his job to feel threatened by a junior officer lawyer.

We met and bantered every morning in his immaculate office with his polished pace stick resting on its cradle along the front edge of his desk. As his retirement date approached our meetings became later and he knocked off earlier. 'Working back, Henry?' I'd say at 11am. 'Just waiting for the Sergeants Mess Bar to open, Sir.'

He introduced me to his replacement. 'The Legal Officer comes to my office every morning at eight,' Henry told him. 'And I give Sir his list of jobs for the day.' The new guy looked baffled.

The Monday after Henry retired the new WOD rang me at 8.05 wondering why I wasn't in his office to get my list of jobs. I complied so he wouldn't feel foolish. He rang looking for me each day for a week after that. I never turned up. He stopped calling me.

I think of Henry and the new guy each time I've seen the leadership game being played in workplaces. Good people keep turning up to do work for bad bosses.

The boss assumes that his workers keep turning up and doing good work because of his leadership, management, wisdom, charisma or intellect. Because of the course he did on 'Working With Gen Y', the books he's read, his imposing office, his annual performance reviews of them, and his generous 'My Door's Always Open' policy. Because of his well-run staff meetings, the Thank You speech he made at the Staff Christmas Party, the witty asides at the Birthday Morning Teas, his reserved car space. Or because he's firm but fair. Or because they aspire to be like him one day.

Possibly.

More likely it's in spite of him.

They have mortgages and superannuation that need them to turn up and pride that demands they do good work.

Unlike me with Henry's replacement, they have to turn up and play the game.

Committed.

The Australian Electoral Commission continues to model good decision making.

Just to recap.

The AEC conducted the election for Senators in Western Australia. It assembled its Widget.

It counted votes and the candidates with the most votes won Senate seats. It produced its Widget.

'The result was too close,' some people said. 'The Widget isn't right. Make another one.'

'The Widget's fine,' the Western Australian Electoral Commissioner said.

Some of the losing candidates complained. 'We don't like the Widget because we didn't get elected...er, no...because it's not the Widget we wanted...er, no...because there's too much doubt about the democratic process!'

'I agree that the Widget hasn't turned out the way that it should,' the Federal Electoral Commissioner said upholding the appeal and ordering a re-count. 'Not for the reasons given by the losers, but because our customers ordered a Confidence coloured Widget and its colour is flaking and fading. We have to remake it.'

The re-count began and found that votes were missing. The AEC searched and could not find them. It appointed an independent investigator.

Before the investigator could report back, the AEC said 'We know enough already. Our Widget is so important that we have to get it right. We think it's not good enough. We're not going to wait for someone else to complain about our Widget. We're going to do it. Let's ask the High Court to confirm that we failed and tell us what we need to do fix it.'

Remarkable.

This rare integrity in decision making is only possible when a decision maker has Widget authenticity and clarity.

Every organisation claims to be 'committed to...' something. Committed to excellence in... Committed to the welfare of... Committed to the safety of... Committed to our customers...

Committed.

'Committed to' implies that we've leapt. The bullet has been fired. The train has left the station. We won't be satisfied until we've produced excellence, welfare, safety, customer satisfaction. Nothing will stop us. There is nothing foreseen or unforeseen that will cause us to waver us from what we have committed ourselves to do. We have no choice now.

Yet the reality for most organisations is that Committed To is the excited language of the salesman and the marketer and the PR person being put into the mouth of the Widget maker to get people to buy the Widget. It rarely comes off the assembly line in that colour. It's too hard.

Which is why the decision making of the AEC is so extraordinary and very reassuring, as its role is:

to deliver the franchise: that is, an Australian citizen's right to vote, as established by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

Process.

Good decision making objectifies the outcome.

It puts distance between the result and our self worth.

It builds a firewall between our process and whatever happens next.

The more that we see our decisions as an extension of our personalities the less we are able to let go.

Step Back.

Identify the Issue.

Assess the Information.

Check for Bias.

Give a Hearing.

Make the decision.

Watch what happens next.

Learn.

Repeat.

Do your job.

Get paid.

Go home.

Really.

Leadership.

Really?

Are our open plan offices so bursting with innovation and discovery that we need every other line manager to attend leadership courses to equip them with the unique skills needed to inspire their timid and feckless workers towards uncharted spreadsheets?

‘We need leadership’.

May as well say to the aspiring leaders ‘These people over here aren’t going to do what we want them to do without someone qualified to direct them.'

May as well say to the workers ‘Wait right there and someone will be along shortly to tell you what to do.’

So people who may have run a business, buried a parent, given birth, passed exams, travelled the world, owned investment properties, survived cancer, chaired committees, fought bushfires, built a house, played the saxophone, spoken three languages, served on a jury, run a marathon, migrated from overseas, coached a sporting team, choreographed a musical, run a household...

Suddenly need to be led.

Really?

Perhaps our obsession with demanding leadership just ends up producing followers.  Call a man a leader and you compel him to have followers. Supply and demand.

The leaders remain mediocre at best (because Leadership is hard and requires practice in situations that demand Leadership, not management) and the workers become skilled at waiting to be told what to do. Why not? May as well play the game. Let these 'leaders' earn their salaries and we can conserve our initiative and energy for the areas of our lives where we have to 'lead' - running a household or caring for an elderly parent or planning a holiday or searching for a new job.

So our leaders nurture disengaged workers. Which results in increased demand for leadership training to motivate them.

(Full disclosure: People pay me to deliver leadership training.)

Perhaps we should spend more leadership training time and money on less sparkly things.

Like defining the Widget. Writing accurate job descriptions. Drafting honest recruitment ads. Conducting better employment interviews. Writing simpler contracts. Running practical orientation. Building better workspaces. Making good decisions. Having authentic conversations. Doing what we said we'd do.

Really.

'Most organisations herd racehorses and race sheep.'

- Anonymous

Longer.

Slow down.

Take your time. 

Give the decision the time and attention it deserves. 

The time and attention that everyone affected by it deserves. 

Your time is precious. 

The more time that you invest in a decision - in anything - the more that you will care about it. 

If you care about a decision - about anything - you're more likely to do a better job.

The more important a decision, the longer it should take.

'Creativity is caring enough to keep thinking about something until you find the simplest way to do it.' 

- Tim Cook

Investigate.

‘Investigation’ has sinister, negative overtones.  

‘We’re carrying out an investigation.’ ‘I'm being investigated.’  

These all imply that someone has done something wrong. The jury has returned, guilt has been proven, the judge has begun to read out the punishment.

The Defence Force tried to overcome this assumption by calling investigations ‘Inquiries’.  Then ‘Inquiry’ developed its own negative connotations. So Defence called then ‘Quick Assessments’. Now Quick Assessments are being replaced with something else.

Yet good decision making demands that we gather as much information as we can – ie investigate.

An investigation can be as simple as a telephone call, a conversation, a read of a policy, an email – or as complex as a royal commission.

What information do you need before you can decide what to do?

What is important is the attitude that you take to the gathering of information.

Be curious.

'Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.'

- Aaron Swartz

'Our ancestors who were not curious who did not go looking over the hill to see what was on the other side disappeared. They were not successful. Tribes that were curious out competed them.' 

- Bill Nye

‘To be wise is to be eternally curious.’

- Frederick Buechner

‘What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: curious and teachable.’

- Roger Ebert

Visible.

A Leader makes the work visible.

In knowledge work, decisions build upon other decisions as they move along the assembly line to emerge as the organisation's Widget.

A Leader makes decisions that are visible in process and outcome to others who need to follow.

The word educate comes from educare which means to ‘draw out’.

Leaders draw out followers by making decisions that in turn open up space for them to make their own decisions that they know will be supported by the Leader.

We will follow someone whose decision making processes are transparent and predictable. We gain the confidence to make our own decisions that build upon and enable the decisions of our Leader.

Leaders are teachers and teachers are leaders because through their decisions they draw others into engagement with the world.

Many ‘leaders’ do the opposite. They make decisions in isolation and using processes and reasons only known to them. They sit in meetings where they have exclusive access to information that they use to make decisions. They then expect their followers to act on their decisions based on positional power alone.

A Leader whose decisions are based on policies or other visible processes and who is not afraid or too busy to explain her reasoning, particularly in response to criticism or complaint – or...her own mistakes...is more likely to draw out her followers from their bunkers of fear or suspicion.

'The decision about what to do next is even more important than the labor spent executing it. A modern productive worker is someone who does a great job in figuring out what to do next.'

Seth Godin

Primary.

 'To defend Australia and her interests, Sir?' the Air Force First Year Defence Force Academy cadet said in answer to my question.

'Yes, but no, ' I said nodding towards the Navy Midshipman with her hand up. 

'To protect Australia's sea lanes, Sir?' she said.

'The main aim. What's the main aim of the Australian Defence Force,' I repeated. 

Only two hands remained in the air. I picked them off.

'No - not to assist in natural disasters. We do that, sure, but that's not why we exist. And no, not to assist in Peacekeeping. Again, we do it, but it's not the primary role of the military.'

I scanned the young faces staring back at me, barely clean of their mums' lipstick on their cheeks as they were farewelled into the arms of the Navy, Army and Air Force as Midshipmen and Officer Cadets.

'Those answers got you through the recruiting process, but none of them defines the job that you've signed up to for the next nine years. So let me tell you:

'To apply the maximum amount of violence permitted by law upon the enemy.' 

Some faces froze. Others began to grin.

'That's the aim of the Australian Defence Force,' I said, looking at each of their young faces in turn. 'To apply the maximum amount of violence permitted by law upon the enemy.' The job of an Officer is to ensure that those under your command use their weapons violently and lawfully. Which is why it's been said that, as Officers, you are a 'Manager of Violence'. Other people here will teach you about the management and the violence. I'm here to teach you about Military Law.'

It's obvious why the military fudges its advertised Widget. Organisations camouflage their Widget for many reasons. Most are to do with marketing and recruiting. 

This is where most of the difficulty applying Widget Thinking begins. If we don't advertise, recruit, contract, orientate, train, promote, manage, terminate - make decisions - using the Widget as our reference point, then we're navigating with a swinging compass without a True North.  

The latest scandal to hit the Australian Defence Force has had the talkback lines buzzing. 'We don't want our daughter joining the Army after we heard about this behaviour,' one father called in to say. 'We don't think it's safe for her.' 

Made.

The Widget doesn't care. 

It just wants to be made. 

It doesn't care if it's by a man or a woman. Old or young. Rich or poor. Buddhist or Rastafarian. Mother or Transgender. Morning person or late arrival. Part time or full. Masters degree or apprentice. Black or white. Make it.

Did the Widget get made? Boom. 

Widget Thinking creates clear job ads and precise duty statements with good salaries that attract skilled workers with realistic expectations to cooperate with co-workers in safe workplaces to make Widgets.

Widget Thinking is the answer to all the isms.

A workplace where there is harassment, bullying, hazards, discrimination, conflicts of interest, illegality or unethical behaviour produces Widgets made by distracted, fearful, unqualified, wasteful workers.

The Widget will roll off the literal or metaphorical assembly line as the unsentimental, disinterested, objective witness to any isms.

Because the Widget doesn't care. 

Neurons.

'I'm sorry that I didn't seek your advice today,' the Air Commander said over drinks in the Mess, 'But I didn't have a neuron spare.' 

I'd watched from two seats along as he'd coordinated fighter aircraft launches into the skies over Northern Australia and beyond to defend it against waves of attack by the Kamarian Air Force. He was making a decision about every two minutes for eight hours.

What I wanted do say was 'You need to practise having a neuron spare, Sir. Better for you to practise and learn when the air battles are staged.' But I didn't. I was only a Flight Lieutenant Lawyer and he was a Group Captain Fighter Pilot and I wanted to make it to Squadron Leader. 

 'We didn't have the resources to stop and attend to the enemy wounded,' the Army Lieutenant Colonel Infantry Officer had explained to the International Committee of the Red Cross representative who reported this breach of the Law of War to me in Exercise HQ. 'They need to train as they would fight,' I wrote in my post-Exercise Report. 'They must learn what resources that they need to fight lawfully.' I scraped promotion to Squadron Leader.

 'We don't have time to comply with the various policies in this organisation,' the senior executive said to me as his peers in the audience nodded with folded arms. 'We're too busy doing our jobs.' More nodding and the beginnings of applause. 'You need to practise having a neuron spare,' I quoted myself. 'Those policies are laws and doing your job means doing it lawfully.' I glanced across at the CEO who was texting on his phone. 

Good decision making is a skill. Like any skill it needs to be practised until it becomes routine. We need to build the neural pathways by applying the Five Steps until doing so is unconscious. It's called being Professional.

The Air Commander wondered out loud how he could resolve his Rules of Engagement with the radar blips playing out on the huge screen covering the wall in front of us. It was the last wave of the week. 'Air-to-air missiles are not classed as 'aircraft' under International Law, Sir,' I said, loudly beginning my unsolicited advice.

He bought me a drink in the Mess that night.  'Let's kill a few of those neurons you made me exercise today,' he said.