I read an interesting article in the November issue of The Harvard Business Review. It talked about the mentality of the various members of the armed services.

People from the Army and Marines tended to be more independent and function well on their own. With these branches, high command issues the orders as what needs to be accomplished and the lower ranks figure out how to do it. Since these missions usually involve ground troops, the troops involved in the mission are briefed on the plan. And, because combat situations can change suddenly, decisions are often made on the front line.

People from the Air Force and the Navy are more process oriented. Since these folks are working with high tech equipment, they do everything by the books. There is no room for independent thinking. High command issues the orders and the lower ranks carry out the orders exactly as they have been trained. They do not know what the plan is, they just do their job.

This is all fine and dandy but they do respond differently in the work place. The Army and Marine folks tend to have what I call a “cowboy” mentality. They are more interested in getting the job done and to hell with the rules and regulations. They work well in a small organization with little or no structure. But, they reek havoc in highly structured organizations.

The Navy and Air Force folks work well in highly structured organization. They rely on the structure to tell them what their job is and how to do it. They are, generally speaking, not independent thinkers and rely on upper management for their direction.

Over the years, we have had a number of retired military types assume leadership roles in our organization. And I have to say, the Army/Marine types do their own thing with little or no regard for the rest of the organization. And, unfortunately, most of the staff consider them to be reckless nuts.

Now, the Air Force/Navy guys are at the other extreme. They expect that there are rules and regulations for everything. And, while the state has a lot of rules and regulations, some times things come up that require independent judgment and decision making.

When they have to make a decision, these folks go nuts. They feel backed into a corner and afraid. What if they make the wrong decision? After all, they shouldn’t have to make that decision. Someone else should have made that decision for them.

Unfortunately, both of these folks damage the organization.  The army/marine folks do their own thing with no regard for the consequences while the navy/air force folks can’t make a decision.  Fortunately, they usually don’t last very long.