In Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results published by Jossey-Bass (2010), Jon R. Katzenbach and Zia Khan discuss the business-as-war mindset, one that “implies a military hierarchy, where strategic choices are made at the top, tactical actions are executed from the middle, and heroic and unquestioning individual performance is expected at the front line. This mindset reveres controlled and efficient execution.” However, the mindset encounters problems when trying to cope with whatever cannot be predicted or is at least unexpected. For example, when Lord Cardigan led the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade of British cavalry against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, during the Crimean War. Most of more than 600 under Cardigan’s command were annihilated in “The Valley of Death.”

In the book, Katzenbach and Khan recall a conversation with the president of a telecommunications company they were working with who objected to Khan’s observation that the company’s top executives had a business-as-war mindset, reflected in the military expressions that were broadly used throughout the organization.

“The use of military terms reflects the behavior of only a small minority in this company,” she told them. “And that behavior does not fit our culture.” Later in their discussion, she became quite agitated. “In fact, she said, “I think the only solution is to bomb that minority right out of here.” Katzenbach and Khan did not detect any irony in her tone of voice.

They explain throughout Leading Outside the Lines how each organization must maintain an appropriate balance of formality and informality in its culture. They note that warrior managers tend to focus very sharply on the formal organization in three important ways.

“First, they emphasize the importance of marching in step to execute a plan instead of improvising in the moment as things develop [and even when they develop unexpectedly]…Second, their emphasis on defined hierarchy and structure results in sharply defined boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – whether ‘them’ refers to internal groups or are outside the organization…Third, warrior-managers tend to overemphasize the importance of formal position, and assume that people will shoulder work and take on responsibility based solely on their rank and authority.”

These and other issues are brilliantly discussed in Chapter 3, Jumping Together.