Mark Divine [00:01:40]:
So courage, trust, respect are the glue that holds a team together and the fire that propels them to excellence. So that’s the foundation, those first three commitments. Then we have growth. We, we don’t just grow ourselves personally, we grow through and with our team. And so just like in the Seals or some of the clients we work with, we create a growth culture where everyone is deeply committed to growing and evolving through the work that you do and through and with your team. So you develop group practices around growth, you challenge each other to grow, you hold each other accountable to super high standard, and you live a creed or a code. And then because of the foundation we’ve developed through courage, trust, respect and this commitment to growth, we can really get on with the business of excellence. Excellence is having a culture where you’re always iterating and innovating and transforming, always asking, how do we do this better? Can we do without this? Why are we really doing this thing? That is an incredible process.

Mark Divine [00:02:39]:
I talked about Demo, Dick Marcinko and his team at mob6 and then seal team6 and how they developed a culture of excellence by always innovating and iterating with curiosity and Creativity. So courage, trust, respect, growth, excellence. Now, we show up every day and we do this, and we develop resilience. Because as you execute, you’re going to have challenge, you’re going to have resistance, you’re going to have failure. So learning how to move forward fast and pick yourself up after failure, as a team, learn the lessons, grow from it, be grateful for the experience, and then move on. Fall down seven times, get up eight. Become adaptable, pliable, and resilient. And that brings us to this last principle.

Mark Divine [00:03:21]:
The last principle is kind of the granddaddy or the seal. Whereas courage takes courage to really develop and cultivate the next, the rest of the commitments, it’s alignment that makes it all work. So the seventh commitment that forged elite teams is alignment. One of the key things that holds us back from alignment, especially as leaders, is the fear of sharing too much, sharing too much of yourself. The fear of showing up with vulnerability, the fear of taking the mask off and revealing that you’re actually not perfect. They don’t have all the answers. So you got to stare down that fear in order to develop great alignment with the team. Because a lot of the team, they’re watching you really closely, and they know what you’re thinking before you even say anything.

Mark Divine [00:04:10]:
So if you don’t say it, chances are that they’re not going to trust you. So you need to develop that level of transparency to be able to share yourself fully. Stare down the fear of sharing. For this, I talk about my friend Mike Magiachi, who is the SEAL Team 6 Command Master Chief, and his discussions about how he developed great alignment at Seal Team 6. Seal Team 6 is operating in some of the most extreme environments in the world, and they’ve got really demanding missions and really demanding schedules. And while these groups were operating overseas, things are going wrong, and they could easily spin out of control. And so Meigs implemented to develop this kind of level of transparency and trust and alignment, and he implemented what we call battle comms. What I call battle comms.

Mark Divine [00:05:01]:
And battle comms are like, you know, when you’re in combat, you need information, and you need to share information. And so you have this relentless focus on communicating. And a lot of times in our organizations, we don’t communicate that well. We have very rigid structures, meeting structures, timelines, and this for communicating. And especially now that we’re remote, because you’re missing the walking around kind of communicating or. Or the water cooler type communicating. There’s a lot of really spontaneous great stuff happens there, which is why some of the best organizations are requiring folks to come back into the office at least part time. Well, so you imagine a bunch of spec ops units spread all over the place.

Mark Divine [00:05:40]:
They’re not necessarily communicating with each other all the time, and communication is coming down through some execution checklist or some timeline. And so what he did is he implemented a daily synchronization meeting, right? And everyone who could attend had to attend. Didn’t mean you would attend if you’re in the middle of op, but, you know, someone from your team would attend. And. And literally, this is. The meeting was incredible because it was the opportunity for the commanding officer to share vision and. And essentially boundaries. Say, this is what we’re looking for.

Mark Divine [00:06:10]:
This is what the outcomes are. This is what we’re seeing. You know, this is what the intel’s showing. So get everyone synced up in alignment on what the big picture is. And then they would go around and each would share, you know, whoever the leader was of this. Of the units would share their smaller picture of the big picture and how they’re supporting that and where they need support. And so the question would be, here’s what’s working, here’s what’s not working, here’s where we need help. And everyone would hear that it wasn’t siloed information, right? And you learn to be very brutally honest with this communication because things aren’t working.

Mark Divine [00:06:43]:
The headshot shad needs to know it, and you need to be clear about why it’s not working, even if it’s your own fault, meaning that you did something that wasn’t ideal. And that’s okay because that’s how we learn. And so they went around and shared as succinctly as simply as possible what’s working, what’s not working, and where do you need help. And there’s an opportunity for mags and. Or the commanding officer or others in the senior leadership team to offer some course correction, say, oh, yeah, that’s great, but no, we need to shift focus over here. Or have you thought about this? Or, you know, let me support you in that. That way. Or also crosstalk, you know, during these meetings, they would find people, you know, suddenly getting, you know, these.

Mark Divine [00:07:22]:
Their secure texts. Hey, I can help you with that issue. And it’d be from a completely different unit, or you’ve got some information that’s valuable to us, so let’s share it over here. And suddenly all these players were now sharing information that they normally wouldn’t share. And it was extraordinary because they were able to see the big picture. They develop a Common vision, a common language, a common support. They were developing great trust and respect of each other. And guess what? Their speed of execution went up dramatically, and the quality results went up dramatically as well.

Mark Divine [00:07:54]:
So that’s the key principle. The first key principle alignment is to create this kind of level of battle communications where you’re sharing things transparently and relentlessly. You’re sharing vision, you’re sharing values, you’re sharing outcomes, you’re sharing what’s working, what’s not working, where you need help and how you can help others. And you’re doing that every day. And so the company corporate version of this would be like the daily huddle. You got your main morning meeting, which is going to say, okay, here’s what we’re going to get done this week, here’s where I need help, et cetera. But then you huddle up every day, just like we did in the SEAL teams. Every morning you have your morning ops meeting, and it’s basically a morning huddle.

Mark Divine [00:08:32]:
This is what I’m going to do today. Here’s where I need help. And so you get this transparent and kind of open communication where you’re sharing that stuff. The second principle is to maximize your sharing. Right. You want to. You have expertise. That’s great.

Mark Divine [00:08:50]:
Don’t hoard it. Right. Don’t hoard your resources, don’t hoard your expertise, and don’t hoard your time in this world. We need to think of a team of teams approach, which is another great book, by the way, from General Stanley McChrystal. It’s another person I talk about in this final chapter on alignment in the book Staring down the wolf. General McChrystal had a similar approach in Afghanistan. He was in charge of all forces over there, and he developed something similar to mags, where they had a weekly. I don’t know if it was weekly or daily.

Mark Divine [00:09:17]:
I think it was a daily meeting where they did something similar. And what happened is their speed of execution was dramatically improved because the information stopped being bottlenecked and people started sharing way more of their knowledge, resources, ideas, even failures with the entire team. And that led to great trust and respect amongst the team. But also the corporate knowledge, or the body of knowledge that everybody shared went through the roof because now we’re all sharing this relevant and important information. And you want to learn to share more. My recommendation is share more than you think you should share. Like a lot of people say, oh, you shouldn’t share financial information. It’s confidential.

Mark Divine [00:09:58]:
Yeah. There’s aspects of it you should and you can share and keep the details, maybe the personal details out of it, but, you know, team needs to know if you’re struggling financially so they can help out. And, you know, if someone takes that and say, oh, time for me to get a job, a different job, because the ship is sinking, well, they didn’t belong in the team anyways. So it’s, you know, there’s always the truth, always wins in the end. So if you’re not sharing it, they’re not going to trust you. If you are sharing it, you’re going to find out real quickly who’s on your side and who’s not if it’s bad news. So develop this capacity to share more than you’re comfortable sharing and develop the capacity to communicate in this open, transparent and daily format where you’re always seeking to improve and to learn what’s going on and get the bigger picture. And the final principle here is developing radical focus.

Mark Divine [00:10:53]:
So you’re doing all that stuff, you’ve got all this transparency, you know, you got all this information, you see the big picture, that, that gives you great context. But when it comes to your job, you’ve got to radically focus in spite of all that information. So that’s great. And you just use filtering mechanisms for that. So you can really take all that in. But then while that information is out there, you just again, tuck it down, narrow down, narrow down your focus and you focus radically on what it is that you need to do to get your part of the mission or your actual mission accomplished. I offer some focusing questions here which are fun to read through in the book. What will move us closer to fulfilling our vision and mission today? What’s the most important target for me to focus on right now? And what action can I take to move forward? Right.

Mark Divine [00:11:42]:
Is what I’m about to do in alignment with my own or my team’s ethos? Good question, huh? A lot of times you’re taking action on things that maybe are out of alignment. How can I find greater alignment with and bring greater clarity to my team today? That’s a great question. How can you help your team feel more aligned and tap into or understand your vision better? Next, does your plan for your day include sharing more, sharing experience, sharing risk, and sharing challenging things together? If not, consider adding that. How will you practice this? Battle comps? How are you going to communicate with the team today? How and when? Right. Do you have a huddle? Do you have a way to check in? Are you just doing one on ones, or do you have a way to share a Share vision and values and and resources and ideas in a group setting. Question could anything I’m planning or not take me out of alignment? That’s a good one. So look at the totality of what all your great ideas and grandiose plans are. And could the execution of anyone take you off track? That’s a great question.

Mark Divine [00:12:53]:
And what are your biggest potential distractions? What do you how do you you know, you need to be aware of your distractions and a strategy for avoiding those distractions. And finally, is there anything else you can do today to keep your team radically focused and battle ready? So some great food for thought that is the principle or the commitment of alignment and the seven commitments again, our Courage, Trust, Respect, Growth, Excellence, Resilience and alignment. Encourage you to check out the other podcasts on the other principles and read the book Staring down the Wolf. It’s great stuff, especially if you’re a leader trying to develop an elite team. Thanks so much for joining me today on the Mark Divine Show. I hope you found this information valuable. If you do, please share it with a friend or worker or your team and rate and review wherever you listen, Apple, Spotify or wherever. And thank you for time and attention.

Mark Divine [00:13:49]:
Thanks for doing the work. Stay in alignment Till next time. Till next time. Stay focused and be in alignment. Divine out.