Smart autonomy is freedom to act according to strategic intent
When it comes to controlling the actions of those in an organization, the endpoints of the spectrum are “no autonomy” (leaders make all the decisions, subordinates merely execute them) or “total autonomy” (everyone does what seems right to them). The optimal balance is “smart autonomy” that is dependent on shared consciousness, understanding the organization’s strategic intent, and the parameters within which that strategic intent must be achived.
I began to view effective leadership in the new environment as more akin to gardening than chess. The move-by-move control that seemed natural to military operations proved less effective than nurturing the organization—its structure, processes, and culture—to enable the subordinate components to function with “smart autonomy.” It wasn’t total autonomy, because the efforts of every part of the team were tightly linked to a common concept for the fight, but it allowed those forces to be enabled with a constant flow of “shared consciousness” from across the force, and it freed them to execute actions in pursuit of the overall strategy as best they saw fit.[1]
See also:
- Shared consciousness maximizes availability of strategic information
- Empowered execution enables effective adaptation to threats and opportunities
- Strategic Cascade aligns activities with purpose
Team of Teams – McChrystal, et al. (2015), ch. 11, § “Chess Master To Gardener: The Leaders We Now Need.” ↩︎