6 ms·

Yes, good tip from "Turn the Ship Around" by David Marquet is to use the "I intend to" model. For every action you are going to undertake that is critical, firs

Yes, good tip from "Turn the Ship Around" by David Marquet is to use the "I intend to" model. For every action you are going to undertake that is critical, first announce your intentions and give enough time for reactions from others before following through.

secfirstmd 10y ago
"I intend to" is actually a phrased deliberately used a lot during military mission briefings. I always wondered why, I guess it's deliberate.
- cmdkeen 10y ago
  The military uses "intention" rather than "I will" because they understand that no plan survives contact with the enemy. It is also higher level so that when exhausted, stressed subordinates find themselves in life threatening circumstances the most important thing they need to remember is the intent. If they forget steps 1-5 of the plan but recall the intent they can't go that badly wrong in using their initiative. There's also the distinction between specific orders - "you are to". Knowing the commander's intent, and his commander's intent (known as 1 Up and 2 Up) enables Mission Command, the concept of giving latitude to subordinates to achieve the mission in the best way possible within the confines and direction given to them. Finally there's the ritual of it, NATO forces expect to operate within multi-national structures where English won't be a first language. There is a "NATO sequence of orders" which should be roughly followed. It means everyone knows the structure of what is coming up and when in the brief - so you don't get people asking questions about equipment when the limitations are being explained, they know that comes later. Opening, especially from a junior officer, with "my intention is" is essentially like having a schema definition at the start of a document - it defines the structure of what is coming for those who are going to be parsing it.
  - secfirstmd 10y ago
    Much better answer! I recognise a lot of that.
verytrivial 10y ago
I saw that Space Shuttle landing video that was kicking around recently. In that they also had explicit "I agree" responses to any observation like "You're a bit below flight path". Quick, positive acknowledgment of anomalous events or deviations. Seemed really ... sane.
- imcoconut 10y ago
  do you happen to have the link for that video (and related discussion if posted on HN)?
  - mrbill 10y ago
    Maybe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4cfIyNvts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4cfIyNvts ?
    - Fuzzwah 10y ago
      I didn't hear any "I agree" in that one. I found this one which does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAaMuTRGP6k&t=1h7m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAaMuTRGP6k&t=1h7m30s
      - sundvor 10y ago
        What an awesome video; saving for future reference. We have much to learn from this in IT.
      - kozak 10y ago
        Does the phrase "I'll show you" also have a predefined special meaning? He seems to repeat it quite often.
        imglorp 10y ago
        I heard that as "I show you xx". One guy is flying with his head up, the other one talking most is monitoring with his head in the instruments, and helping the pilot flying getting confident data. Remember they're driving 1970's technology, redundant everything, and they all grew up flying "steam gauges", where the culture includes tapping on the glass to make sure the needle didn't stick. They want to compare every sensor output for sanity so they can disregard one if needed. This vid is also the source of cockpit audio for the FSim shuttle simulator game if you like this stuff.

secfirstmd 10y ago

"I intend to" is actually a phrased deliberately used a lot during military mission briefings. I always wondered why, I guess it's deliberate.

cmdkeen 10y ago
The military uses "intention" rather than "I will" because they understand that no plan survives contact with the enemy. It is also higher level so that when exhausted, stressed subordinates find themselves in life threatening circumstances the most important thing they need to remember is the intent. If they forget steps 1-5 of the plan but recall the intent they can't go that badly wrong in using their initiative. There's also the distinction between specific orders - "you are to". Knowing the commander's intent, and his commander's intent (known as 1 Up and 2 Up) enables Mission Command, the concept of giving latitude to subordinates to achieve the mission in the best way possible within the confines and direction given to them. Finally there's the ritual of it, NATO forces expect to operate within multi-national structures where English won't be a first language. There is a "NATO sequence of orders" which should be roughly followed. It means everyone knows the structure of what is coming up and when in the brief - so you don't get people asking questions about equipment when the limitations are being explained, they know that comes later. Opening, especially from a junior officer, with "my intention is" is essentially like having a schema definition at the start of a document - it defines the structure of what is coming for those who are going to be parsing it.
- secfirstmd 10y ago
  Much better answer! I recognise a lot of that.

verytrivial 10y ago

I saw that Space Shuttle landing video that was kicking around recently. In that they also had explicit "I agree" responses to any observation like "You're a bit below flight path". Quick, positive acknowledgment of anomalous events or deviations. Seemed really ... sane.

imcoconut 10y ago
do you happen to have the link for that video (and related discussion if posted on HN)?
- mrbill 10y ago
  Maybe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4cfIyNvts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4cfIyNvts ?
  - Fuzzwah 10y ago
    I didn't hear any "I agree" in that one. I found this one which does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAaMuTRGP6k&t=1h7m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAaMuTRGP6k&t=1h7m30s
    - sundvor 10y ago
      What an awesome video; saving for future reference. We have much to learn from this in IT.
    - kozak 10y ago
      Does the phrase "I'll show you" also have a predefined special meaning? He seems to repeat it quite often.
      - imglorp 10y ago
        I heard that as "I show you xx". One guy is flying with his head up, the other one talking most is monitoring with his head in the instruments, and helping the pilot flying getting confident data. Remember they're driving 1970's technology, redundant everything, and they all grew up flying "steam gauges", where the culture includes tapping on the glass to make sure the needle didn't stick. They want to compare every sensor output for sanity so they can disregard one if needed. This vid is also the source of cockpit audio for the FSim shuttle simulator game if you like this stuff.