The Resilient Entrepreneur, Edition #124
Hi there
I hope you had a great week!
Here are the topics in today's edition:
- Shared Mental Model, Part II: Why It Takes Multiple Iterations
- Be Quick or Die: Why the World Needs Godspeed Now
Please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions for articles!
Talk soon,
Tom
TACTICS FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Shared Mental Model, Part II: Why It Takes Multiple Iterations
Puzzled looks, repeated questions, and eye-rolls: the sure signs your team doesn’t have a shared mental model yet.
In a recent article, I wrote about the importance of a shared mental model before making an important decision.
Call it shared mental model, call it alignment, call it being on the same page: It doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you take the effort to create mental unity before proceeding with any important matter.
You might argue that you don’t have time for such discussions. They might look inefficient at first, but in the long run, they almost always prove very effective.
After examining the concepts behind the shared mental model in a previous article, let’s now look at a specific example in more detail.
The Setting
As an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces, I command a battalion. Recently, I decided we needed to change the way we deploy and rotate our tactical elements.
As a battalion commander, you cannot and should not take such decisions in isolation. You should spark the discussion and then let your staff work out possible options for your intention.
And that’s what we did. I floated my ideas, and the staff set off to work.
Multiple Iterations With The Team
In our battalion, it’s standard for the staff to present their products whenever they are ready. Usually, I make decisions upon the first presentation, enabling the staff to carry on with their work.
But not this time. The staff had to present the new concept for deploying and rotating our tactical elements multiple times. Why? The presentations revealed that the staff didn’t have a shared mental model of what we intended to do. The first few presentations were chaotic, many people had puzzled looks on their faces, and the same questions were asked again and again. These are sure signs of a missing shared mental model.
Whenever I sent the team back, they rolled their eyes. However, I explicitly stated that I wasn’t dissatisfied with the team; I just felt we weren’t quite there yet.
And when the product was finally what I expected, everybody said that it was worth taking a few iterations to work out a good solution. That’s the beauty of staff work.
Multiple Iterations With The Partners
Agreeing with your staff on a good solution isn’t enough. A battalion is a small cogwheel in the larger system of the Armed Forces, and you can’t deploy a battalion any way you like without talking to other formations and partners first.
Once we agreed with the staff on how to deploy and rotate our tactical elements, we took several iterations of discussions with our partners. Because it’s important to share the shared model beyond your own staff if you want to be successful.
Multiple Iterations With The Subordinates
Even after getting our partners on board, we weren’t ready yet. After my staff and our partners bought into our new concept, we had to get all our subordinates on board. A battalion is a big organization, and the commander and the staff are just a very small element in a battalion.
Therefore, another set of discussions with the leadership team took place to get everybody on the same page. Only now did we decide to push ahead with the proposed change of deployment and rotation.
The Implementation Timeline
After all those discussions to create a shared mental model, it would be tempting to announce an immediate implementation of this large-scale change.
Don’t do it.
Getting from here to there takes time, even if everybody is on the same page. A battalion is like a tanker ship: You can’t change course within seconds. Take the time to work out a proper transition plan, or you will fail even with the best shared mental model.
The Call To Action: Mental Flexibility
Whenever we discussed the new deployment and rotation model, I asked everybody to show some mental flexibility. And just like developing a shared mental model, developing mental flexibility takes time and effort.
STRATEGIES FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Be Quick or Die: Why the World Needs Godspeed Now
An alcoholic reducing alcohol by 3% annually reaches sobriety by 2100. That’s exactly how slow we’re moving on all the big problems out there.
Have you ever heard of the expression Godspeed? It’s a parting wish, conveying hope for a person’s success, safety, or good fortune, particularly when they’re embarking on something significant – a long trip, a dangerous mission, or a major life change.
The term carries a certain gravitas because of its historical and religious roots, so using it for trivial matters dilutes its impact.
So much for the historical roots. As an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces, I command a battalion. In our battalion, we often use the term Godspeed, albeit not in the historical context: For us, it’s rather a battle cry when we want things to move faster than at snail-speed.
No matter if you look at the current efforts to rearm Europe, the fight against climate change, or at digital transformation: Things move awfully slowly, and a little Godspeed would do us good.
What Society Does: Baby Steps
The lazy West has not realized yet that the fat years are over. That’s why we dread our feet, waste time and energy on trivialities, and complain about petty things all the time. We have collectively unlearned to solve the big problems, because we were too well off for too long.
And whenever danger is imminent, we fake the impression of progress by taking baby steps. Here are some examples.
Look at defense. Putin’s war against Ukraine should have been a wake-up call. Not in 2022, but already in 2014 when Russia took Crimea. In 2026, with a hot war on its doorstep that now takes longer than World War I, Europe is still debating how to increase defense budgets, what to spend the money on, and whether French or German kit should be bought. The military administration still has way too much power over the troop commanders, slowing things down even further.
It’s the same with getting rid of fossil fuels. Everybody knows that fossil fuels heat up the atmosphere, and everybody can see that temperatures are rising steadily and glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates. Even if you think the green wave is exaggerated, you can argue we still need to get rid of fossil fuels, as the majority of it comes from the Middle East. But not even a 3-month closure of the Strait of Hormuz has accelerated the shift towards renewables. To me, the snail-speed in moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy looks like an alcoholic who proudly announces he will reduce his alcohol consumption by 3% annually to reach sobriety by 2100.
It’s no different for digital transformation. At Yonder, the B2B SaaS company I co-founded, we’re in the business of digital documentation. Not the paper and PDF way, but more structured and more granular. Believe it or not, but some of our customers took seven years to fully transfer their PDF cemetaries to a modern solution. Of course, while paying for access to our platform during the entire seven years. In those seven years, a thing called artificial intelligence emerged and grew exponentially. Imagine how far they will be behind if they wait for seven years before trying ChatGPT for the first time.
What Reality Needs: Be Quick or Die
Back to the military. Due to the digital transformation and drone technology, the battlefield has become transparent. Everything has become a target, and every movement can be detected and attacked within minutes.
That’s why there is a saying in the military that you need to be quick or die. If you’re not constantly on the move, your position will be known, and you will be eliminated.
Isn’t it the same for fighting climate change or dealing with artificial intelligence? If you’re not quick, you will die.
When will we wake up? Whenever we do, I wish us Godspeed.
About Me
I’m a tech entrepreneur, active reserve officer, and father of three — writing about entrepreneurship, leadership, and crisis management from hard-won experience. No AI, no fluff, no promos. Just plain-text insights for people building and leading under pressure.
When I’m not solving problems, I find clarity in the mountains around Zermatt.
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