Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 111

HIGH-PERFORMING UNIT

(without the sense of sight) while the group developed a strategy. During the exercise, each team
achieved a shared comprehension, but only after
accounting for each member’s different perspectives on the activity. The activity improved each
individual’s ability to think creatively about solving
difficult tasks and challenges, while also improving
the team’s ability to communicate.
Shifting next to development of the unit, the CCL
team introduced the concepts of “direction-alignment-commitment” and “boundary spanning.”17
According to Donna Chrobot-Mason and Chris
Ernst, “Boundary-spanning leadership is the capability to create direction, alignment, and commitment across boundaries in service of a higher vision
or goal.”18 This advanced organizational leadership
idea was applicable to the unit given the vertical,
horizontal, stakeholder, demographic, and geographic boundaries it had to manage and span once deployed.19 Experiential activity coordinators then asked
company command teams, the battalion staff, and the
battalion leadership to define the specific boundaries
affecting the organization. In a candid discussion,
leaders described boundaries they felt impacted organizational success. This exercise employed the concept
of buffering, which helped create team safety and the
feeling of psychological security that develops when
intergroup boundaries are defined.20 Each leader
understood the complex nature of the 519th’s mission
and the need to develop into a high-performing team
to span these boundaries.
The unit’s vision statement called for a team in
which members were accountable to each other and
committed to each other’s success. The goal was to
create a greater trust among leaders, allowing for
risk taking, seizing the initiative, creating teams, and
fostering collaboration (both internal and external).
Increased trust allowed team members to feel more
comfortable and to express their opinions freely. As
Chrobot-Mason and Ernst describe it, the experience is
about building a sense of community:
[It] is about the experience of belonging
emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically
to a larger group. Each group identifies with
a collective that is larger than its individual
group alone. It is also about the sense of ownership that develops when groups feel that
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2016

they belong. When community exists, groups
may have widely different sets of experiences,
values, and expertise, yet they feel committed
to taking joint action on behalf of a larger
common purpose.21
To reinforce this, leaders conducted another
experiential activity. A unique orienteering course
required each company team to find points equating
to a monetary value, and to maximize the amount
collected. However, companies could not act alone.
They had to work through the battalion leadership to
have their plans approved while the staff synchronized
the plans