Daniel Coyle (Here) states in the book The Talent Code that to develop talent quickly you need deep practice, ignition (or passion), and master coaching to reach the highest levels in a particular skill. One of the examples he cites is Brazil’s ability to produce talented soccer players due to the country’s love for futsal, a type of speed soccer played on a basketball court with only five or six players. Futsal gives Brazilian soccer players an edge, since its’ deep practice gives players more repetitions, demands precise handling of the soccer ball and sharp passing, and encourages improvisation.

But how do you find your futsal to develop leaders in your company? One military technique that develops repetitions on decision making and critical thinking is the Tactical Decision Exercise (TDE) or the Tactical Decision Game. TDEs use a scenario that gives leaders the opportunity to develop a plan based on limited information and in a time-constrained environment. Think of them as a situational puzzle, but one not as complicated as a business school case study. They require few resources and provide huge returns in developing your leaders.

For years, every month in the The Marine Corps Gazette or Armor Magazine, the editors would publish a tactical problem that needed to be solved. Readers would write their solution to the problem and mail them in. The next month, the magazine would publish the best solutions. This technique has migrated to police, security groups, fire fighters, and others as a way to teach decision making.

A great way to train your team now — especially with social distancing — is to utilize Leader Decision Exercises (LDX) as part of a weekly meeting or as a dedicated leadership training event each quarter. It is futsal for your leaders. The LDXs can be built for front-line leaders, middle managers, or strategic leaders and encompass any scenario you and your team might encounter. Here is a way to use a LDX with your team:

• Develop a LDX scenario (see the format below)

• Give the LDX scenario to your team via Zoom or Teams by sharing your screen

• After everyone reads the scenario and asks questions, have each member develop their solution over the next 10 minutes

• Select a team member to talk through their solution to the team

• Facilitate an After Action Review (see post #41). of the solution. The four components of an AAR are

  • What was the plan?

  • What happened?

  • What is one thing I should sustain, in my role or at my level, the next time this occurs?

  • What is one thing I should improve, in my role or at my level, the next time this occurs?

Try this Leader Decision Exercise for an owner of a restaurant chain (which could easily be changed to any number of different businesses — grocery stores, gas stations, agriculture co-ops, etc). The owner of the chain would use this scenario with his three managers as a training event to develop their response to a large number of employees having to quarantine:

If you want to try this yourself, take ten minutes and in the comments on LinkedIn or the blog, post your solution to the Leader Decision Exercise. I’ll select the best one Thursday at 12:00 PM EDT.

Social distancing and the coronavirus crisis are should not stop the training and development of your leaders. Use Leader Decision Exercises as a way to develop your leaders and increase their decision making and communications skills. These leadership repetitions will help your business or team operate at a higher level.

TFCG can help you build LDX scenarios that resonate with your business, assist you in facilitating a session, or teach you how to use them to develop your team. Contact us here to start the discussion.