Extreme Outsourcing - One and Done Memos

November 17, 2022

I spent the early part of my career working for some incredible leaders, in high-stress environments.

A lot of these guys had spent careers in the elite echelons of the military before having a “second career” at my old organization - and so I got to learn from them.

They’d learned to “civilianize” a lot of their leadership experience - and I still use the things they taught me - many years later.

Why is it so beneficial to study military leadership tools and techniques?

High stress.

Fog of war.

Chaos.

We ask our young military leaders to thrive in this environment - so I think they can teach us all a bit about how to work and communicate more effectively with our teams and companies!

One of my favorite tools that I’ve learned and used over and over is the basic Marine Corps five-paragraph order, also known as a SMEAC.

Any Marines in my audience will know 10,000 times more about it than I do - but I have experience using it in the civilian world!

In the USMC, that stands for:

Situation. Mission. Execution. Admin/Logistics. Command/Signal

In a civilian/outsourcing context I use the following headings:

Background/Context. Goal. Execution. Admin. Communication/Leader. 

This is a simple, beautiful structure for writing a “Memo”, briefing your team, and generally communicating with everyone around you.

It’s also incredibly flexible - it can be 5 sentences if you are time-pressed… or it can be pages and pages long.

I consider it one of my secret weapons in running a high-performance, decentralized company!

What’s the benefit to you, Mr/Ms. Business Owner?

When you write a memo in this format - people have the appropriate context to understand your intent and are empowered to figure out the how.

This takes enormous pressure off of you the leader while empowering and directing your team to do an incredible job!

There are hundreds of articles about how to use this structure effectively, but I’ll give you some basic guidance on how I think about this structure as a civilian leader.

I’m also including in italics a “memo” that I wrote almost a year ago - that coordinated local labor, offshore talent, and management into the launch of a new in-house manufacturing facility - in a stress-free way.

Here’s the punchline - I wrote this memo, went on vacation, and the launch went off without a hitch.

Background/Context:

  • What is the big picture that provides color to the goal you are establishing?

  • What are other people doing in the company, that might be useful to know?

  • What is the competition doing, that might be useful to know?

Background (Example):

GE is looking to optimize and create flexibility within our crew operations planning and increase in-house GE manufacturing capabilities.

Goal:

  • One simple sentence about what is the assignment to accomplish.

  • Try using the “Who, What, Where, When, Why (Purpose)” format, and always include the phrase “In order to” when talking about the why.

  • The “in order to” is critical - so that your team can be flexible in how they accomplish your stated goal!

Goal (Example):

On 3/JAN/2022, Jon will sign a lease for a new manufacturing facility lease (Carlito’s cabinet shop) (CCS) at XYZ address in order to increase manufacturing capacity and installation flexibility for our company. 

Execution:

  • How is your team going to execute the goal?

  • Major steps and details are useful here.

Goal (Example):

  • Jon will sign the CCS lease on or about 3 January 2022. Once signed, GE will take possession of CCS on 10 January 2022

  • The start of manufacturing at CCS will be driven by how quickly it can get set up - the sooner the better.

  • Marco will work with Carlos M. to arrange for the shipment of machinery from the warehouse to CCS. Marco will contact equipment shippers the week of 3 January to arrange for transport the following week. Scheduling the transfer for 10 January is ideal, as it is the first day of facility possession by GE.

  • Marco will work with Carlos M. to purchase or rent a forklift for use at Carlito’s cabinet shop.

  • Internal crews will be used as follows (LINK). This structure will continue until flat packing cabinets allow GE to use pods.com for LA shipment needs.

  • CFO will work to financially separate and track the expenses of CCS for the purposes of budgeting and planning.

Admin:

  • All the finer points of accomplishing the mission can be included here

  • How are you going to pay for things?

  • Are you authorizing overtime?

  • What are the details of the resources you are committing?

Admin (Example):

The wifi password at the new facility is XYZ.

The keys for the new facility are on the desk by the front door of the warehouse.

The new landlord’s contact details are XYZ.

Marco will be in charge of what jobs get sent to CCS, vs what jobs get sent to other manufacturers.

CCS should be used to capacity before any external manufacturers are used. CCS can also be used for “last minute” fixes or problem-solving, however, CCS should be used for standard goods/services only. Any special order manufacturing must be approved by Jon in writing prior to manufacture.

Ops Manager will work with Marco to identify crew configuration to best support manufacturing, drop-offs, problem-solving, and warehouse operations.

Marco will schedule a presentation 30 days after the launch of CCS with Jon, Ops Manager, GM, and CFO to check in on the status and utilization of CCS

Communication/Leader:

  • Where are you going to communicate?

  • Who is in charge?

Communication/Leader (Example): 

All communication related to this launch will be in the CCS channel in GE slack. Marcos is the overall leader of this effort and is a direct report to the GM. 

I wrote this memo - then went on vacation during the “Stressful Launch” (Nope!) of our new manufacturing facility. 

If you don’t have time to be clear and specific as a leader, you don’t have time to be a leader.

Last note!

These can be short - for example:

“Hey, Assistant - I’m traveling to France next month. I need you to book my flight there in order to get my wife/son and me from LAX to Paris. Anytime first week of December on United works. Once you’ve booked with my corporate AMEX add it to my calendar and let me know via Whatsapp.

All five parts are in that paragraph if you closely!

Hope you enjoyed this newsletter.

Jon