Sheepdog Skill: Judgment

Proportion means the response fits the situation.

It's not overreactive.

It's not underreactive.

He knew it in his gut.

It was wrong to go.

Even his scouts confirmed it.

But the lesson is that judgment has to be protected from external override, especially in the moments when the pressure to comply is highest.

The decision that changes, depending on who's watching, is a decision where judgment has been contaminated by your audience.

Pause and breathe and think, what could possibly go wrong? Then think again about moving forward.

Judgment is choosing the right action at the right time for the right reason.

I recall an episode at Morro Bay, California, where two RIBS, rigid hull inflatable boats, needed to push through some seriously heavy surf for training in extreme ocean environments.

And they were supporting a SEAL platoon operational readiness exam, or ORE.

They were supporting their insertion.

The waves that day were cresting near 30 feet high at Morro Bay where the surf gets kind of channeled into a narrow channel.

Situation was sketchy to say the least.

It would have been a no-brainer to call off that exercise and I like to think that I would have made that call.

However, the OIC lieutenant thought his team was up for the task and the overall commanding officer of SEAL Team 3 agreed and not only that but he decided to join them in the boats.

That was a bad decision.

Out they went, and both boats flipped ass over tea kettle as they were launched into the air by a massive wave when they tried to crest it.

All the operators tossed into the ocean, several injuries, severe ones, and near drownings.

That was a training mission that never should have been launched, but was because of the pressure of the situation.

A CEO watching a readiness exam and process, the weight of the institutional expectations overrode the signals to not go.

Well, anyways, good for us.

That failure is instructive and recognizable.

It's about judgment.