On a lighter note, although I'm not sure how funny this might be for some people, this is from before the consulting phase of my career when I was a combat engineering officer.One of the things that MOD does is give a sh!tload of money to big strategy shops to come in and make a complete mess of running a fighting force. However this was a middle tier firm, rather than a strat house.I was sitting in a presentation by a reasonably high powered team who'd done a study looking at some organisational development. The subtleties of our business had been explained in some detail a number of times by different people and at different times.It became increasingly apparent that they hadn't actually taken any of the ''8 hours notice to move'', ''hostile environment'', ''extended logistic chains''. The most important thing missing was an appreciation that their prejudices about military leadership styles were downright wrong, having turned down an opportunity to spend a couple of days on exercise to observe what one of the units in the business area did.The amusement was watching the engagement manager realise this over the course of an hour as my General calmly and politely tore the analysis apart by making observations on the methodology, assumptions and conclusions. He resolutely continued through the presentation but it became clear about half way through that he was dreading introducing each new point.It was one of those, funny but painful to watch episodes.Less funny was the ''RAOL, get your **** in here and tell me why they ****** up so badly'' later that day.........
