Fire ready, aim - Using tracer rounds in decision-making

Recently, I mentioned the concept of tracer rounds in a LinkedIn post. I received a surprising handful of emails asking to flesh that out a bit, so abracadabra, here we are. I think the concept of tracer rounds fits today’s decision-making model perfectly.



Ready, aim, fire



Even though it was used in the movie Ben Hur (along with that other period gaffe, the red sports car), the phrase Ready, Aim, Fire! was probably made popular in the 18th century sometime to help infantrymen with musket practice and dueling colleagues be civil with their killing..



Think about it… “Get ready,” means just that – assume posture and preparedness; “Aim” is to align the weapon’s barrel with the target; and “Fire!” means to set fire to the musket powder, sending a musket ball downrange toward the intended target.



Of course, it was also used in those unsavory firing squads, but the original principal held true.


Get ready, take aim, and fire.



And in all fairness, this was a practical analogy for business decision-making for decades. Get ready (identify the problem); Aim (use available information to make a decision); Fire (execute the decision).



Makes perfect sense. Except we would usually screw up the order of things.



Sometimes it was “Ready, aim, aim, aim…” as we kicked the can down the road with cowardly stalling tactics, always “fixin’  to do something (Texas vernacular), irritating every competent employee within shooting distance. Too often, NO decision became THE decision.



Other times it was “Ready, fire, fire, fire…” as we made rapidly successive decisions void of any appreciable thought, knee-jerking our way to abysmal failure and more frustrated employees who had to clean up our collective messes.



Then, there was “Ready, fire, aim…” This one got an unwarranted bad rap. Too often it was considered the impulsive act of a manager not needing (or wanting) input from anyone else; s/he had all the information needed to do whatever s/he wanted. I think it was wrongly placed since likely, that manager never did take aim. At least not with any appreciable thought.



Ready, fire, aim actually works pretty well, as long as we use a feedback loop to keep it going. Something like Ready, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire… where each successive “Fire!” acts a decision-maker’s tracer rounds (tracers). Used in machine guns, tracers allowed gunners to see the ending point of the fired round, and adjust their future shooting based on that new information.

Thanks for listening. Always remember to Be Brazen, remembering that grace & accountability can coexist.


Don't forget to subscribe here to stay up to date on all of the latest content!

Be sure to follow us on:
The Web - https://triangleperformance.com