Applying Mission Command and Maneuver Warfare to Business through OBL and ALT
In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the principles of Mission Command and Maneuver Warfare, rooted in military strategy, offer transformative potential for private-sector organizations.
Dr. Chet Richards, in his July 2, 2025, article "Auftragstaktik for Whole Foods", highlights how these concepts can streamline operations and foster innovation at companies like Whole Foods. By integrating Outcomes-Based Learning (OBL) and Adaptive Leader Training (ALT), businesses can create agile, empowered teams that thrive in dynamic environments.
Mission Command: Empowering Teams with Auftragstaktik
Richards draws on the German concept of auftragstaktik—or mission command—to propose a cultural shift at Whole Foods, where CEO Jason Buechel has criticized bureaucratic delays in decision-making. Mission command, as described by USAF Colonel John R. Boyd, is a "contract" between leaders and subordinates. Leaders define the intent and desired outcomes, while subordinates are granted the freedom to exercise initiative and creativity in achieving those goals. Once agreement is reached, no further approvals are needed, enabling rapid, decentralized execution.
In practice, this means Whole Foods could empower store managers and teams to make real-time decisions aligned with the company’s strategic goals, such as improving customer experience or optimizing inventory. Richards suggests that by reducing the need for constant approvals, businesses can eliminate bottlenecks and accelerate innovation.
Maneuver Warfare: Staying Open and Adaptive
Richards also emphasizes the principles of Maneuver Warfare, which prioritize adaptability and openness to external influences. He praises Buechel’s habit of visiting rival stores to gain insights, aligning with Boyd’s idea that organizations must remain "open systems" to survive. By engaging with competitors and the broader market, businesses can stay attuned to industry trends and customer needs.
This openness counters the "closed system" mentality, where companies rely solely on internal products or ideas out of misguided loyalty. Richards warns that such insularity stifles innovation and blinds organizations to external opportunities. For Whole Foods, adopting maneuver warfare principles could mean encouraging employees to explore competitors’ strategies and integrate best practices into their operations.
Outcomes-Based Learning (OBL): Focusing on Results
To implement mission command and maneuver warfare, Richards advocates for Outcomes-Based Learning (OBL), a training approach that prioritizes measurable results over rigid processes. OBL encourages employees to focus on achieving specific outcomes—such as increasing sales or improving customer satisfaction—while giving them the flexibility to determine the best methods. This aligns with auftragstaktik by fostering initiative and accountability.
For Whole Foods, OBL could involve training programs that teach employees to align their actions with company goals, such as reducing waste or enhancing product displays, without prescriptive step-by-step instructions. By emphasizing outcomes, OBL ensures that training is practical and directly tied to business success.
Adaptive Leader Training (ALT): Building Agile Leaders
Complementing OBL, Adaptive Leader Training (ALT) equips leaders to thrive in uncertain, fast-paced environments. ALT, inspired by military practices, emphasizes situational awareness, rapid decision-making, and the ability to empower teams. Leaders trained in ALT learn to set clear intent, trust their teams, and adapt to changing conditions—key tenets of mission command.
At Whole Foods, ALT could transform managers into facilitators who guide teams toward shared goals rather than micromanaging tasks. For example, a store manager might set a goal of improving customer retention and allow the team to experiment with new service approaches, intervening only to provide resources or clarify intent.
Practical Steps for Implementation
Richards recommends resources like Don Vandergriff’s Adopting Mission Command and Stephen Bungay’s The Art of Action to guide businesses in adopting these principles. Immediate steps for Whole Foods could include:
Decentralizing decision-making: Empower teams to act within defined mission parameters.
Implementing OBL programs: Train employees to focus on outcomes, not processes.
Adopting ALT for managers: Develop leaders who can adapt and inspire in dynamic settings.
Encouraging openness: Promote competitive analysis and external learning to stay innovative.
What Does It All Mean?
By embracing Mission Command and Maneuver Warfare through Outcomes-Based Learning and Adaptive Leader Training, private-sector companies like Whole Foods can overcome bureaucratic inefficiencies and foster a culture of agility and innovation. These principles, as Richards illustrates, enable organizations to empower their teams, adapt to market shifts, and achieve strategic goals in a competitive landscape.
Begin Dr. Chet Richards article:
Slightly East of NewRead on blog or Reader
Auftragstaktik for Whole Foods
By Chet on July 2, 2025
"The feedback I've gotten from team members and employees is that ultimately, we're wasting time," (Whole Foods CEO Jason) Buechel said. "It's taking too long for decisions and approvals to take place, and it's actually holding back some of our initiatives."
As quoted in "Amazon's Whole Foods boss slams 'ridiculous' bureaucracy in meeting," by Eugene Kim in Business Insider, June 25, 2025
Balthasar van der Ast, Still Life with Basket of Fruit, 1622
Yay for Mr. Buechel. Eliminating unnecessary procedures is always a good idea. It's the definition of "unneeded." But I'll give him an even better idea: Rather than fiddling with the existing approval and decision process, create systems and culture so that virtually no approvals -- and many fewer decisions -- are needed in the first place.
It can be done. Here's the basic idea, courtesy of the late USAF Colonel John R. Boyd:
The German concept of mission can be thought of as a contract, hence an agreement, between superior and subordinate. The subordinate agrees to make his actions serve his superior’s intent in terms of what is to be accomplished, while the superior agrees to give his subordinate wide freedom to exercise his imagination and initiative in terms of how intent is to be realized.
As part of this concept, the subordinate is given the right to challenge or question the feasibility of mission if he feels his superior’s ideas on what can be achieved are not in accord with the existing situation or if he feels his superior has not given him adequate resources to carry it out. Likewise, the superior has every right to expect his subordinate to carry out the mission contract when agreement is reached on what can be achieved consistent with the existing situation and resources provided. Patterns of Conflict, 76
So once agreement has been reached, no further decisions or approvals are needed or expected. You have your mission and your resources, so just get on with it.
I'm sure by now that many of you have recognized the concept of auftragstaktik, an English word newly borrowed from the German word for "contract."
How to do it? To get started I'd recommend any of the books by Don Vandergriff, particularly Adopting Mission Command, and Stephen Bungay's The Art of Action. Both available from Amazon. Incidentally, "mission command" is a common English substitute for auftragstaktik.
While you're at it, here's a practice that will start paying benefits immediately:
One area Buechel is keeping a close eye on: the competition. He said he visits rival stores weekly to stay inspired and monitor industry shifts. "I am a grocery geek," Buechel said. "I love going into our stores, but I love going into competition."
This is an incredibly good idea. Boyd again:
Living systems are open systems; closed systems are non‑living systems. Point: If we don’t communicate with the outside world—to gain information for knowledge and understanding as well as matter and energy for sustenance—we die out to become a non‑discerning and uninteresting part of that world. Strategic Game, 21
There may be forces inside your organization that work against this seemingly obvious idea. Many organizations, for example, have picked up the insidious habit of using only their own products and services as some type of loyalty test. So employees of a particular car manufacturer only drive cars from that manufacturer. "Loyalty," in other words, has closed their system. And think about it. Your least productive, least innovative, most disruptive and most toxic people often score extremely well on such loyalty tests.
I rant about this pathology in Certain to Win. Unlike other forms of sycophancy, it's not hard to spot: Just go count cars in your parking lot.