No Disco Head Spins

I read with relief, whilst mindful we have been here before, that the latest Russian 'Summer offensive' stalls without making gains in the sovereign territory that is democratic Ukraine.

An historian and former battlefield commander assess this from their English viewpoint. Their withering assessment; Russia isn't any good at fighting. The disregard they continue to show for their people is staggering. Here's a few reasons given for failings;

• practically no training before heading into the meat grinder
• draconian discipline
• blind obedience required
• initiative is not just discouraged, it is punished
• officers at the back shoot straggling soldiers ahead of them
• war crimes are so prevalent
• soldiers used as slave labour on superiors' personal and vanity projects
• corruption is endemic and rampant even in peacetime
• the army is for the most part sickeningly incompetent

Here's but one paragraph that caught my Sales eye, discussing one aspect of what these all lead to;

"Hence the massive levels of attrition and the reason why watchers see so many tanks out of control with “disco head” – where the commander becomes totally disorientated by all that is going on around him, typically a precursor to the tank’s destruction."

The image this conjures is quite something. A wildly spinning turret, perhaps firing indiscriminately, maybe with smoke pouring out of it, some poor soul's head poking out, binocular's primed yet clearly at a loss to gauge their true situation.

Then boom.

Said tank is no more.

I sense you may well have seen this 'disco head' in our equivalent theatre of Sales.

The person leading the sell has too become disorientated.

Key prospect personalities unreachable, new specs appear from nowhere, goalposts changed, a stampeding project creep, huge untruths about our capabilities thrown around, pricing complications introduced.

It's certainly never pretty.

Even if this is a recurring theme, then you can act.

Rigorous qualification and adherence to your unique, winning, repeatable process are paramount.

As you may have gathered, if disco head strikes, it's probably too late.

Get out. But make sure you put in place what stops it cropping up again.