These days, the name of Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer is barely known outside the highly specialist field of Counterinsurgency Warfare – within which he is a role model of heroic proportion.

However, since legislative trends make dealing with employees ever more like Counterinsurgency Warfare, your contributor was reading a very helpful book on the subject when he came across a formulation of the Field Marshal’s leadership system that deserves much broader attention.

It can be applied to organising almost anything.

The key to the system is taking each step in turn, in order of importance, not moving on to the next step until the one before has been sorted out completely. Getting the more important step right is half way to getting the next step right.

So, in order of importance – and action – starting with the most important,

1   Get the priorities right – i.e. the objectives;

2   Get the instructions right – i.e. the strategy; 

3   Get the organisation right – i.e. the structure;

4   Get the right people into the organisation;  

5   Get the right spirit into the people;

6   Leave them to get on with it.