The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions, and Results

by Stephen Bungay

One was known as the Normaltaktiker, because they wanted to create standard specifications (Normen) for tactical procedures. They sought to establish coherence by training infantry leaders in the use of detailed methods of deployment and attack. The other school argued that no such recipes were possible. They were dubbed Auftragstaktiker, because they wanted to exercise control by specifying the mission (Auftrag) to be accomplished and leave decisions about how to do so to junior leaders on the spot.32 Anything else would drive out the spirit of initiative. Junior leaders had to be properly trained and then trusted to make the right decisions. It was an argument between those who wanted to manage chaos by controlling how and those who wanted to exploit chaos by commanding what and why.