What can we and organisations learn from the SAS selection process?

19 Dec What can we and organisations learn from the SAS selection process?

One of my favourite TV series finished a few weeks ago – SAS: Who Dares Wins. Having been an avid viewer of Series 1 I couldn’t wait to tune in and see what was in store for this series.

For those of you who are not familiar with the programme, five ex-Special Forces soldiers recreate the SAS secret selection process and put 25 recruits (members of the public) through it testing their physical and more importantly psychological resilience to the maximum.

Whilst watching the series, two things occurred to me: 1) that there is a lot we can learn from this very clandestine and previously unknown process and 2) just how many parallels there are with employees and organisations. Actually the things the SAS look for are not a million miles away from what employers are looking for and what employees are striving to do to do every day.

Adaptation – the need to adapt to the environment we are in

Episode 1 was aptly titled “Mavericks”. What’s important is the definition of a maverick. It is “a person who takes chances, departs from accepted course”. I suppose you have to be a maverick to want to put yourself through the SAS selection process right? The consistent message throughout Episode 1 was all about “adaptability” and the need to be “adaptable”. The episode started with the recruits being driven across a bridge when their vehicle suddenly came to a halt. They were then told that there was only one way to enter the jungle and that was to jump off the bridge and swim to a boat waiting below. This took the recruits by complete surprise, particularly one individual who was scared of heights. Once they entered the jungle they needed to immediately adapt to their new environment. The five ex-Special Forces soldiers said this was key – their wise words were “don’t compete with the jungle just adapt to it and that way it wont beat you”.

This made me think about how good are we at adapting immediately to new environments we find ourselves in? Darwin talked about adaptation as a key element to the survival of any species. Actually it made me realise that the “need” for us to adapt has become all the more important. Why is adaptability even more important now? I think the answer is simple – we live in a volatile, uncertain, changing and ambiguous world. Simply nothing has changed – to survive we need to adapt and as a result adaptation has become a “must” rather than a “nice to do”.

The need to control our emotions

Episode 2 was titled “Aggression”. During this episode recruits were asked to fight each other for a place on the course. Whilst the fighting element isn’t relevant to the workplace the need to control our emotions is incredibly important and relevant. We hear expressions such as needing to wear “the corporate mask” to hide our true emotions which in my experience some people find easier to do than others. Fundamentally we have to be able to control our emotions at work. It doesn’t just end at emotions as we need to not only control our emotions, but our thoughts, feeling and behaviours as well, all whilst being authentic.

I was recently asked to run a resilience workshop for a client and one of the key ingredients I talked about for increasing our resilience is becoming more aware of our emotional choices. We talked about how we have a “choice” in how we react to events and got them to think about a recurring event at work, how they reacted and how they could choose to react differently next time. Breaking it down into: Event, Reaction and Choice really resonated with the group and realising that we choose how to react to any event we find ourselves in.

Trust: a fundamental of leadership

Episode 3 was titled “Trust and Leadership” and in the leaders words “trust” is a fundamental aspect of leadership. In the SAS, if you don’t have the trust of your team members and leader then quite simply you could be dead. Extreme but valid when people’s lives depend on this supposedly simple element called trust.

Being successful in the SAS is based on trust. It therefore got me thinking about trust within organisations. Organisations spend a lot of time and money on management and leadership training for their employees, but how often is the “T” word mentioned and its importance? Well it might be mentioned as an essential aspect of management and leadership, but how often do people trust the leaders within the organisation that they work? Unlike the SAS there is a lesser consequence if you don’t trust your leader and/or organisation, but what if we did trust more? How much better would the company perform because employees were engaged, bought into the strategic direction of the organisation and performing to the best of their ability all because of trust? We only have to go back to September 2015 and the VW emissions scandal to see the damage that had on the company. Imagine all those VW employees who realised they were working for a company whose leaders lied to not only them but the public.
I therefore think those employers who can genuinely talk about trust within their culture and organisation through their employer brand and employee value proposition will be at an advantage over their competitors to attract and retain the best talent in the future.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

Episode 4 was titled “Facing your fear” which involved leaning backwards from a considerably high shipping container into a murky river. This is what we would call “stepping out of your comfort zone”. Whilst corporate organisations don’t get potential recruits to do this as part of the selection process the underlying message is relevant. To grow, to progress, to improve ourselves, to challenge ourselves, to gain confidence we need to do something that scares us.

Since setting up my own business in 2014 this is something that I can really resonate with and I have described the last two years to many people as the best development programme I have ever been on. In early 2015 I was recommended to read a very good book called “Feel the fear and do it anyway” by Susan Jeffers. This book is a perception changer and I would encourage anyone out there who feels too afraid to try or do something to read it. We can all create stories in our minds about why we can’t do things, but what we don’t realise is what we might be missing out on by not trying at all.

This really resonated with me recently when I went back to my University where I did my undergraduate psychology degree to talk to a room of future female talent. I had been asked to give a talk about my life and career since leaving University and come up with 5 top tips, one of which was to “feel the fear and do it anyway” to grow and develop themselves.

Two survival tools – resilience and teamwork

Ok so the last episode was titled “Resistance to interrogation”. Don’t be put off by the title as the principle behind dealing with interrogation is valid and relevant – it’s all about resilience. Resilience to deal with an extreme situation that lasted around 24 hours. What’s interesting is the rise in organisations wanting to invest in some form of resilience training/activities for employees over the past few years. There is an acknowledgement and a need to help employees manage the 24/7 life whether it be offering onsite yoga classes, resilience workshops, flexible working or encouraging healthy eating.

The other message was the importance of team work. Whilst they were all interrogated individually, they all needed to give a consistent story and if any one of them deviated from that story, that would have implicated the others. Sticking to a story is a matter of life or death in the SAS. How often are messages consistent in organisations and teams? Communication remains one of the biggest challenges teams and organisations face. Great teams have this sussed leaving no room for misinterpretation or misunderstanding.

Out of twenty-five recruits only one individual passed the selection process – just one. Moses Adeyemi. He was the only one who they felt possessed the skills, personality, resilience, leadership that the SAS require. Some came close, really close but just didn’t make the mark.

My conclusion is that there are many things that we can learn and apply from this secretive yet extreme selection process, the key ones being:

– As individuals be different, take risks and don’t accept the status quo. Just like their motto “who dares wins”.
– Control is key, we are the only ones that can control our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Ultimately we choose how to respond and react to situations.
– Trust is by far the most important aspect of leadership and needs more focus than it currently gets. Organisations need to actively encourage and develop trust as a core value of their business.
– Like the book “feel the fear and do it anyway” in order to understand our true selves, we need to take ourselves out of our comfort zone and push ourselves to know what we are truly capable of.
– We need to become more aware of our resilience barometer and understand those situations where we are more/less resilient and develop our resilience.
– There is no “I” in team – if we are going to survive in this changing and uncertain world we are better off working together ensuring we communicate consistently and effectively to ensure we are all rowing in the same direction.

Katherine Ray is Director of Talentology Ltd and works with organisations to develop their managers and leaders to reach their full potential. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help you, please get in touch info@talentology.consulting

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