0:02 Military military uniforms may look like a matter of clothing, but militaries have rarely treated them that way. A uniform is simultaneously equipment, identification, communication, culture, and brand. Its evolution illustrates a broader management principle. Seemingly superficial choices can pro can profoundly affect how an organization operates and how its people understand their roles within it. Today on Business Lessons from the military, from red coats to camouflage, what uniforms teach
0:39 business. Who are you [music] and where are you going? What do you want? [music]
0:58 >> Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the UN from the military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and I'm here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and leadership practices and then distill from them lessons that we can apply to our businesses and professional practices. So today I'm going to be talking about uniforms, particularly uniforms in the military. Uh I'll I'll tilt my computer here. If you look right here, you'll see there's there's an example of another kind of uniform. That's my uh boy scout uniform. I I have
1:33 it there in a shadow box. And uh you know the Boy Scouts uh back when I was in it, which was in the uh late 1960s and um well I was in the Cub Scouts in the late 1960s and then and then the early to mid 1970s. Um the uniforms that we wore were had very much of a military cast to them. And that's because the founder of the Boy Scouts, uh Lord Ben Powell, was himself a a military man. and and that's how he developed the uniforms in England and that eventually transferred over here to the United
2:08 States. And and when I was in the military myself, I wore a variety of uniforms uh for different occasions and for different reasons, different ones when I was um posted with the Marine Corps than when I was with the Navy. And it it it all brings uh um a a certain cache I would say to being a service member. So the the history of uh military uniforms I think provides a useful lens for
2:45 business leaders to view several issues. So uniforms evolved as military organizations grew larger, as warfare changed, as technology improved, and as institutions learned to balance competing requirements such as standard standardization, individual identity, and practicality with morale and public image. So, you know, at the start, I think there's several misconceptions about military uniforms, and I want to
3:20 deal with those upfront. So there seems to be this idea that uniforms were created primarily so soldiers and sailors would look alike and and uniformity was important but identification, logistics, discipline, unit cohesion, status and eventually survival on the battlefield were equally important. And so the purpose of the uniform has changed substantially as warfare has changed. Um and the the next
3:57 misconception I think is that that armies have always worn uh standardized uniforms and and that is also not the case. I I think you know if you look at movies you know of militaries even in in sort of ancient and medieval times all the soldiers tend to be dressed alike. That is not historically accurate. So um in you know until around the 17th century thereabouts um combatants
4:32 basically they they supplied much of their own clothing and equipment. And so you know an army they might all have similar shields or banners or badges or they might have a color or or heraldry or other devices to establish identity. those all existed long before standardized uniforms became commonplace. Uh, another misconception, this is on the part of I I think Americans in particular, is that brightly colored uniforms were foolish because they made
5:08 soldiers easy targets. And thinking primarily about the the British red coats um against whom we fought in the war for independence. So this is really to apply uh modern battlefield conditions to past times and and that is not a an appropriate way to look at it. So, at the time of the Revolutionary War, uh, there was no such thing as smokeless tobacco. Sorry, smokeless tobacco. Listen to me. Smokeless gunpowder, right? So, the
5:44 battlefield oftent times was smokefilled and you had these mass formations fighting each other at relatively short distances. And it was absolutely crucial to be able to identity identify friend from foe. And so bright uniforms allowed that to happen despite the smoky haze and and the chaos of the battlefield. And and you know this was particularly important because maintaining formations could be
6:19 important um and oftentimes were more important than individual concealment. as technology changed this reversed the calculation. And so then we see today where uh you know we don't have brightly uh colored uniforms at least not on the battlefield um because concealment is much more important. I'll talk about that more in a in a few minutes. The other one, the other uh I think somewhat common misconception is that camouflage was just simply a better uniform, a better
6:55 version of the uniform. Um it's and it's it's just that camouflage represented a fundamental change um in what the uniform was supposed to to accomplish. Right? So earlier uniforms emphasized um visibility and identity. Modern combat uniforms really emphasize concealment and survivability. Right? And so through these misconceptions we can see some of the
7:30 history of uniforms uh military uniforms start to develop. So this leads to I think several questions. The first is when did armies begin to wear, you know, what we would truly call uniforms in the sense of they were uni form, right? They're all the same form. So, this became um much more common um with the growth of standing armies in Europe starting in the 17th and 18th centuries. So, the 16 and 1700s.
8:05 So central governments could now recruit, equip, supply and administer large armies of professional soldiers. So it wasn't a situation where uh you know military recruitment was kind of ad hoc at at at the time a battle was going to be fought and and so that changed the whole nature of army life and to a certain extent naval life as well. So why did then did armies choose these distinctive colors? I mentioned the
8:41 British red coat. So the the reality is they provided rapid identification which was which was very important. So the British [clears throat] wore red, the Prussians wore dark blue. Um the colonials also wore sometimes dark blue, sometimes light blue. um every army developed its distinctive color during this sort of early stage of of the uh creation and development of military uniforms. So um
9:16 they also developed things like facings. We we might call them lapels and other parts of the uniform um that that made or that distinguished um individual units as part of the larger army. So cavalry might have different facings or they might have a different t style of boots than infantry men. artillery men might have different headgear than infantry men etc. So, so these um all of these distinctions
9:52 uh you know developed during this period. Um now the other you know people we look at uniforms from that time and we all say like they were so elaborate. I have the big tall, you know, beaver skin headgear and and and what looks like, you know, they're going to a formal ball or something. So, um, you know, the uniforms were not just to dress the soldiers. They were to communicate a sense of nationality and and and pride in the country for
10:30 which they fought. So it was it really was a matter of pride that units were well fitted out as they might say that they looked dashing on the battlefield, right? Because that was a matter of national prestige. And then you had distinctions of rank and regiment, branch, other specialties. all of these um all of these aspects could be encoded in the clothing. So you had uh epulletes um and later they were
11:06 replaced by shoulder boards to to identify the rank and they they you know particularly fancy ones might have braid on them to designate a flag or general officer. Um you you had you know the the the cross um um uh I I can't think of what they're called but anyway you had um um and and that you know they were for carrying things like ammunition and and that and that sort of thing. So um all of these aspects were developed in order to make the uniforms both more distinctive but
11:43 also more functional. Right? So if if if that's the case that you know they that that armies you know wanted to be distinctive and project national prestige like why did they eventually get rid of these bright colors and the answer is uh they did on the battlefield but not necessarily when they were in garrison. Right? So as weapons changed, as uh smokeless gunpowder was developed, as um uh rifled
12:19 rif, you know, we you had musketss with which had a smooth bore, they were not as accurate, especially at longer ranges, as a rifle, which has a rifled, the barrel, that's the inside of the barrel that makes the projectile go uh travel a truer uh a truer um uh path uh over a longer distance. So as these kinds of things uh as technology improved um the the battle space was no
12:54 longer smoke filled number one. Number two, armies did not clash in sort of mass formations at close range because they would just get wiped out. This was the lesson learned in World War I. And so the it it it would you know armies in particular realized that having distinctive bright colors on the battlefield meant more of their soldiers got killed. And so we saw in uh I mean really in the Boore war um but then moving into World War II
13:29 the uh the bright colors of uniforms were replaced by khaki khaki brown khaki green sort of a a grayish uniform that that's what the Germans wore and and and that that concealment uh was much more important than the distinctiveness on the battlefield. However, off the battlefield on bases when there were military parades, many of these brightly colored, very distinctive uniforms remained in use for many, many, many,
14:05 many decades later and in some cases are still in use, right? And so it wasn't that they abandoned the bright colors, they just didn't use them on the battlefield because the cost benefit calculation changed as technology uh as weapons technology changed. And then in modern militaries, you know, I I mentioned this at the beginning of the show, we have several uniforms. So, in the Navy when [clears throat] I was in it, I when I went through uh officer training, we had what were called shore
14:41 khakis, which was a short sleeve shirt of a cotton polyester blend, open collar with with with long trousers. Uh that was the uniform we wore on a daily basis. But we also had what were called service dress blues, which was actually a black uniform, a double- breasted coat. Um, and then we had service dress whites. That's the famous uniform, the tunic with the with the pie collar, um, and the buttons down the center. Uh, and then, uh, very soon after that, when I
15:17 got to Okinawa, uh, I started wearing Marine Corps, what are called camies. It was a camouflage uniform. There were two. There was the the the sort of jungle green and the desert brown. Uh, and then for a short time I wore um uh what were called uh um uh shoot. So there was a white uniform that was a it was like the uh shore khakis only it was white. Um, and and you you
15:53 know you you had uh shoulder boards on it on the shirt and and uh and and you know it it was a uniform that got dirty easily. People hated it. And then there was a black version of that uniform that I also wore for a short time. It was it was deauthorized during the first year I was in the Navy. So you had all the and and by the way that is far fewer uniforms than existed in the Navy prior to World War II. So prior to World War II, in addition to the service dress, there was the full dress, there was mess dress, um I I eventually got a mess
16:30 dress uniform as well when I was promoted to lieutenant commander. Right? So you have all these different uniforms. The Marine Corps has the same thing. They have their alphas, charlies and bravos in addition to their camies. Um the other branches, army, navy, you know, they have similar things. Um the reason for all these different uniforms is it depends on what the the sailor, the soldier, the marine, the airman is going to do. So if they're just doing their kind of work a day job, they're going to wear some kind of working uniform, camouflage or maybe dungarees
17:06 or something like that. if they're going to be working in an office, they may wear uh in in the Navy, like when I was with the submarine squadron, uh we wore short khakis in the office. In theory, we could have worn the what became to known as the blueberries, an absolutely heinous uniform that everybody in the Navy, pretty much everybody in the Navy hated. um we couldn't wear the the um uh the overalls because that was only for shipboard and so we wore our shore khakis. Um and then if you were going to
17:43 some kind of event like the Navy ball, so then typically the mess dress uniform was authorized. If there was going to be some kind of ceremony, you would wear a service dress uniform. So it really depended on what was going to be going what what what a particular service member was going to be doing that day as to which uniform he wore and that's why there there there are so many uh and then when I was with naval aation naval aviation by the way I got to wear a flight suit which is the most comfortable uniform and there were two of them. There was a green one uh for regular duty and then once we transited
18:20 into the um Persian Gulf, we wore the light brown uh uh flight suit which was the most comfortable of all um and and it was you know made for the the hot desert climate in in the you know in the Middle East. So all of these are ways uh of of making sure that the uniform is appropriate for the tasks at hand. No single design could optimize every requirement. So combat uniforms prioritize performance and survivability. Service uniforms
18:56 emphasize professional identity and and dress uniforms like the mess dress. So they emphasize heritage and ceremony and and kind of institutional prestige. So there's just different reasons for each one. So the the main sort of historical story of uniforms is is this sort of reversal of military clothing. So in initially armies needed to answer a fundamental question on the battlefield which is who
19:31 is one of us so we don't you know harm our own people right and and this is why while uniforms were not around yet there would be you know standard banners shields you know badges that at least gave an indication of you know who was in my army as opposed to who the enemy is as we moved into the time of standing armies. So, you know, it became more important to have standardized clothing uh be as part of the professionalization
20:06 of armies. Um but also it became a way of organizing these large uh military organizations. So, and and then keeping them supplied also required standardization. So, you didn't want to have a whole bunch of different kinds of weapons and need all kinds of different uh calibers of ammunition and and different replacement parts. So, by standardizing the rifle, for example, it meant that the supply chains could be simplified as well. Then as we move into
20:43 the 18th century and into the early 19th century, the sort of Napoleonic period, so uniforms became increasingly effective at communicating identity and and as nation states became more solidified, this became more important again for this issue of of national prestige. And then within them, you know, being able to identify my one's regiment, one's rank, the part of of of
21:18 the formation one was in. This was this all became increasingly important um because when you have large armies, you need to be able to move units around. And so commanders need to be able to tell, well, you know, where is the 56th Regiment? where is the 125th battalion or where is the 10th cavalry? All of these things made it made uniforms uh more necessary so that the battlefield could be properly managed by uh sen senior officers. uh and then there was
21:53 the introduction of ever more lethal technology and this technological disruption changed the whole calculation on the battlefield as I talked about before. So the advantages of visibility decreased as weapons became more lethal and then as modern communication came in. So while in the American Civil War, communication was still with things like uh you know signal file
22:29 signal fires semaphore uh in other words visual communication moving into World War I where they would lay telephone lines so you didn't need to see the person with whom you were communicating. You could pick up the phone and talk to them. So the need for units to to stand out and be distinctive diminished and and the need for concealment in the face of more lethal weapons became much more important. And then and so that's why we finally arrive at uniforms field gray, khaki,
23:04 camouflage, all of the sort of contemporary uh style or or or fashion of uniforms that we see today. And this this this you know this really at this point we're at kind of the fundamental reversal of of what uniforms originally um uh sought to accomplish. But there's a there's sort of a a broad um lesson there and that is organizations did not stop needing uniforms. It changed what it needed in the uniform. it adapted what
23:40 it needed in the uniform to current conditions. Right? So this this provides kind of a bridge to business um with respect to what we can learn about uniforms. So the other big I think benefit of uniforms in the military system is that they create an organizational language that everyone can read. So, famously,
24:18 military people, if they're wearing one of their service uniforms, they're typically will have uh what's called a ribbon rack, and it's a set of small triangular ribbons. Basically, those ribbons are taken from the medals and other personal decorations and awards that they've received during their career. And people in the military become pretty adept at knowing what a person has done just by looking at their ribbon rack. So for example, in the
24:54 Navy, if you saw a sailor with a solid maroon ribbon, uh that was the um uh um good conduct. That means they had gotten the good conduct medal. And that told you that this was a a a an enlisted sailor who had, you know, year after year done a, you know, done a a, you know, kind of towed the line and done the job right. Um, if they had a ribbon on that was a um, uh, green, white, and
25:30 then green in the middle, so that means they had received the Navy and Marine Corps commenation medal. And you know again depending on what their rank was and what other ribbons they might have that gives you an idea of of how highly decorated uh that that particular marine or sailor uh is. So all of these things uh help uh you know identify who the person is as part of the larger organization. And so uniforms uh they
26:06 created a sense of belonging to the larger organization while at the same time provided some individualization. So the person didn't feel that they were just sort of a nameless cog in the machine. And and and that that was that's been a uh that that's an important aspect I think that we in in in the business world should look at. We want our people to feel members of our team. At the same time they need to have recognition as individuals as well.
26:43 Right? And so from this then we can we can look at this idea of um you are one of us and your particular role and accomplishments matter and that's really especially when we look at the the the uniforms worn in garrison that is really the message that they're looking to convey. So, let's take a quick break and let's let's we'll look at some specific lessons.
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27:55 or visit magnumprops.com. Okay. So, let's look at now some uh some lessons that we can learn from uh military uniforms. Um and and as is is the case, I have I have five of them. [snorts] Okay. So, the first one is that culture needs a physical manifestation. Right? We talk about culture in business quite often. Corporate culture, right? C corporate culture cannot exist solely as
28:33 a list of values on a website. It needs to be more tangible than that. In the military, one of the ways that culture is reinforced is through uniforms, ceremonies, insignia, the kind of language that's used, the tradition, uh certain repeated behaviors, right? So all of these physical manifestations turn this abstract notion of institution into something that people can
29:09 experience and we want to do the same thing in our businesses. So clothing changes how people perceive themselves and one another. So we see this in schools for example. So there's a lot of debate about what kids wear in school. There certainly was when I was a kid. And when I went to private school, we wore uniforms. There was no choice. You wore the uniforms. Now, there's been lots of studies, lots of data to show
29:46 that there are many positive benefits to school children wearing uniforms. One is you don't get this sort of competition uh among uh students to dress the most elaborately. Number two, especially if those uniforms are a little on the dressier side. So students tend to behave better because when we're dressed up, we behave differently. So, if we're in a suit and tie, we're going to behave differently than if we're in a swimsuit or jeans and a t-shirt. Okay? That that's just the
30:23 way people are, right? So when we dress a certain way in the office, that too is sending a message about who we are and how we're expected to interact with our colleagues, clients, customers, etc. So I I I I I do think and I for those of you who've seen my show Jiggers's Place where I talked about ties, I think it is a shame that men in general have abandoned wearing ties because they set a certain tone for
31:00 a professional environment, right? and and there aren't too many there aren't as many ways in the in the civilian business world to manifest physically the culture of a business besides things like uh the way we dress. So if you're for those of you who who have been involved in the commercial real estate business, you may be familiar with a company called Marcus and Milichap. Uh it it was a growing business uh a company at the time I was in real estate back in the um from the mid 80s to the
31:37 mid200s. Now it's a national company international perhaps. So in my day if if if a person worked at Marcus and Milichap they wore a suit and tie and not any suit and tie a dark suit you know navy blue dark gray black. Okay men and women. Okay, that was the dress code. And if you showed up at the office without a tie, they sent you home to put on a tie, right? That was the culture of that company. Now, people today may say, "Well, that's too strict or it's it's too stuffy or whatever, but I I would
32:14 argue that the success Marcus and Milichap had in building itself into one of the premier commercial real estate companies in the country was due in part to the culture of professionalism that was demanded of the people that who worked there. And part of that was the requirements about how they would dress, right? So leaders should ask, how do we make our culture tangible? What can we do so that people can can see,
32:53 experience, and practice the organization's stated values. Okay? and if they can't see them recognize that people are un as they're less likely to be influenced and inculcated with those values. So beyond uniforms and I'll talk about some of these other things in future issues uh future episodes I mean uh what kind of in in the case of this show what about how we dress can identify who we are as an organization right that's why I love when I like with plumbing
33:29 companies when they have the the very neat coveralls they may have a name on them I think that looks so professional it's saying something about how this company looks at itself and the kind of service it wants to deliver to its customers. Okay. So, culture needs physical manifestations. Next, standardization is a management technology. So, uniforms became more practical as militaries became larger and more professionally administered. So standard
34:05 specifications enabled central purchasing and mass production. Soldiers could be equipped without redesigning their, you know, clothing for every individual or every unit. And and standardization reduced organizational complexity. I talked about all of those before. So businesses sometimes underestimate the cost of unnecessary variations. So um every exception creates additional costs associated with
34:40 training, with purchasing, with maintenance, with communication, with management. And so having a standard way of doing things can reduce operating costs and can make it easier for people to interact because there's fewer options with which they have to be dealing in order to make things run smoothly. Right? So standard processes allow organizations to scale and people don't have to reinvent every you know
35:15 rout routine decision right and then finally this but despite what I've just said about how standardization can make a business run more smoothly that standardization should have a purpose. It shouldn't it shouldn't be standardization merely for the sake of standardization. So militaries did not standardize clothing merely because sameness was you know aesthetically pleasing. Although it there is something quite beautiful about seeing all the soldiers you know marching across a parade ground all dressed the same way
35:52 that that looks really good. The standardization though supported logistics, identification, discipline, interoperability and organizational cohesion. In the early days, it prevented, you know, armies from harming their own people. In in current times, it conceals them from being harmed. Right? So, there's a purpose behind the standardization. So the business lesson is that standardize where uh consistency creates leverage in your business but permit variation where
36:30 it creates meaningful value and and that's there's no strict formula for determining that every business every you know every group of leaders of a business need to figure that out. They need to take input from their team members, from rank and file, right? But a certain amount of standardization is almost for sure going to make the business run more smoothly while at the same time we don't want to snuff out all individual individuality. Okay. So number two, standardization is a
37:06 management technology. Uh number three design for the mission not tradition. So military uniforms became obsolete as the environment especially the battle space changed right colors made sense when battlefield identification was difficult and weapons had a limited range. Those same colors became dangerous as military technology became more lethal and became more accurate. And so, uh, while
37:44 elaborate dress on the battlefield reinforced prestige, it became quite literally deadly. And so, uh, uniforms had to be redesigned. So organizations um they often preserve processes um for the same reason that armies initially stuck with obsolete uniforms and that is well this is the way we've always done it. That's all good and well but if your arm is getting wiped out it's time for a change. So,
38:17 >> [snorts]
38:17 >> um, you know, there's all kinds of things that we do in our businesses that probably could be gotten rid of. So, we may have certain routine reports. If they're no longer relevant, either stop doing them or change them so they are relevant and the work put the time put into them is time well spent. Right? meetings s standing meetings survive long after their original purpose disappears. So again, why are we taking up meeting time among people if if if
38:52 nothing's being accomplished? Like staff meetings are, you know, top on the list. It's one thing to convene ad hoc meetings among team members when there is an issue that needs to be discussed and and and there are times where a standing staff meeting a weekly or monthly whatever it is is useful but then look within the meeting are we doing things within the meeting that are not useful then let's let's get rid of them right approval processes right these if if they just keep accreating more and more approval requirements, you
39:27 know, eventually they're going to overwhelm the system. So, do we really need three, four or five layers of approval, right? Maybe when you know our people were new and didn't know the system very well, they required a certain they required more oversight. But as they've gained experience and knowledge, maybe that approval system needs to evolve into something less burdensome so the business can u operate more flexibly. So the correct question is is not whether a practice worked
40:03 historically. It's really does this support does this is now support the mission and the operating environment right so when conditions change formally successful practices can become liabilities so tradition deserves consideration but mission requirements require they they they deserve priority right and so again design for the mission not for tradition Right. Next, create belonging without
40:40 eliminating identity. I was talking about this um a little while ago. So, a good uniform simultaneously communicates sameness and difference. So everyone is wearing something that identifies they belong to the same institution while their unit, their rank, their specialty, their qualifications, their awards all distinguish them as an individual. So businesses face the same kind of organizational challenge. So too little common identity produces silos and
41:16 fragmentation within the company and it discourages people from thinking of themselves as one larger organization and working together. Too much enforced sameness creates a situation where people just feel they are a cog in the machine and they're and and they don't they don't express uh their expertise. they don't take initiative uh and and and they get sort of subsumed by um unhealthy subcultures, right? And so we we we need to as best we can
41:53 strike a balance uh between uh the the larger identity and the individuality of the members of our teams. So some questions that companies I think leadership should ask is um how do I how do we convey I belong to this company, I belong to this team, I have this professional specialty and I have these earned responsibilities or I've earned this from you know executing well on my
42:28 responsibilities. How do we do those things? So we need to distinguish alignment from conformity right and and that may mean we have some kind of uniform or it may mean we have I don't know some kind of you know badge or whatever it is but we need to look at that through the lens of our goal is to create a strong shared identity but still recognize individual expertise achievement and responsibility. Right. So create belonging without
43:04 eliminating identity. And number five, okay, um what you signal changes I'm sorry, yeah, changes how people behave, right? So a uniform conveys information before anyone speaks. So to I know when I would be walking around uh off base in my uniform uh people immediately recognized there was something you know different about me. I was part of what is still to this day one of the most
43:40 highly respected organizations in American life, the United States military. And because I had officer insignia on my shoulders typically or if sometimes on my sleeve if I was wearing my service dress blues. So they recognized not only was I part of this organization but I was an officer in the organization and that that they accorded to me a certain level of respect and status. Right. Uh, I I I I remember being at a an an event um when I was in my my service dress blue uniform and
44:15 someone walked up, a celebrity walked up who I knew immediately who he was and and the first thing he said was, "Oh, hello sir. You know, thank you very much for your service. I'm honored to meet you." You know, I'm like, "You're the celebrity. I'm just, you know, here." Um so so it's it's it's you know it the uniform spoke for me um before I said any words at all. So businesses also generate signals on a consistent basis. So whether it's office design, executive behavior, job titles, dress codes,
44:52 compensation systems, recognition programs, and even who gets invited to certain meetings. All of these communicate what the organization actually values. And so we need to pay close attention to these in order to make sure that the stated culture of the organization and the way that culture happens in reality are aligned. Okay? Because in the end we can say all we want but how an organization acts that
45:27 is how people perceive it. Right? And so signals become especially powerful when they are conf when when they are costly or difficult to fake. So that's why you know military badges uh headgear and such a lot of these things they actually are pretty expensive. They're pretty hard to uh to make, you know, inauthentic versions of them and and and especially the metals, right? They they convey a certain grav
46:02 gravitas, gravitas, however it's pronounced, a certain substant substantiality um that that is very very powerful. Um and that reinforces uh you know the the the the values of the organization. And we can do the same thing in our businesses. We can we can offer rewards that are tangible. Some kind of trophy for example that may sit on somebody's desk that that that you know that's not something that's going to be easily copied and it and it conveys a very definite message to
46:39 people who walk into that person's office, right? And so um business businesses should they should audit the signals that their organization sends. So what receives prestige? What gets recognized? What behaviors lead to promotion? Um what does leadership visibly spend its time doing? So employees usually respond more strongly to what an organization rewards and displays than to what it claims to
47:14 value. And so what you signal changes how people behave. So in closing, the history of military uniforms is ultimately not a story about fashion. It's a story about organizational design. So uniforms helped military solve problems of identity, scale, logistics, hierarchy, culture, communication, and performance. And as technology and battlefield conditions changed, successful militaries changed
47:50 the clothing with them. sometimes reluctantly, sometimes only after there were, you know, disastrous losses that boldly showed something has to change, right? Businesses face this same fundamental challenge. So, every organization develops its own equivalents of a uniform. processes, titles, symbols, terminology, rituals, tools, offices, standards, all of the visible markers of status. These things tell employees who belongs, what
48:25 matters, how work should be performed, and what the organization considers worthy of recognition. So the leadership question is therefore not simply what are our uniforms. It's really what behaviors are our uniforms teaching and we want to pay specific attention to that. So I thank you very much for joining me. And if you look down below you you'll see links to social media.
49:00 Look in the show notes. uh post a comment. Where does uniformity in your organization support its culture in a physical way? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. And and if you do make a comment, I'll be happy to respond. So, real quickly, schedule of shows. Mondays at 10 a.m. Pacific time, uh Trust and Estates Weekly. Tuesdays like today at 10 a.m. Pacific time, business lessons from the military. Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time. people making money. And every other Thursday at 10 at 5:00
49:35 pm Pacific time, uh 5:00 PM Pacific time, join me at Jiggers's place for a co for a cocktail and a schmoo and we'll talk about all kinds of things unrelated to finances. So, thanks again for joining me today. Really appreciate it. If you have a friend you think might enjoy the show, sure would appreciate your passing it along to them. And if you're on Apple or Spotify, why don't you click on that subscribe uh button or uh you know, click a like or drop a comment there as well. And that
50:13 way um you'll help me have the opportunity to maybe attract some more uh viewers and listeners. Really would appreciate it. So that just leaves me to sign off as I always do and remind you, Marie darling, you are my bell.