The value proposition for this blog is unassuming but profound (in our humble collective opinion). Indeed, my TrueBearing colleagues and I stake our intellectual and pragmatic passion on four interlocking principles of organizational leadership and decision-making that we refer to as The Four Degrees of Freedom. The Four Degrees are important touchstones in our work as evaluators. Without further ado, here they are:

The Four Degrees of Freedom

            •  Context is king.

            •  It’s always a good time for a gut check.

            •  Data rules.

            •  Bring it. Tweak it. Repeat.

In the next several posts we’ll explore  what the Four Degrees are and why they are so urgently needed in today’s work environment. Let’s start by looking at where the term “four degrees of freedom” came from.

In sailing, the wise skipper understands that all boats respond to the external forces of wind, current, and tide by moving primarily in four different ways. OK, technically there are six ways but two of them are comparatively minor, so for the moment let’s keep it simple.

  • A sailboat can surge (be propelled forward or backward along the direction of the keel), or roll (rotate along the axis of the keel).
  • In addition, the forces acting on a sailboat can make a boat sway (move at right angles to the keel), or pitch (bob forward and back along the axis of the beam).

The wise skipper knows that every boat responds differently to those external forces. For instance, a wide boat is relatively less susceptible to roll, but she is also less capable of efficiently translating forces into forward motion, i.e. to surge. That makes for a stable but slow boat relative to the sleeker racing boat. There’s always a trade-off, and in this case it is stability for speed.

The trade-offs in boat design shape its distinctive performance characteristics. And which design is “best?” There is no best for all situations; it depends entirely on the intended purpose of the boat.

Now the wise skipper not only knows that every boat responds uniquely to wind, current and tide, but he also knows that boats always respond in all these directions simultaneously. For you propeller-heads, the course the boat takes is a vector of external forces interacting with the boat design, the skipper’s choices about the set of the sail, the position of the tiller, etc.

The skipper knows that he must manage these interactions all at once in order to keep the boat in control and on course. That’s why as you chart a course, it’s not enough to calculate the trajectory of the surge (aka forward movement), because the tendency of the wind to push the boat sideways (sway) will simultaneously move the boat off that trajectory. Ignoring critical interactions like this leads to tunnel vision, and it will crash you right onto the rocks.

Follow all that? If it’s not crystal clear yet, no worries. But it is pretty important that you get the metaphor. Your organization or program is sort of a boat, too. She has her own unique strengths and weaknesses that are tested by external pressures. All at once, all the time. And as the skipper you get tested too.

Here’s the metaphorical payoff.

In sailing, these four motions are known as the four degrees of freedom. It is a wise skipper who fully understands how his boat uniquely responds to the interplay of those external pressures. And if he has learned from actual experience coupled with the science of nautical design to make the most of the unique strengths and weaknesses of his boat within these four dimensions, then he will truly be the master of his ship, in control and on course.

It’s fascinating to me that the crusty old salts who first came up with this nautical term named it the way they did. After all, since the term comprises different ways in which a boat’s course is constrained by external forces, they could have pessimistically christened it something like the  “four degrees of constraint.” But apparently they had grasped a more profound and liberating truth.

If you have a deep understanding of the effect of external forces acting on your boat, even though you cannot control those forces, you have genuine freedom. After all, once you grasp the impact pattern of those forces, you can decide how to respond to them on the basis of your understanding. So you can design your boat accordingly and then sail her in in ways that bend those external forces to serve your own purposes. By learning to what it takes to move with the wind, tide and current, you literally achieve freedom- to a degree. Constraint becomes opportunity, and that opportunity is  the engine that powers your boat.

We’ll drill down further into each of the Four Degrees as applied to leadership in the next post, starting with Context is King. No matter what subject we post on, we will bring the Four Degrees to the table—and just as the four nautical principles liberate skippers on the high seas, the Four Degrees of Freedom have the potential to transform your relationship to your work and even to your career.