Putin Isolating? Intelligence Indicate Misled and Isolating: Lessons for US Leaders

 A lot of things are going on win the Ukrainian-Russian war. Watching what is happening on a strategic and macro level helps us better understand what is happening on a micro level to ensure we continue to learn from such situations/conflicts (I seek to maintain my objectivity but recognize my pro US bias.) We also may find that Putin is beginning to self isolated and may not be so trusting of his inner circle. See Biden says Putin appears to be "self-isolated". Furthermore, declassified documents indicate that Putin may be misled. The Kremlin is denying that either of those are happening and as a general public we will just have to wait to know for sure. See Vladimir Putin feels his military leaders misled him about Ukraine, declassified intelligence shows. 

Bark! Bark!
Sometimes better to be a little
dog, humble ourselves and listen for
better decision making.

The problem is that many cloak and dagger types are limited in the amount of tools that they have at their disposable and are able to understand or use. One of them is the soft skills and ability to open their communication lines to take in new information (One indication of organizational learning failures is when new ideas do not percolate and decision making moves inward to an even tighter circle. See Organizational Learning) . I'm not in a position to say specifically as I'm just modeling but what I might say is that when we move into situations overconfident, the "big dog" knowing everything, using control/manipulation tools and smack down freedom of speech we run the risk of lowering psychological safety of key advisors/managers/leaders (The type of organization isn't important. See Putin Pressure and Soviet Style. Assuming he is isolating we can expect him to try and reverse that image by projecting the same root strengths that led to power. Same tools in new situation leading to specific predefined outcome ranges.). When that happens people tell leaders what they want to hear and the information is miscued. You will want to read this pretty solid article on psychological safety, independence of thought, etc.... Lacking Team Trust? You’re Probably Not Listening. 

This is why I always advocate for things like truth and freedom of speech. Those who overuse power end up destroying everything around them. They don't really care as long as they feel like they are in charge. Goes wrong....blame someone else! Whether your running an organization or in a senior leadership position of any type of entity you should always be open to learning and listening. This is one reason why the U.S. often thrives where others fail (Thus far in history but that can change and we have wobbled some...a little more than a wobble in Capitol Riots...we ran along the irreversible line but luckily we pulled back. We are still dealing with some of these issues on the community level.). While many many different narrow minded egotists have made their way into key positions (not specific to party or person) the vast majority still feel that open dialogue and truth is our best route forward. That truth and freedom of speech will become even more important as we navigate the next stage of our national development in both economical and social arenas.