How can a story written in 1899 resonate today?

Message to Garcia is a story about initiative, tenacity, and duty.

Let’s face it; those of us who work in para-military organizations with defined hierarchy have different thinking about obedience to orders.

For those managers out there (if you are a parent, just insert parent where manager is used and the message wll likely become abundantly clear), how often in your management career have you asked a subordinate to complete a task that seems easy, but it becomes complicated and it appears that the subordinate lacks the “figure-it-out and drive on” part of their DNA?

This is not a new-generation phenomenon. In the 1899 article Message to Garcia, Elbert Hubbard described a war-time condition and the only means known at the time to deliver a message to Commander Garcia in the jungle of Cuba; a young soldier with will, a sense of duty, and the message. As timely today as it was 115 years ago, the theme is one that we should explore.

The theme is one of proactivity, tenacity, and fortitude.

It took the soldier weeks combing the jungle looking for Garcia in order to deliver the message of which the soldier likely did not know the gravity; nor did he care. He cared about fulfilling his obligation and carrying out his task without question and without hesitation.

When given the message he was Gung-Ho and moved on to find Garcia. He didn’t stop to ask why, to ask for the best route, to ask for explanation. The soldier took action.

I want more of this guy working for me.

Not that I don’t want to be questioned, but trusted to expand on the “why” if necessary. I want men and women who are disciplined and driven to carry out the mission. I don’t want a work-force full of individuals who only rely on the full picture of a situation and a superior to stand beside them while they complete every task.

I want men and women to think, to act, and to be principled.

Hubbard’s article became a book and was widely distributed across the U.S. Military. It is essential reading on the United Stated Marine Corps Commandant’s Reading List. Why? Because don’t we all want men and women in our military and in the public service to increase their capacity for value based independent action?

Let’s do our part to instill the “figure-it-out and drive on” in the men and women who work with and for us. Perhaps it will create a change in the individuals, the agency, and who knows, it may just become popular enough to make a difference.