Learning From History

By Tim Bentum  |  September 3rd

June 6, 1944

Since approximately 1:00am, Allied paratroopers had been dropping out of the sky and into the pitch-black darkness of northern France to complete various ‘suicide’ missions designed to provide key intelligence and to slow the coming German counter-offensive. Indeed, many did not survive the night. Those who did survive the perilous jump would soon be joined on the nearby beaches of Normandy by a massive joint Allied force made up of British, American and Canadian regiments under the leadership of General Dwight Eisenhower.

Originally, Eisenhower and his team had planned to invade Normandy on the morning of June 5. However, a terrible storm was forecast for the French coast, so the operation was put on hold at the last moment. As a result, many Allied forces were required to spend a sleepless night on board ships on the south coast of England, bouncing around in the rough English Channel, anxiously waiting.  On June 5th, almost improbably, the Allied weather forecast suddenly predicted a short nine-hour break in the storm for early the next day – just enough time to launch the largest amphibious land invasion in history. Although the Channel was still going to be a rocky ride, it was determined that Operation Overlord, the long-awaited effort to liberate Europe, was at long last underway.

The D-Day landing is still the largest single-day military operation in history. More than 156,000 soldiers came ashore that day in France, eventually opening a beachhead for 2.5 million soldiers to cross the Channel along with over 500,000 vehicles and countless other vital resources used to end World War II. According to estimates, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives on this single day, with many thousands more wounded or missing. Amazingly, with the fate of the war in Europe hanging in the balance, the average age of an Allied soldier on D-Day was 26 years old, with the youngest soldiers being just 17 and barely out of high school. Truly, this is a day worthy of our remembrance every November 11 in Canada.

Interestingly, what is often missed in the history of this momentous and terrible day, is that the leader of Germany slept right through it. Adolf Hitler, who historians frequently cite as becoming increasingly erratic, unhealthy, and unhinged as World War II dragged on, was known to stay up late into the night and then to sleep until mid-day. June 6, 1944 was no exception. After a late evening at his Bavarian residence in the Alps the night before, Hitler awoke in a famously good mood around noon. His staff almost never woke him early for fear of reprisal, humiliation, or even worse. Not surprisingly, from the top down, the entire Nazi system of communication was often plagued by similar issues. Incomplete or wholly inaccurate information was relatively common within the Nazi culture due to the fear-based tactics the Nazi leadership often used to control their enemies and their own people. Bad news was often not welcome and German officers and civilians alike at times paid with their own lives for having the courage to speak in contravention of the Fuhrer’s commands.

Complicating the issue further for the German army, as the war dragged on Hitler slowly took more and more direct control of military operations until eventually many or most major military decisions centered on his desk. In other words, the communication flow and the truth of what the Wehrmacht was facing on the frontlines was often obscured at the top, while seasoned German Generals were left waiting for Hitler’s go-ahead to respond to situations that required immediate decision-making. These compounding factors heavily contributed to the Allied advance on Normandy, which was actually largely believed by the Germans to be a diversionary tactic until it was too late. An incredible story on many levels!

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Although World War II is interesting to learn about, beyond the fascinating and often terrible realities of war, there are a few lessons for Christian school leaders.

First, how does a school leader and board ensure they receive helpful, accurate, and timely information to make clear and forward-looking decisions? Getting accurate information about a school’s culture, strategy, and direction can be challenging, but boards and leaders must remain committed to this process. Especially for major decisions, it is crucial to gather multiple streams of feedback and surround yourself with a wise group (ie. leadership team, board, other key stakeholders if required) to discern God’s direction and build a sense of collective resilience . One source of information is helpful, but it is only that – just one perspective. Paradoxically God often speaks more clearly through a kaleidoscope of voices if given enough time, effort, and intentionality.

Second, how much local ownership do the staff at your school have to make decisions that can advance the mission of your school? Key to this ongoing productive tension for leaders is the careful balance of ensuring vision alignment, while equipping staff to make decisions ‘on the ground’ without requiring your every approval. Frankly, school leaders and boards cannot realistically be involved in even a fraction of the decisions that are made every day in a school. Boards need to keep their eyes on the horizon from the ‘crow’s nest’ of the ship, not only (or even mostly) from the deck. If possible, leaders and board chairs should plan to spend most of a board meeting discussing key future initiatives, while addressing past or current issues as required. Focus on maintaining high-level alignment of vision to instill a sense of hope and direction, while allowing for local ownership and immediate action within that vision wherever possible.

Analyzing historical decisions is often easy to do in retrospect, but as everyone knows, hindsight is 20/20 and events and people are always more complicated than they appear in the moment. The same sentiment is often true of leadership decisions in Christian schools.

To help school leaders and boards make wise decisions in the daily complexity of running a Christian school, including the aforementioned strategies of incorporating multiple streams of feedback and keeping the focus on the vision and the future, we are launching a brand-new tool this year. The Flourishing School Health Dashboard is specifically designed to help boards and leaders focus their energies on the most important issues at your school. Please read further in the School Services section to learn more about this valuable tool!

Welcome back to another school year! God has a good plan for you this year – ‘perhaps you were called for such a time as this.’ (Esther 4:14)