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A captain stretches out his arm and points into a valley. On October 25, 1854, at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, this gesture takes the place of an answer that would have needed four words. Shortly afterward, the Light Brigade rides out. An example of the Team Principle of Communication.
The View From the Heights
Situation
The British commander-in-chief, Lord Raglan, stands on high ground above the battlefield. From there he can see Russian soldiers hauling captured guns away from the redoubts on the Causeway Heights. He wants to prevent this, and the fast Light Brigade is to do it. The cavalry is positioned down in the valley. Its commander, Lieutenant General George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, cannot see those guns from where he stands. The terrain hides them.
Connection to the team principle
The Team Principle of Communication states: a team knows only what its members tell one another. Here the problem begins before a word is spoken. Raglan and Lucan belong to the same army, yet they are looking at two different battlefields. What is obvious to one does not exist for the other. Those who lead often stand “on the heights” – and easily forget that their overview does not travel downhill on its own.
An Order Without a Location
Situation
The written order is drafted by Brigadier General Richard Airey. In essence, it calls on the cavalry to advance rapidly, follow the enemy and prevent them from carrying away the guns. Which guns are meant, and where they are, it does not say.
Connection to the team principle
From Raglan’s point of view, the order is complete. From up there, those are the only guns. That is precisely the trap: the sender checks his message against what he himself knows. He would need to check it against what the recipient knows. The crucial piece of knowledge – which target, in which direction – stays in the sender’s head.
The Question and the Gesture
Situation
The order is delivered by Captain Louis Nolan, Airey’s aide-de-camp. Nolan has long considered Lucan too hesitant; his diary bears this out. Lucan reads the order and asks which guns are meant. Nolan answers irritably and gestures with a sweep of his arm into the valley – toward its far end, where a Russian battery stands.
Connection to the team principle
Lucan does the right thing: he asks. His question is the last point at which the missing knowledge could still have gotten through. It is answered with a gesture instead of information. The contempt between the two men turns a factual question into a test of wills. Where people do not respect one another, asking becomes costly and answers become curt.
Through Three Pairs of Hands
Situation
Lucan passes the order on to the commander of the Light Brigade, Major General James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan. The two are brothers-in-law and strongly dislike each other. Lucan orders the attack on the battery at the end of the valley. Cardigan carries it out.
Connection to the team principle
Raglan’s intention passes through three pairs of hands: Airey writes, Nolan delivers, Lucan passes it on. At every handoff something is lost, and nothing is added. By the time it reaches Cardigan, the order shares only two words with Raglan’s intention: “cavalry” and “guns.” The more stations a message passes through, the more important it is that someone at each station asks for clarification – and gets an answer.
The Charge
Situation
About 670 horsemen ride into a valley commanded on three sides by artillery and infantry. Nolan rides across the front of the line, possibly to correct the direction. He is one of the first to fall, struck by a shell; what he intended can no longer be determined. Losses vary by source: 110 to 113 killed, 134 to 161 wounded, about 60 taken prisoner, 335 horses. The French Marshal Pierre Bosquet remarks, in essence, that it is magnificent, but it is not war – it is madness. In his reports, Raglan blames Lucan. Who bears how much responsibility is disputed to this day. Six weeks later, on December 9, 1854, Alfred Tennyson’s poem about the charge is published.
Connection to the team principle
The brigade does what it was told, with courage and discipline. It lacks neither obedience nor ability. What is missing is a single sentence. When someone perhaps tries to supply it after the fact, it is too late. The search for the one culprit begins immediately and has produced no answer to this day – because the error lay not in one person’s head but between them.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Write the assignment from where the recipient stands. Ask yourself: What can they see from where they are, and what can only I see?
- Name the objective explicitly: what, where and why. “The guns” is unambiguous to you and a riddle to the other person.
- Answer questions with information. People who ask aren’t hesitating; they are closing a gap.
- Have important assignments repeated back in the recipient’s own words, especially when they pass through several hands.
- Pay attention to who on your team delivers messages to whom. Dislike between two people is a communication risk for the whole team.
Summary
At Balaclava, the commander-in-chief knew which guns he meant, and the cavalry commander could not see them. That knowledge was not in the order; it was lost on its way through three people, and the one question that was asked was brushed aside with a wave of the arm. Here the Team Principle of Communication shows itself through failure: a team knows only what its members tell one another. One person’s overview is of no use to the team until it is spoken aloud.