TT & Marc,
Thanks for the very thought provoking answers - you could not have followed each other better if you'd arranged it - the responses complimented each other very well. After reading them I had to go back and re-read LTC Yingling's piece on failures in generalship as well as F. Kaplan's "Challenging the Generals" (both of which can be found with associated threads & blogs on SWJ for those who have not read them). I'll get to why in a moment, but first I'd like to comment on an insight the TT made which I really liked:
Its amazing to me how the human mind work. The last event, if dramatic enough, seems to shape the rest of an individual experience and becomes sort of Rosetta Stone or lens through which all lesser experiences are viewed until some other experience of equal weight is encountered. Its a natural bias which must be guarded against in order to look forward (at future problems) with objectivity.the willingness and capability to adapt in wartime has little real impact on whether a military will remain very innovative in preparing for some uncertain future. There is more than a grain of truth in the old saw that generals prepare for the last war, or the last battle of the last war.
I just hope we don't become that which we say stagnates our ability to innovate. I believe in investing first in leadership to provide the purpose and direction to the catalysts from which we derive change. I think only by investing in leadership can we be more certain of avoiding learning the wrong lessons and developing the wrong answers. Positive change then (I think) would begin by asking the right set of questions.
Not only is this a very relevant topic, but it would also seem to be one that fascinates so many of us. Consider how many related threads there are (the Great Generals thread, the FCS thread, the Generalship thread, the adaptation thread, etc.)
Again, thanks to both of you for some very challenging and thought provoking responses.
Best regards, Rob
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