Ken,

the old saw about better to have tried and failed than to not have tried.
Definitely. In trying you would make some progress at least, which would improve the agility of some individuals and units if not the organization as a whole.

One of the keys is that you need continuity and persistance of any major innovation to change. By this I mean the implementation process takes more than one Chief of Staff to articulate and drive the implementation process (possibly as many as three sequentially), one probably needs most of the GOs to buy-in and support the innovation, and constant effort to ensure that the innovation, and the many attendent adaptations, are emerging as desired (so contant tinkering if necessary).

I would also suggest that, particularly with respect to the issue of agility and, more broadly, CIW, that within the junior officers through to combat commanders with substantial recent combat experience there very likely is a a large, natural constituency for a bottom-up driven change. Most will have had the unhappy experience of deploying and finding themselve not nearly as well prepared for the more unconventional aspects of the current situations in Afghanistan and Iraq (and elsewhere?). With continuity and persistance of top down support and persistant bottom up support (organizational insurgency), signficant progress could made over time.