READY FOR TODAY – EVOLVING FOR TOMORROW
• As individuals, we must understand
the difference between ‘hearing’ and
‘understanding’. NATO Standard English
has its limitations and the speaker needs
to ensure the listener has understood
and not just heard. This brings a big
responsibility to native speakers.
Spanish and British Army personnel conduct
weapons familiarisation duri ng Exercise Trident
Juncture 2016
Culture
Another challenge is culture. Working
in
an
international
organisation
requires awareness, acceptance and
understanding of multiple cultures. Just
as misunderstood language can create
frictions, different cultures can and will
cause similar problems if not managed.
This is not only the ‘social’ cultural
difference experienced by ‘foreigners’
when they choose to live abroad, but also
the different ‘professional’ cultures. At its
core, culture is a set of standards, values
and beliefs which determines the way we
think, how we act and what we cherish.
It is impossible to instantly put aside
our cultural norms when posted in an
international organisation, because they
are the root of our identity. Where our
posting is only temporary, and not for life,
it is even harder, because Internationals
will go back home sooner or later.
We must accept that, to succeed, an
international organisation needs to be a
‘melting pot’ for cultures, give room for
those differences and work to ensure
we provide a ‘safe environment’ for
people to work in. We then will be able to
generate cohesion and an atmosphere
that delivers success because of our
differences rather than despite them.
So, how can we harness the advantages
and minimise the frictions of cultural
differences? There is no one answer, but
here are my suggestions:
• As leaders we must understand all
those under our command and ensure
we maximise their strengths and help
minimise their weaknesses. We must
create an atmosphere where cultural
differences are valued, recognised and
harnessed (the good ones anyway).
• As individuals we must understand
that cultural differences and ways of
working are not inferior, that ‘there
can be more than one way to skin a
cat’ if I am permitted to use an English
colloquialism and, just sometimes, the
‘other way of doing it’ might just have
its merits.
So What?
As DCOM ARRC, I have had the
privilege to observe both the strengths
and weaknesses of a multi-national
headquarters from above and, now at
the end of my tour, I can look back at an
interesting and intense 3 year period. A
period where I truly learned what can
be achieved when you not only harness
the military experience and intellectual
power of multiple nations, but share
responsibilities as well and put it to work.
The ARRC is rooted in its operational
high readiness role, but at the same time
it is at the forefront of experimentation
and development activities. It invokes
transformation and evolution - for
example the new UK Doctrine on Corps
Operations; largely written by the ARRC’s
multinational, multicultural community
- and it works hard to be a career and
life opportunity. But we need to be more
forward looking;
thinking ourselves
deeper into the future and try to predict
what we need to be and planning how we
get there ahead of our adversaries, so
for my closing points I offer the following
thoughts:
British, Croatian and Italian service personnel
assigned to the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
conduct operational wargaming during Exercise
ARRCADE Fusion 2017
• The importance of NATO becomes
ever more evident, and the ability of
the Alliance to adapt is crucial for its
survival. The freedom to grow, shrink,
focus and re-role as necessary are
becoming increasingly important factors
for success. Mass migration, natural
disasters caused by climate change,
geo-political issues and diminishing
natural resources cause tensions
around the globe and NATO must have
the means to respond to them all; and if
necessary concurrently.
• We need to remember that military
personnel serving in the NCS/NFS
have their own national chain of
command, Rules of Engagement and
caveats. This has an effect on the
unity of command, but we need to get
as close as we can in building a real
professional multinational organisation
with shared responsibilities.
• Every nation sees different values
in the NATO Alliance, and uses their
membership in a different way. Some
nations invest a lot of money in their
defence organisations to reach NATO
“While language is a
beautiful thing and our
ability to integrate 29
nations something to
be proud of, how do we
minimise the friction of
language?”
Maj Gen D’Alessandro
standards, others invest less money.
The same could be said about NATO
policies and doctrine. Some nations
have included NATO doctrine in their
national ones, others vice versa.
• Resurgent
threats have different
responses from different nations. For
some it is ‘ah, back to the good old
days’, for others it is completely new and
for others ‘we warned you’. However,
the world has changed since the fall off
the Berlin Wall in 1987. The ways we
conducted major military operations in
the past differs very much from how we
see it today. This difference demands
a change of mind set for all of us and
a realisation that we cannot just reach
back to the things we have learned in
the past. We have to understand, we
have to learn and, most importantly, we
have to adapt; and we must do so now
if we are to be ‘Ready for tomorrow’.
I started by saying that the strength of
NATO is in its diversity, unity and the
common goal. The potential damaging
internal dangers lay in that as well. We
need to guard against these internal
dangers. We have to be prepared as
an alliance against external threats and
should continue to minimise the potential
for internal friction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maj Gen Roberto D’Alessandro is the
Deputy Commander at HQ Allied Rapid
Reaction Corps.
ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS
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