Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 33

HURTLING TOWARD FAILURE

Resilient Leaders, Resilient Systems,
and Resilient Forces

integration and training in applying this concept cannot be overstated. The document also states:
The Army must pursue emerging technologies to maintain its strengths, address
weakness, exploit opportunities, and develop
countermeasures to future threat capabilities
and maintain its technological advantage
over future threats.17
The Army will be able to maintain any technological
advantage only by complementing advances in technology with concurrent and corresponding leader development that will ensure adaptiveness. To prevent catastrophic battlefield failures similar to the Air France
disaster, the Army must consider how to use mission
command systems in a way that does not increase
complexity to unmanageable levels. In its drive to help
commanders understand their OEs, the Army has built

Military forces need a way to reduce uncertainty
without simultaneously increasing complexity. True,
they need resilient mission command systems that can
enable resilient forces. Resilient systems and resilient
forces are adaptable, versatile, and flexible, but adaptability (or adaptation) is the most important characteristic. G. Scott Gorman’s statement about adaptable
soldiers, penned in 1998, holds
true today: “Adaptation, although
it may involve technological
solutions, does not originate from
technology. Adaptation springs
from the minds of both leaders and
followers.”14 Adaptable leaders and
followers need to be able to analyze
and interpret information correctly
and make rapid decisions repe