Military Review English Edition September-October 2013 | Page 30

organization as one where “people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.”56 This construct fits well with the U.S. Army. Every member of the Army Profession–the Army soldier, NCO, officer, and civilian–possesses a strong sense of pride in the service they provide to the Nation. In addition, as Army professionals, their focus is always toward finding new and innovative ways to solve problems and improve the organization. Some scholars argue that recent operational challenges in OEF and OIF forced the U.S. Army to learn and adapt to achieve success in counterinsurgency operations.57 In this regard, the U.S. Army may already exhibit some characteristics of a learning organization.58 However, this concept may only be superficial; the Army has not yet fully embraced the idea. Influential leaders like Maj. Gen. H.R. McMaster and Maj. Gen. Sean MacFarland are examples of warrior-scholars who transitioned their commands into learning organizations focused on thinking and adaptation.59 Internalizing the idea of a learning organization in the Army Profession will help to reduce barriers to learn and adapt for the future. Establishing an environment focused on learning will create a climate that promotes scholarly study, critical analysis, and reflection. In this environment, individual learners can flourish and thrive for the greater benefit of the organization. Another important idea in Senge’s book is the principle of personal mastery.60 This principle forms “the essential cornerstone of the learning organization.”61 In this construct, people commit to their own life-long learning, expand their ability to recognize problems, and then develop plans for success. Over time, individuals increase their work performance as they become vested in achieving goals they helped to shape. This logic incorporates the concept of the warrior-scholar into the Army Profession and increases the collective military and leader expertise of the U.S. Army. In a recent Joint Force Quarterly magazine, Gen. Martin Dempsey introduced concepts on adapting the force. He highlights that military power in the last century focused on measures of weapons and munitions.62 However, the future will focus on adapting smartly, and ranking people, in agile organizations, over platforms.63 Gen. Dempsey goes on to highlight that
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adapting smartly really means “we have to out-learn and out-think our adversaries.”64 The warrior-scholar concept directly aligns with the CJCS’s argument. By investing in the scholarly aspect of the soldier and leader, the U.S. Army can begin to emphasize and invest in human capital instead of platforms. Promotion of life-long learning throughout a soldier’s career from an institutional, experiential, and personal level will pay dividends in an uncertain future. Combating a hybrid threat in a fluid future operational environment will require soldiers and officers who are comfortable in the uncomfortable. Soldiers and leaders who can out-learn and out-think the adversary and adapt more quickly, will prove decisive in hybrid warfare for the U.S. Army. In a race to adapt smartly, technology presents an effective combat and learning multiplier. Integration of technology into initial entry training, professional military education, and unit level training exercises will greatly enhance the overall learning continuum. Gen. Dempsey, while serving as the TRADOC commander,

Combating a hybrid threat in a fluid future operational environment will require soldiers and officers who are comfortable in the uncomfortable.

commented that “we must make the scrimmage as hard as the game in both the institutional schoolhouse and at home station.”65 In an effort to create realistic, future combat conditions for training, technology may well be the key. Within the last few years, TRADOC created the Training Brain Operations Center (TBOC) with this purpose in mind. This center uses technology to gather real world data from current theaters of operations, declassify it, and then manipulate it to replicate the current operational environment to support home station training for units throughout the Army.66 In addition, TBOC can use the flexible capabilities of technology to create virtual realities of real-world scenarios from current operations.67 This will enable and empower soldiers through training in realistic combat-like [??\??Y[??X?X[?X[????[?\?[??]?[?Y?]X?????H?[?[H?\??[?\???\?[?\??[^?H???\?[???X?Y[?H?Y][?[?\????H[??\??Y[??HK??\?^B??\[X?\?S???\??L?;?kRSUT?H?U?QU??