Operationalizing Culture Addressing the Army's People Crisis

摘要

The introduction and foreword of the seminal work on training, Common Sense Training, note that the U.S. Army's overwhelming defeat of Iraq during the First Gulf War was the result of the post-Vietnam renaissance in training, not high-tech weaponry. Like the book, this article aspires to be "a working philosophy for leaders."29 The book emphasizes that "leadership is so much a part of the conduct of training that at times it is difficult to tell where one stops and the other starts," and so it is with the operationalization of culture.30 Training is, and will remain, the most important activity that the Army does to prepare to fight and win on the battlefield, and that priority should not change. Nonetheless, the complex challenges of the future will require that we apply focus and resources to culture. The "Army People Strategy" provides solid strategic guidance to do this, but like training, culture must be a philosophy applied by leaders. Similarly, leadership must be intertwined with the operationalization of culture at every level. It is simply no longer enough to address issues as singular problems requiring a special program that is not connected to a larger operational approach. Every commander must look at culture as a mission essential task list, understand the current proficiency of those tasks, and determine how to sustain and improve accomplishment of those tasks; but more importantly, he or she should also build an enduring culture that enables trust, cohesion, and teamwork. The changing face of our Army and the requirement to successfully conduct multi-domain operations demands that culture be a priority at every level of the Army. It also demands that commanders have a solid plan and the will to carry it out.