Tom Gaines
In military strategy, critical thinking, adaptability, and effective communication are essential. Traditional military instruction, focused on logic, data analysis, and protocols, often falls short in preparing leaders for the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) of modern combat. The use of storytelling can help bridge this gap.
Data and logic are critical for planning, but they often fall short in unpredictable, rapidly changing environments. To navigate such situations effectively, military leaders need to tap into the brain’s most natural cognitive process: storytelling. At its core, storytelling is about developing a plan (the plot) to explore hypothetical scenarios and connecting a sequence of actions and reactions that characters take as events unfold. This process allows the audience to imagine new possibilities and uncover connections they may not have considered before. By embracing storytelling, leaders can transform data into meaningful narratives, foresee challenges, and improve communication with their teams. The more we practice telling stories—and asking the right questions—the better we become at creating strategies that can adapt in the fog of war.
Why Facts Alone Aren’t Enough
Every military leader knows the challenge of keeping an audience engaged during a briefing. The sheer volume of data can overwhelm even the most attentive listeners. Why, despite the logical structure of the brief, does the message often fail to stick? The answer lies in how the human brain processes information.
Humans are not naturally inclined to remember isolated facts or data points, rather, we remember stories. When we hear a story, especially one that connects facts with emotions, causes, and outcomes, we engage with the information on a deeper level. Our brains are wired to think in terms of cause and effect—an intrinsic form of storytelling. When we try to convey critical information purely through data, we miss the opportunity to embed that information into a narrative that will stick with our audience.
This is why storytelling is an invaluable tool. Rather than simply presenting a set of facts, storytelling highlights the relationships between those facts and how they could unfold in the real world. This is where the practice of asking “why” and “what-if” questions becomes particularly useful.
The Importance of “Why”
Asking “why” is crucial for understanding the cause-and-effect relationships that drive decision-making in military operations. For example, if an enemy attacks, we need to understand the “why” behind the action. The cause and the effect.
Why did they choose that specific time and location?
Why are they employing a particular tactic?
Why are they assuming these risks?
These questions force us to move beyond the surface level of understanding and dig deeper into the motivations and potential strategies of the enemy.
When we train ourselves to constantly ask “why,” we begin to think more critically about the information we’re receiving. This type of thinking is particularly important in volatile environments, where assumptions can be dangerous. Asking “why” helps us challenge those assumptions, revealing the underlying forces that may not be immediately apparent.
Expanding Horizons with “What-If”
While “why” helps us understand what is happening in the present, “what-if” allows us to anticipate the future. When we ask “what-if” questions, we engage in a form of creative thinking that opens a range of possibilities.
What if the enemy battalion chooses a different route?
What if we counterattack from a less obvious position?
What if the weather conditions change suddenly?
By entertaining multiple scenarios, we prepare ourselves for a wider variety of potential outcomes, thus reducing the element of surprise on the battlefield.
This is where wargaming, a key part of the military decision-making process, comes into play. Wargaming allows leaders to simulate different scenarios, assessing the viability of their strategies against various potential threats. All too often during wargaming, units limit themselves to generic “most likely” or “most dangerous” enemy actions. Asking more speculative “what-if” questions can stretch our imagination beyond conventional thinking, and consider less obvious, but potentially more impactful, scenarios. Adding detail and specificity to the situation further helps planners understand and visualize the action as it could unfold.
Why Storytelling Works in Complex Environments
Combat is often chaotic and unpredictable. Logic and data are excellent tools for dealing with stable environments where patterns repeat and information is abundant; however, in the uncertainty of modern combat, where information is scarce and threats evolve rapidly, relying solely on logic can lead to failure.
The concept of narrative thinking offers an alternative. Narrative thinking allows us to make educated guesses and predictions even in low-data environments. By stringing together a sequence of possible actions and outcomes, we create stories that help us navigate the fog of war. Narrative thinking isn’t about being correct all the time; it’s about being flexible enough to adapt when the situation changes.
In this way, storytelling becomes not just a tool for communication, but a cognitive framework for planning. It helps military leaders make sense of the chaos around them and craft strategies that can evolve as new information emerges.
The Role of Speculative Fiction in Military Planning
Military strategy has always involved an element of creative thinking, but speculative fiction takes this to another level. Works like P.W. Singer and August Cole’s Ghost Fleet and Admiral (Ret.) James Stavridis’ and Elliot Ackerman’s 2034 offer fictionalized accounts of future conflicts, allowing readers to grapple with scenarios that they otherwise might never have imagined possible. These speculative stories encourage readers to ask “what-if” on a grand scale, prompting them to think about how emerging technologies, shifting geopolitical landscapes, and new adversaries might reshape warfare in the future.
While these stories are fictional, they serve a practical purpose: they help us think through the unthinkable. In military planning, this is invaluable. By engaging with speculative fiction, leaders can stretch their imagination, considering a wider range of potential futures and preparing for the unexpected.
Practicing Storytelling to Improve Creativity
Just as physical fitness improves with regular exercise, so does creativity. The more we practice telling stories—both real and speculative—the better we become at thinking creatively. In military settings, this means regularly engaging in narrative exercises, asking “why” and “what-if” as part of everyday decision-making.
Narrative practice has already shown to improve creative thinking in military training. For example, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College has implemented narrative techniques to enhance soldiers’ ability to think critically and creatively during the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP). These techniques, such as perspective-shifting and world-building, encourage soldiers to imagine themselves in different roles and scenarios, helping them develop more nuanced and flexible strategies.
Collective Storytelling: Strengthening Team Dynamics
Storytelling is not just an individual exercise; it’s a team sport. In military operations, where collaboration can mean the difference between victory and defeat, collective storytelling helps build shared understanding and alignment among team members. When teams tell stories together—whether during formal planning exercises or informal conversations—they create a unified narrative that binds them together and clarifies their objectives.
This is particularly important in environments where information is incomplete, and decisions need to be made quickly. A well-crafted narrative can help a team stay focused on the mission, even when the situation on the ground is chaotic. By practicing storytelling as a group, teams become more cohesive and better equipped to adapt when things don’t go as planned.
The Future of Military Storytelling
Storytelling is a skill that every military leader should cultivate. By consistently asking “why” and “what-if,” leaders can improve their ability to think critically, anticipate challenges, and adapt to the complexities of modern combat. Whether through wargaming, writing speculative fiction, or informal conversations, the practice of storytelling helps military leaders make sense of the chaos around them and develop strategies that can withstand the unpredictability of war.
The more we practice storytelling, the better we become. As military leaders, we must embrace the power of narratives not just as a tool for communication, but as a framework for strategic thinking and decision-making. In the end, it’s the stories we tell—and the questions we ask—that will determine our success on the battlefield.
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Gaines is the ACoS G6 for 1st Special Forces Command. His writing on human creativity, decision-making, and technology can be found in Harvard Business Review and at West Point’s Modern War Institute. His own contribution to storytelling, Quantum Dagger, was published last month.
