REFLECT
Wayne Gretzky and Coup d’oeil
by T.G. Bradbeer In his classic work, On War, Clausewitz describes the concept of Coup d’oeil as “an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmering of the inner light which leads to truth.” This ‘inward eye’ refers to the ability...
How To Be a Data Literate Leader—And Why It Matters
Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash by Justine Meberg As the Army shifts focus from asymmetric to peer threats, modernization involves significant change. New hardware and software will gather and process increasingly more information across a vast...
It’s Not Innovation Versus Readiness—Innovation Is Readiness
By James Ashworth, with Rebecca Segal The U.S. Army has been charged to transform in contact, using deployments and exercises to stimulate innovation. To do so successfully, while still training your tactical mission, requires a conscious approach...
Evaluation is Key. But So Is Training Without It
By Tom Sujack Smoke and I agreed the platoon should practice one more hip shoot before chow. We would start platoon qualifications early the next morning, so this would be our last chance to get this normally chaotic evolution right. When the fire...
From a Staff Sergeant To Future Platoon Leaders: Own Your Roles and Responsibilities
by Cindy M. Lopez As you senior Cadets approach Commissioning, I hope that you are all as excited as I am for you. As a Non-Commissioned Officer, I do have a few requests from you. When I first pinned the rank of Sergeant (SGT), I had only...
Why You Should Reinvent the Wheel
by Todd Schmidt How many times throughout your career has someone told you to not reinvent the wheel? Scientists estimate that the wheel has been around since about 3500 BC. Originally used for manufacturing pottery, milling, irrigation, and...
What I Learned about Leadership from a 24-Year-Old Sales Manager at Best Buy
by Stein Thorbeck It’s probably unfair to name a single greatest leader I have worked for. But if someone held a gun to my head today and forced me to name someone, I would think about impact. I would tell them the name of a leader who changed the...
The Beowulf Problem
by Cherian Zachariah Beowulf spoke and made a formal boast for the last time: “I risked my life often when I was young; now I am old. As king of the people, I shall pursue this fight for the glory of winning, if the evil one will abandon his fort...
How Aristotle Challenged Me to ‘Embrace the Suck’
by Scotty Fargo Aristotle was all for the embodiment of excellence, characterized well by his quote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This article serves as a reflection of what I have learned as a cadet...
The Timeless Relevance of Classical War Theories in Modern Warfare
Montage of Sun Tzu, by the Chinese School, 19th century, via FineArtAmerica; with The Battle of Yešil-köl-nör by Charles Nicolas Cochin II, via The Met; and Carl von Clausewitz by Franz Michelis Wilhelm, 1830, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin by...
The Oldest Wargame: How Rediscovering Chess can Develop the Military Leader
by Jay Carmody The game of chess has experienced a resurgence in the United States, due in large part to popular tv series and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic driving people to board games. As the civilian world rediscovers chess, it is time...
Suicide is a Battle, I Could Not Fight It Alone
By Danita Darby On 25 May 2019, in Bagram, Afghanistan, I had reached the end of my rope. I was suspended from my command in February 2019, but that single situation is not why I am writing this. What I am writing about today is the fight I had...
A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Social Media in the Military
By Kristy Bell Social media has blurred the lines between our private and professional lives in an unprecedented way, and has also, in some ways, eroded the idea of a “non-partisan military” that shores up our democratic ideals. This came to the...
Choices
by Dave Leach “Do you want to continue?” the paramedic asked. I was just over three miles from the finish of the Ironman Florida 70.3 race and I was struggling. The 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of cycling, and the 9 ½ miles of running in the...
A Gut Worth Trusting
by Dilan Swift and Daniel Phillips Much has been written about Frederick the Great’s “Coup d’oeil.” In translation, “stroke of the Eye” was coined to define one’s ability to observe, intuit, and correctly act in each situation. As combat arms...
Leading from the Overflow
by Jason Reynado We need to talk about leader burnout. With over a year of COVID-related restrictions while trying to maintain normal mission demands, I’m sure many of us are feeling the threat of burnout or worse – already running on fumes. Like...
Ethics: Breathing Life or Hot Air
By Benjamin Ordiway As a military, we profess that we are a values-based organization. We excel at writing about our values. Just look at our posters, vision statements, or the latest memo you and your staff crafted. Why, then, when we talk about...
A Real Sam Damon, Wearing a Marine Uniform
by ML Cavanaugh Editor’s Note: This article comes courtesy of our partnership with StrategyNotes.co. It’s hard to admit as an Army officer, but I’d like to be more like a Marine. LtCol Ben Middendorf—my roommate at West Point—was one of those odd...
Reflection, Resignation, and Resilience
by Don Gomez Editor’s Note: The following essay was the winner of our From Their Green Notebooks essay contest. For the contest, authors were asked to reflect on lessons learned in their favorite episode(s) of the From the Green Notebook...
Life Calluses
by Michael Philbert I knew it would be hard, but I decided I would try anyway. I looked up, anticipating the energy it would take to jump and grasp the bars above. Could these tiny legs get this 200-pound body off the ground? I coiled my body and...
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A Platoon Leader’s Takeaways from the Anti-Extremism Stand-Down
by Jack Hadley On March 19th, the DoD-wide Anti-Extremism Stand-Down chain-teaching came hurtling down from echelons on high. For me personally, I saw this cascade come from U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) down to the 173rd Airborne...
When Unpopular Decisions Lead to a Better Culture
by Mike S. Burke On his blog, author James Clear talks about “Keystone Habits,” habits that will act as the foundation for other positive habits and translate into a better overall lifestyle. However, I submit not all keystone habits are...
The First Sergeant Blues
By Michael Burke You have finally arrived: the pinnacle of what most NCOs aspire to be, a First Sergeant, the top of your organization’s NCO support channel. You’ve been grinding every day: taking care of Soldiers, mentoring young NCOs, and...
Tailoring a Professional Development Program
By Dan Vigeant I get it, you’re busy. Your attention is constantly pulled in a thousand different directions, seemingly all at once: unit training, administrative actions, training meetings, maintenance meetings, property inventories, physical...
Why Some Commands Fail
By Dennis Reilly If you have served for any length of time, you are bound to have served in exceptional commands as well as some that simply miss the mark. The latter are places where no one wants to go to work and members regularly express their...
Army Culture: Make Room for Recovery
By MAJ Terron Wharton From January 2018 to June 2020, I served in key development positions as a battalion operations officer, battalion executive officer, and brigade executive officer. My key development time was the hardest I have ever worked in...
A Collaborative Mindset: Achieving Unity of Effort
By Assad Raza On February 4, 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Tweeted he will be leading a Global Posture Review of U.S. military forces worldwide. Moreover, he said, “We need to make sure we have the right capabilities in the right places...
How to Wage a Counterinsurgency Against Organizational Culture
By Benjamin Ordiway When dealing with a crisis, spending time having the entire organization stand down may be a missed opportunity to invest in the very people you should be standing up… There’s an old saying often attributed to investors...
There is Only One Successful Strategy
By ML Cavanaugh *Quote to Consider: From Game of Thrones, Season 2, Episode 7 (“A Man Without Honor”). TYWIN LANNISTER: The tallest towers, the strongest walls. The Great Hall had thirty-five hearths. Thirty-five. Can you imagine? Look at it now. A...
Why Toxic Leaders Succeed
By Assad Raza Years ago, while attending the XVIII Airborne Corps Pre-Company Command Course, we had several guest speakers who provided different command perspectives. One guest speaker, the Deputy Commander for XVIII Airborne Corp at the time,...
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