Evolve or Die: The U.S. Army's Darwinian Challenge
Abstract
In an effort to ensure future success and relevance, the Army, at the end of 2012, published its Army Capstone Concept (ACC). The ACC sets an azimuth into the future and lays a course for the Army as it moves towards the future operational environment (FOE). The ACC advocates for an institutional and operating force consisting of organizations, leaders, soldiers, and civilians trained and educated, exhibiting and imbued with the principle of "operational adaptability." Organizational and operational adaptability are dependent, first and foremost, on developing the individual soldier. With the American soldier as its first priority, the Army can overcome the Darwinian challenge of evolving from its capstone concept to meeting the challenges of the FOE. General Peter J. Schoomaker's tenure as Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA), and events leading up to it, provide a case study demonstrating success and failure in leading organizational adaptation. The case study covers the decade leading up to Schoomaker's tenure as CSA; how he ultimately decided and implemented the final form and structure of transformation; and how his decisions, made while the Army was at war, were all dynamics of his being the "change-agent" to the Army's culture and organization. It demonstrates desirable and undesirable traits in Army organizational practices, processes, and culture, as well as leadership traits that help and hinder innovation and adaptation. Shorter case studies also are presented of General Gordon R. Sullivan and "Force XXI," General Dennis J. Reimer and the "Army After Next," and General Eric K. Shinseki and "Army Transformation." The lessons from these case studies offer a road map and way ahead as the Army faces an uncertain, unpredictable, complex, nonlinear, and chaotic FOE. Following the case studies, a comparison is drawn between the strategic-political-economic environment in which the Army found itself in the 1990s, and where it finds itself today.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 23, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA589721
Entities
People
- Todd A. Schmidt
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College