Agile Leaders, Agile Institutions: Educating Adaptive and Innovative Leaders for Today and Tomorrow

摘要

The Army's new strategic reality, the context in which we find ourselves, is that war is now the norm - it is our steady state environment. This is a protracted war against adversaries employing irregular, unconventional, and asymmetrical means. The implications of this new context are clear: 'Adapt or Die'. In 2004, General Byrnes tasked the United States Army War College to study the post initial-entry Officer Education System. The Agile Leader Study's charter was to assess OES curricula to determine how well suited they were for developing leaders to operate effectively in the contemporary operational environment. More narrowly, this paper is a 'directed telescope' focused on the Captain's Career Courses. It seeks to answer the research question, how should TRADOC change its education system, with specific regard to the CCCs, to better develop and prepare mentally agile leaders for the Army's new strategic reality. To answer this question, this paper examines the new strategic reality and its implications on our officer's professional military education. The paper examines the concepts of individual and organizational agility specifically investigating adaptability, innovation, and learning. The paper then advances a recommended model to develop agile leaders while making the institutional system more agile as well.