CHASING THE DELTA: A PITFALL OF THE MILITARY’S ‘CAN-DO’ ETHOS
By JP Clark August 1, 2019
an organization trained to overcome the seeming impossible will have a natural blind spot for the actual impossible
Most readers who have served within a high-level headquarters will have at least once thought to themselves: “This will end badly.†That statement is not meant to be particularly cynical or pessimistic. Rather, it simply recognizes the reality that — by design — large headquarters deal with large problems, some of which are intractable. In short, the nature of strategic- and operational-level command ensures some sub-optimal outcomes. But the can-do military culture can exacerbate the situation when it comes up against a problem that is insoluble or, more commonly, one which requires the institution to either adopt unpalatable measures or to acknowledge unwelcome realities. I call the resulting internal dynamic chasing the delta. Essentially, chasing the delta is the “mood†within a headquarters desperate to fill a hole in a puzzle and willing to jam whatever piece comes first to hand into that space.
Years ago, I witnessed this effect firsthand. On its face, the situation seemed to exemplify how things should work. Senior leaders were discussing an ambitious proposal, one that applied new training technologies to achieve readiness at less cost over the long run. The leaders were giving the idea what seemed to be appropriate scrutiny, raising possible operational and financial second- and third-order effects. A promising idea given at least the veneer of thoughtful consideration: the situation should have been a heartening model of institutional change. Nonetheless, there was something disquieting about the conversation.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/chasing-the-delta-a-pitfall-of-the-militarys-can-do-ethos/
