DC Velocity - June 2011

perspective, those experiences have allowed me to see things differently, and hopefully more broadly and deeply.

QAre you saying that the fact that you like to color out- side the lines actually helped make you a better leader? ATo the extent that coloring outside the lines has helped me find new paths, it has helped me. If we believe that the future is going to be uncertain, then we will send our leaders into places where they will be asked to accomplish something we haven’t seen before.

In that regard, we want to be able to develop officers who are creative. If they try to apply standard templates— cookie cutters—to solve problems that are unknown, they are going to fail. We need leaders who can be creative, who will understand the problems they face in the context in which those problems are presented, and can recognize when a template solution will not fit.

QBut most organizations—and certainly the U.S. Army—live within structures. How do you reconcile the need to be creative with that reality?

AOrganizations have structures for good reasons. We have to have the discipline—both organizational dis-
cipline and personal discipline—so that under extreme
pressure, we can depend on the guy next to us and we can
depend on the organization next to us.

QThat goes back to your earlier point about how a diverse set of experiences helped prepare you for senior leadership. You learned to see things from a variety of perspectives?

AThe fact that I colored outside the lines at times has helped me. However, it is important to understand that coloring outside the lines as a lieutenant and a captain is not always good. Recognizing when you can step outside the lines and when to stay inside the lines is very important.

Interestingly, my perspective is that we tend to reward officers who toe the line throughout their early careers and then all of a sudden—when they advance to the most senior positions—we want them to be critical thinkers, strategic thinkers. In other words, we want our most senior leaders to be able to envision new ways of doing business. That’s a lot easier said than done, and that is why the center is looking at how we teach our logistics leaders in the military. We believe that what we teach is important, but it’s how we teach that is most important. ;