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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Annals of innovation (12): A healthy culture helps foster military change

Organizations that are adaptive in peacetime fight better in wartime.

By
USS Harry S. Truman operations
USS Harry S. Truman operations

 

 

Number 12. Organizations that are adaptive in peacetime fight better in wartime. 

Why is this? As innovation expert Williamson Murray puts it, “those military organizations that have innovated in peacetime with honesty, openness, and a willingness to tolerate those who challenge many of the assumptions that their organization holds dear have been those who have adapted best to the trying conditions of war.”

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Defense

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1
Tag: Military

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