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I am tempted to say that whatever doctrine the armed forces are working on now, they have got it wrong. Jam also tempted to declare that it does not matter . . . What does matter is their ability to get it right quickly, when the moment arrives. . . . When everybody starts strong, the advantage goes to the side which can most quickly adjust itself to the new and unfamiliar environment and learn from its mistakes.1
THIS ARTICLE ADDRESSES the question, "How can leaders make their units into organizations that learn from their mistakes and `get it right quickly?"' The question is important for several reasons. Most important, the lives of soldiers and success in combat depend on how well units learn from their mistakes. As a 1945 War Department pamphlet explains, "The old saying `live and learn' must be reversed in war, for there we `learn and live'; otherwise we die. It is with this learning in order to live that the Army is so vitally concerned."2 Additionally, leadership doctrine and Officer Personnel Management System XXI direct that Army leaders build units which learn and adapt quickly. For example, the new officer evaluation report (OER) requires that officers be rated on how well they "foster a learning environment in their units."3
However, leaders face many challenges in building units that truly learn. First, defining such an organization and then measuring the effectiveness of how well it learns is difficult. Second, only limited literature and doctrine provide the performance measures for unit learning. Third, tactical units are not structured to maximize unit learning and use it to their best advantage. Finally, as former Army Chief of Staff General Gordon R. Sullivan suggests, "the most difficult challenge is developing a culture that values this kind of learning."4
Defining and Measuring Learning in Tactical Units
Defining the characteristics of an organization that effectively learns and quickly adapts to changes is an elusive challenge. Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline popularized the term "learning organization" among both civilian and military leaders. Senge defines the learning organization as one that is "continually expanding its capacity to create its future . . . it is not enough to merely survive. `Survival learning' or what is more often termed...