ArmourGroup. Kabul. Kiwi blows whistle.
Time and again, we keep picking up on the absolute necessity of ethos, values and culture for success in the COE…woohoo, another propaganda victory for the opposition…onya, ArmourGroup!!
Enough said….
District 9…15 minutes into it, I’m going “Uh-oh, another Quarantine“. Carmen, meantime, only a seat away and watching the same movie is saying “Another Quarantine – Excellent!” But the end of the movie, we both arrived at “That rocked!!” It’s an interesting movie: the trailer gives absolutely nothing away and the first hour or so is like up-market Blair Witch Project – sorta kinda interesting but once you’ve seen it…y’know? The second hour takes it all some place way above that. Taken at face value, it’s a scifi non-hero yarn that you can take or leave; dig a little deep within the pain of the South African context and it has apowerful message about doing the right thing, making the right decisions, being the one voice that in the end says “Enough!” And that it doesn’t take a hero…
I’ve listed this under the Thursday-Friday War because time and again, values emerge as a key enabler in complex conflict. When the heat is on, we will act as who we are inside, follow the heart…
…reading through the programme for the Chief of Army’s Conference this morning, I wondered if this whole transformation thing is nothing more than just more buzzword bingo like the great (NOT) RMA from the 90s – I think it is and, in fact, one of the presentation’s covered exactly that issue and came to a similar conclusion…but move away from the lingo and the underlying theme is the clear need, not so much for change, but ongoing evolution to match the environment of today and tomorrow…no more Maginot Lines or Malemes…
It has been a long day, departed the hacienda at 5 and got back around 9 tonight but so very worth it: I have screeds of notes to digest before I forgot what my scribbles meant; caught up with some people I haven’t seen for years and made a couple of new contacts on the lessons front. Exceptionally well-catered which is good as a general principle but must have been appreciated by the participants who had travelled from all over the country and good food during smoko and lunch breaks always fosters better discussion…
I was disappointed not to have been able to catch up with Michael Evans who I have corresponded with off and on but never actually met – he has said he will be back over this way a couple more times this year so we will see – his presentation on Krulak’s (bastard) step-children was my favourite of the day – I don’t think I should really get into good, better, best comparisons because I thought they were all rather good – certainly I got a nugget or two from each…A really good turn-out: Minister of Defence (in the PM), the Army obviously (not all of them but enough for challenging discussion), Air Force and Navy, as well as reps from Police, MFAT and Customs and a good mix of civilian staff and academia (would a loony academic be an academia nut?)
I’m assuming that there’s a Virtual Brown Bag this week – erk! 3am in this timezone and I am trying to muster the energy to wait up for it so I can test where it really does work at the end of a dial-up connection and also so I can see if the new recording software works…
Principles and rules are not necessarily things that relate to right/wrong or good/bad in a moral sense but are examples of distilled wisdom (Sun Tsu being an example of watered-down viffle-vaffle) and guidance that one is not bound to follow but which should be disregarded with care and caution…
So far as MBA v leader officers, maybe there should be an accompanying correlation between states of war/peace at the time that each type had precedence – I would argue (as I did on the CAC COIN blog last week if anyone is interested) that when the rubber hits the road and actual war breaks out, metrics-focussed leaders are a rare breed indeed. They may have a number-crunching staff but that is management and neither leadership nor command…
…of course, you need real war to prove that…”
I really feel quite strongly on this one as I connect it with the ongoing thrust towards metrics where such things do not exist and can not be accurately or honestly invented. If we invest resources in training the military to develop and then apply their professional judgement based upon their training and experience, then why do we persist in trying to second-guess them through a consultants and analysts lacking that very experience and judgement?
Maybe this resource would be better applied to metricising the Reserve Bank or other agents of the Government who seem equally dependent on chicken entrails or training and experience to predict the future and develop policy and courses of action.
What we really need is less number-crunchers and more command and leadership…a drive towards developing an ethos and culture based upon leadership and comand in those agencies still focussed (very Third Wave-like) on management and metrics…
Mancave update: left it up on jacks last night after an uneventful move – didn’t blow over or get washed away in last night’s storm.
Warning for South Island drivers: be on the look out for an old blue Bedford flat deck heading south on SH1 – Carmen has her first truck delivery job and is heading for Gorrrre this week…Update: This is now hurtling across the wastelands of the Canterbury Plains at speeds approaching 60km/h
OK, let’s get this one out in the open, well away from the closet…yes, it’s true, I like playing with toys – not just big boys’ toys like power tools etc (and in all honesty, most of them are Carmen’s!) and well over the guns thing now, but toys…model planes, tanks, ships, spacecraft, whatever – if it’s different in shape or markings or something, I’ll probably like it…
So yet another package arrived this week, much to Carmen’s ongoing disgust and eye-rolling (Honey, are you ever going to finish one?), all the way from the Ukraine and inside were (have a look at the Papermodelers site while you’re there):
Orel 1/100 Zhelezniakov I really love these big Russian river monitors – big and ugly and lots of guns…
Orel 1/33 Pe-3 This was just a stocking filler to maximise the postage costs but it still big and different and comes with guns and bombs…
Orel 1/33 Ilya Murometz This has always fascinated me – at a time when most other nations were trying to get planes with one engine and a couple of hand grenades for payload in the air, the Russians were doing this. It strikes me just now that this would look good alongside the latest Russian 4-engined bomber the mighty Blackjack which I also have in 1/33 – now if only someone would do a Pe-8…
Have a look and maybe be enlightened – it’s something else I do…. there’ve been some really interesting entries on both the CAC COIN and Strategist blogs this week, regarding the core elements of leadership and what makes an army great. Although I have given a lot of thought to this subject (which may or may not be evident in my posts in these blogs), I’d like to expand further on the topic here but this will need to wait until the weekend when I have a little more time on my hands to structure my thoughts…
On the home front, the rimu spiral is in and looks great – although the current geography of the house makes it a little difficult to get a good picture of it – will be a lot easier once we (Carmen) chainsaw the front door out…Feral the Cat loves it probably because the dogs don’t…The man-cave move started today so will hope to see progress when I get home tonight…have visitors and twins this weekend…uh-oh…
PS Scale Model Expo 2009 is on in Wellington 5-6 Sep – go and have a look…
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