Developing Creative and Critical Thinkers

Summary

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[...] our senior leadership must be skilled in developing and applying creative strategies to circumstances about which we have limited current knowledge or understanding. [...] creative and out-of-the-box ideas are essential to success as the Army strives to develop a culture of innovation across the force, but only to the extent that critical thinking is applied to those ideas to reach viable solutions to complex issues.

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Developing Creative and Critical Thinkers

IN APRIL 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited each ofthe senior service colleges to present his rationale for budget recommendations to the president. We can infer that his purpose was to communicate the critical priorities for the Fiscal Year 2010 national defense budget directly to emerging armed services senior leaders.1 His FY 2010 recommendations challenged the existing advice and direction ofthe service leaders and would result in the cutting of major weapon systems.

In explaining his concerns about the Future Combat System (FCS), Secretary Gates related a conversation he had with the senior Army leadership about the design of the FCS variant of the infantry fighting vehicle. The vehicle had a clearance of 1 8 inches from the ground and a flat bottom hull. His comment was stark: the design revealed, "No lessons learned. "2 The strategic investment in the FCS program had produced an inherently flawed vehicle. His message was clear: "What were we thinking?"

Several contemporary books and articles question our leaders' abilities to think strategically about the challenges we face after 9-11. Tom Rick's Fiasco and Bob Woodward's The War Within are outsider accounts of ineffective policy- and strategy-making by senior civilian and military leaders...

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