Operational Flexibility Quotes

We have learned the need to be flexible or to have flexible forces, agile forces, who can move quickly, secure themselves when they arrive in a location, assess the needs of a given mission, and move to that mission.

In the army we are drilled into execution and then supervision, to make sure everything goes the way you planned it. But there is another thing that we do in the military, that I think perhaps isn't done enough in corporate life: As soon as you have made that decision, you start on the contingency planning. Because there is, as we like to say, a thinking, breathing enemy out there, who is not going to let you do just what you want.

There is nearly always uh, a process of wanting contingency plans made in the military.

On the aircraft carrier under my command, where the average age of sailors was 19 and a half, you could see accountability in action at all times. You especially saw it when an order was given that a plane about to launch suddenly must be switched out for another and kept on board.

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy's will are not allowed that luxury.

I learned that you shouldn't take your most esoteric concept and fit it into the largest space with the highest fixed costs. It puts too much pressure on the restaurant to hit grand slams every day when there just aren't enough people who want to watch that sport.

In most covert operations … particularly those that have a large paramilitary component, the planning for later stages is very incomplete. The outcome of the first stages of the operation is usually so difficult to predict that it wouldn't have seemed sensible to have planned the later stages. One can plan the first phases, but not what happens next

I really have to give the Navy all the credit it deserves. They were so flexible and accommodating, given that everybody on board had better things to worry about than this person coming on board who's just going to be in the way, really.

If there were 10,000 U.S. forces ashore [in Lebanon], authorized to move about, there would be less risk to American lives than there is with an immobile force of 1,300.

We will not only be more flexible when it comes to price, we'll also be more efficient operationally by forgoing pre-assigned seating, priority boarding, upgrading the option for last-minute changes.

Soldiers can sometimes make decisions that are smarter than the orders they've been given.

The bureaucracy needs to do more than one thing at a time. It’s appropriate to save people with helicopters, but it can’t be done to the exclusion of everything else.

Extra capacity makes manufacturing competitive, keeps pricing in control.

An army that fought and won a war decisively finds it even more difficult to undergo change.

Small unit autonomy, breaking the right rules, cultural influence, and relationship building has always been the heart Special Operations. Something must be done to ensure these are not lost to the big machine of SOCOM.

Recruit entrepreneurial leaders and give them freedom to determine the best path to achieving their objectives. On the other hand, individuals must commit fully to the system you use and be held rigorously accountable for their objectives. You give them freedom, but freedom within a framework.

We need to transform our military forces by focusing on force posture, not force structure.

We were operating outside the boundaries of established precedent.

In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job.