Learning from the Resilience of Our Military Adversaries

In combat even the best plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy. Thus, the US military strives for resilience in the face of adversity through training, delegation of authority, emphasis on adaptability, and above all, leadership. For instance, combat leaders are promoted more on how well they “take a hit” than on how well they do when conditions are optimal.

Despite its intense focus on resilience, the U.S. Military lost in Viet Nam and Afghanistan, in large part because our adversaries exhibited greater resilience than we did. The Russians also displayed exceptional resilience after initial catastrophic losses to the Germans in WWII, and more recently, major early setbacks in Ukraine.

The main point of this talk is that both military and business leaders can learn more from the resilience of our adversaries such as the North Vietnamese, Taliban, and Russians, than we can from the U.S. military, mainly because the tough resilience of these resource-constrained adversaries are not intuitive for resource-rich Americans.