Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 69

STRUCTURED ORGANIZATION

instant access to information and possess a desire to share it. In contrast, senior leaders entered
the military before the advent of the Information
Age. They are prone to possess mental models
coinciding with traditional hierarchical structures, such as positional leadership, linear thinking, and inherent reservations about information
sharing. This mental model embraces centralized
control and resists change. It can hinder leadership of the multigenerational force and interfere
with operations in a modern, highly technical,
and rapidly evolving environment. To ensure
future success, the U.S. military must identify
innovation, leverage creativity from millennial
service members, and develop change leaders
capable of building a learning organization. The
U.S. military can coexist as a structured organization within a dynamically complex world if
senior leaders view information permeability as
an opportunity instead of a challenge. Sustaining
an agile force capable of responding to current
and emerging threats will require creative leadership and innovative information management.

A New Way of Thinking
Since the 18th century, the U.S. military has
existed as a classic hierarchical organization
with centralized control and linear information
sharing. Leaders at each echelon in the chain of
command hold authority over those under them
and translate higher-level guidance into actionable
tasks for subordinate levels. Information flows
up and down through multiple echelons along
linear paths and consolidates at the top. Senior
positions, with more decision-making authority,
possess higher rank earned through demonstrated
proficiency and multiple decades of service. Flaggrade officers normally have more than 25 years
in service and entered the military at the end of
the Cold War but before the popularization of
the Internet.1 With several decades of service in
the military, senior leaders possess inherent generational biases associated with structured, linear,
and hierarchical organizations. Overcoming these
internalized, structured mindsets presents a challenge in today’s interconnected, rapidly changing,
and often-unstructured environment.
Over the past two decades, advances in information technology have driven cultural changes
MILITARY REVIEW

March-April 2014

across the world. The growth of informationsharing capability has led to globally connected
societies and rapidly changing relationships
among nations. Information systems have enabled
the rise of nonstate actors, facilitated Army operations, and created new battlegrounds for conflict,
such as cyberspace. The world exists today as
a highly technical society with instant, global
access to information—a place where agility and
responsiveness are necessities, not luxuries. Contributing to this dramatic evolution is the influx
of a youthful military workforce that has lived
exclusively in the Information Age. Known as the
military millennial, this generation was born in
1984 or later and has grown up within complex,
interconnected systems.2 Demographically, over
66 percent of service men and women are age 30
or younger (see figure 1).3 Much of this generation possessed computer skills before learning to
read or write. They have children who discover
the Internet, on average, by the age of three.4 The
military millennial generation contrasts sharply
with the most senior military leaders who have
served for nearly 30 years or more—longer than a
majority of military service men and women have
lived. While senior leaders possess wisdom and
a wealth of experience, those of the military millennial generation benefit by inherently applying
a systems-thinking framework to problem solving.
The millenials look past simple, linear, cause and
effect relationships and appreciate the complexity
of the new information environment.
In today’s society, information collection and
dissemination occur along nonlinear paths facilitated by constant access to mobile technology. The
bleeding of communications across nonstandard
and unofficial hierarchically structured echelons
creates information permeability. Among the chief
generational impacts of the nonlinear and open
dissemination of information is the c