“Black Swan – First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations…Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact…”1  

– Nassim Taleb, Black Swan 

There are certain events and circumstances in life that will catch you unprepared or place you in unexpected situations. The author Nassim Taleb categorized these significant events as “Black Swans” in the book that shared the same title. The premise for those types of events is that they are unexpected and have radical and far-reaching effects. Depending on whom you ask, a global pandemic may not have been a surprise throughout certain parts of the world. However, the CoronaVirus-19 (CV-19) pandemic drastically changed how the military operates daily both in garrison and deployed environments. Routine daily in-person contact, group physical training, and meetings were replaced by phone calls, text messages, and smartphone/computer applications. The pandemic highlighted the importance of the individual disciplined initiative, distributed leadership, and technological solutions. The intent of this article is to offer insights from serving as a field grade officer during the CV-19 pandemic and provide concepts and recommendations for future field grade officers that are faced with similar circumstances.  

First and foremost, protect the force. Your primary mission during this time of the CV-19 pandemic is to maintain the organizational readiness of your unit. It starts and ends with the health of your Soldiers. Take social distancing and preventive/mitigation measures seriously. How you emphasize and communicate the CV-19 preventive measures is just as important as the measure themselves. Two examples I can offer for your consideration is the USS Theodore Roosevelt and from personal experience, the Resolute Support Mission’s CV-19 preparations.2 Unfortunately, for the Roosevelt and its crew, they were reacting to the effects of the CV-19 infection and did not have the opportunity to implement proactive control measures prior to the spread. In contrast, General Miller, the Commander of Resolute Support, instituted preventive measures, such as testing procedures, quarantine/isolation protocol, building and manning a mobile hospital, sourcing personal protective equipment, and controlling the inflow of personnel to Coalition Forces bases across the Combined Joint Operations Area-Afghanistan (CJOA-A). His actions protected coalition forces and improved the organization’s ability to respond to a future CV-19 outbreak. The Commanders took actions based on their specific situations and information available to them at the time. This is not to laud one response over another, but to illustrate that you as a leader will be required to make decisions that will affect the health of your organization. Moreover, proactive CV-19 prevention measures emplaced to protect the force will aide in maintaining and enhancing the overall readiness of the force during the pandemic. To emplace these CV-19 preventive measures, changes will and are being made to normal operations. However, leadership principles and fundamentals remain unchanged. 

The CV-19 pandemic forced Army leaders to modify their methods of engagement with their Soldiers, however, the pandemic did not change what constitutes great leadership. The US Army defines leadership as “the activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish a mission or task.”3 Leaders provide purpose and direction during times of uncertainty by framing problems and creating solutions. It begins with understanding the current situation, developing a vision of the future, and finally describing an approach for how organizations will arrive at that future state. Social distancing measures directed by the Department of Defense, limited the amount of direct in-person contact, changing what was once routine. Leaders across the Army have a choice to make. They can be victimized by the current situation or they can find new and different ways to interact with their Soldiers to accomplish their mission. Engaged leadership and structure are the keys to success. Set goals for your Soldiers to achieve. The goals may seem little at first, but small goals add up and can turn into larger accomplishments over time. The achievements can provide the Soldiers with a sense of success and let them know their efforts matter to you and the unit. Complementary to those goals is a clear understanding of expectations. Leaders must communicate their expectations continuously throughout this period of transition. The expectations reinforce and enhance new systems being implemented and provide predictability across the organization.    

Implementing systems and processes provides predictability and structure for organizations during uncertain situations. The systems and processes may not fix the underlying issue that led to the situation; however, it does provide predictability and a sense of normalcy for your Soldiers.4 Systems start with a battle rhythm and training calendar. Inform your Soldiers of the daily, weekly, and monthly schedule and the associated requirements. Have an honest conversation with your Commander about his/her priorities and discuss what the unit must do, as well as what the unit will not be able to do. Communicate the “why” to your unit by issuing the Commander’s guidance and intent.5 Encourage disciplined initiative and create ways to identify and reward the behavior. Set suspense dates early in the process to create time for subordinate elements to execute (remember the 1/3, 2/3 rule). Build flexibility into your schedule to allow people to adapt to the new methods of operations. Take time to think through how you will integrate technology into your systems and processes. 

The military is not new to using technological solutions to accomplish a mission. The current pandemic merely accelerated an ongoing trend of technology integration into daily operations. So how does one approach integrating technology? I recommend developing a theory of employment, outlining how the technology would be used to achieve an objective. What are the inputs and outputs? Who participates? What is the best way to convey the information? This is similar to building seven-minute drills for unit SOPs. The only difference is that you have the opportunity to explore and integrate more systems. Smartphone applications such as WhatsApp or Signal are excellent for rapidly disseminating information. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones are useful for organizing larger meetings while maintaining social distance protocols. VOIP and email allow you to share and review products but are limited for product collaboration. The Microsoft cloud system Azure and the Teams application are great for sharing and collaborating on products from Microsoft Office. However, to effectively integrate technology across organizations, people need to first, know how to use the system and second understand how the system will be employed by the organization. There may be some discovery learning at echelon during these times. That is okay. Do not let it preclude you from trying something new.  

Ultimately, be creative with your approach. You have an amazing opportunity to shape how your organization conducts business and integrates technology. Systems that you implement today may become the model for future action. Engage with your commander often to understand his/her priorities for the organization. Understand your limitations and emphasize the importance of maintaining readiness by protecting the force. Leaders provide focus and clarity in times of uncertainty. Embrace the challenge and step into the arena. To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, it is not the critic who counts, but the man in the arena who is marred by failure but continues to dare for greatness. 6 The Army needs your leadership, creativity, and experience to maintain readiness and prepare Soldiers to fight and win. 

Major Peter Crosthwaite is the Battalion Executive Officer for 4th Battalion, 3rd Security Forces Assistance Brigade (SFAB), currently forward deployed to Herat, Afghanistan. He is a Field Artillery Officer with 15 years of active duty experience and three operational deployments to CENTCOM Theaters. A graduate of the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Major Crosthwaite enjoys the study of leadership and military history and is currently applying to pursue a PhD in Military History.