Military Systems , Capability & Art of Survival

I recently was sent a post by a young colonel, who was rather concerned about the growing trend of criticism of all aspects concerning senior leadership. What was alarming is that, the voices were convinced and vocal. Having been instructor in five of the armies premier training institutes and understanding the backdrop of thought processes. My reply is stated below.

While we can keep castrating senior leadership and point out a small list of people who got there without any considerable merit. The fact is that we form opinions on spoken reputations. We call a man a criminal even before he has committed a crime. Every organisation will have, the hard working class, the smart working class and the situation exploiters. Then you have the other charities that chose the comfortable way up the channel. But then even that is an art. In the military with tenures that are 18 months and two years, you need to be consistent in your approach with every boss. The survival therefore is commendable. They say you can beat the system once, but not all the time. Within the organisational paradigm whether in the corporate or in government services , whom you characterise as ass lickers and boot leggers also need to have the professional capability to be in sync with the system. Here survival itself is a skill. Not all high ranking officers are bad … and not all junior officers are good. A carpenter will always blame his tools, find reasons to blame his fault lines.

Someone told me once. Neil ‘tu JAT hai kya’. (The JATS are forthright and on the face, blunt). You speak your mind even if you very well know that the truth hurts and sometimes is damning. Many young officers speak their mind, I have never in my career, seen a young officer who articulates thought processes with clarity and if logical and methodical ever being written off. Yes I have come across some who rattle out rubbish as intelligent debate, exposing the shallow credentials and projecting a lack of knowledge and understanding. I have also seen some only being critics, some being rigid, refusing to acknowledge the holistic environment or picture. For our own deficiencies many a time we end up looking outwards playing blame blame instead of looking inwards.

Some Coursemates used to joke with me ‘tu colonel bhi nahin banega’.

Somewhere between that prophesy and my charactered persona. I met a general who told me “if you bang your head against the wall, it’s not the wall that will break, but your head that will bleed”. A career graph depends on how you perform. No one stopped you from getting a good grading in your courses. Even the DSSC is a tectonic shift in professional visibility in self improvement through studies, retention and delivery. Why don’t you try and pass it?

As a young Lieutenant Colonel what the general said made me think. I still managed to say the same things, but now with finesse and class. What you call diplomatic play of words. When the person you are addressing, realises a couple of hours later what was said and where it was aimed. The message got through.

Another general, someone I have huge respects for is Lt Gen Tiwari the Eastern Army Commander. When I was explaining to him the need for change in concepts and thinking. He understood, he grasped and he commented “Neil what scares me is that in our ambition to change … we might set out to repair things that aren’t broke”. A well oiled and functional mechanism often when tampered with, reduces in efficiency.

I still became a brigadier with stars on my car and a flag to fly.

Did I beat the system, or did the system accept that I was capable rewarding me adequately?