Commanding Change

The process of military change management must be as well planned and as well led as any other military operation. This book considers the complex and challenging area of change management within military organizations. While the military can learn a lot from the wealth of existing civilian management literature, the unique circumstances of most military organizations often require different approaches. With an understanding of the important factors involved, military planners can approach change through a means that allows them to harness the inevitability and power of change to achieve their own ends.



The management of change within a military organization is neither a fire and forget process nor one that military leaders should avoid. In many respects it is like other operations. Leaders must first understand the nature and shape of the change battlefield that they are facing. On this battlefield they must dispatch their forces against those who will seek to oppose change. Through examination of various processes of change within the military, civilian managers will learn how change has succeeded or failed in organizations whose bottom-line is the physical safety and security of the countries and the people that they protect.