US Army Leadership Field Manual FM 22-100

Review: In the introduction by Jeffrey A. Krames, Author of What the Best CEO's Know, he states The US Army Leadership Field Manual presents vital information that can help to shape leaders who inspire people, organize actions, develop strategy, and respond to uncertainty with speed and effectiveness."

As a civilian and MBA, I was startled and pleasantly surprised by the new US Army Leadership Field Manual, affectionately known as "FM 22-100." The concepts presented seem to me to be very much in line with all the recent academic papers on best practices in High-Reliablity Organizations and also Positive Organizational Scholarship.

In fact, whether for daily operations in peacetime, or for preparation for the chaos of an actual bioterrorist event, the book, and the approach of a consistent approach based on character and culture, seems indispensible.

Especially since Public Health, industry, and the military will need to work together in a complete catastrophic event, whether manmade or natural, it would be a great idea to all be on the same wavelength.The Center for Army Leadership has published just such a "wavelength" that appears to me to be suitable for public health, private health centers, private industry, and the US Army.

The burden now, I'd suggest, is for public health leadership to either accept this framework and join in advocating it, or to use it as a benchmarking standard, and evolve something at least that good but fine-tuned to the specific situation and language.

The book is not filled with images of "Rambo", recommendations of a "Kill, kill, kill!" mentality, or other short-sighted violence. In fact, the book notes that the mission of the Army is to resolve any war they are called on to fight in such a way as to build a basis for a sustainable peace afterwards. That approach is far more enlightened than many civilian approaches.

The focus of the book is on a unified, top-to-bottom leadership doctrine that is designed and tested to work in practice, with real people not superheroes, under rapidly changing conditions and great uncertainty about what is going on - a situation US businesses increasingly find familiar.

The surprising central theme is that the crucial element is not technology, or command and control systems, but "how Army values form the basis of character."The McGraw Hill book can be purchased for $15 at Borders or $20 at Amazon here, and viewed in a regretably ugly format on-line as html pages here, if you have a low-speed connection, since the entire manual in pdf form can be downloaded for no charge (it's 9.5 Megabytes.)

The Center for Army Leadership has created a book that is consistently approachable, accessible, practical, and grounded in examples. It is easy and pleasant to read and free of academic or military jargon. I highly recommend it.

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