Army Lessons Learned 1: Understanding Risk Mitigation versus Risk Avoidance
Author’s Preface: For over a year now, my mornings have been graced with moments of introspection, accompanied by my morning ritual of a cup of coffee. These “coffee thoughts,” originally shared as Facebook statuses, are impromptu reflections rather than meticulously crafted essays. They are born from a space of creative freedom, where my thoughts meander unrestrained, before the day’s demands begin to shape my focus and energy. Encouraged by friends, I’ve embarked on the journey of compiling these musings on Medium, hoping they enrich and add value to others. — T.S.
It’s been over a year since I separated from the Army and I’m halfway into my graduate school program. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect. Examine my successes and failures. Decide what lessons I want to carry with me and what baggage is better left behind. With that, I’m going to try to distill down my lessons in a series of Facebook posts, if they’re good, I might compile them in an article. I’m going to try and avoid the typical leadership tropes here like “lead from the front” and all the typical stuff you usually hear. As always, feedback is welcome.
Lesson 1: Understanding Risk Mitigation versus Risk Avoidance
In the military, particularly in combat arms, risk is an ever-present reality. Combat, by its nature, is fraught with peril, and preparing for it is equally hazardous. While I have been fortunate to never directly lose a soldier in combat or training, I have witnessed and been part of units that have endured such losses. My final military assignment involved orchestrating a complex, multi-faceted live fire training exercise. This was in response to a previous iteration of the exercise that tragically resulted in a fatality. My task was to ensure such an incident would not recur.
Military training adopts a progressive approach, often referred to as a “glide path,” ranging from basic weapon qualification to large-scale, integrated live fire exercises. These exercises involve coordinating hundreds of soldiers, various weapons systems, and live ammunition, both during the day and at night under night vision. Between these two extremes lie several incremental stages, each with escalating complexity and inherent risk.
This training process is cyclical and can span years, often transcending the tenure of individual leaders. It’s rare for a team to see this progression through from start to finish with its original composition. As the training advances, it incorporates an increasing number of teams, scaling up like assembling a puzzle. Upon completion, the unit is deemed “deployable,” with the final validation being actual combat. Thus, the stakes of inadequate preparation are immense. My responsibility lay in one of the more intricate stages: company live fires, a penultimate step before a Combat Training Center (CTC) rotation and potential deployment.
Returning to the topic of risk: it’s relatively straightforward to minimize risk in training by simplifying exercises to the point of losing realism and value, thereby ensuring safety. This approach is risk avoidance, and it’s more common than one might think, especially in complex training scenarios. The military’s structure often incentivizes risk avoidance, as there are typically few direct repercussions for conducting overly safe, scripted training. However, if a training exercise results in a fatality, the consequences are severe. Yet, what is often overlooked is that avoiding risk in training is not eliminating it but merely deferring it to a later stage. In doing so, the risk is not just transferred; it is amplified, potentially manifesting with greater severity in future training or, worst-case scenario, in actual combat. The repercussions of this deferral reverberate throughout the organization, affecting not only the soldiers directly involved but also those they train and the leaders who succeed them.
Therefore, it is a moral imperative to train rigorously and realistically. The army’s core function is to prepare individuals for hazardous situations, and every leader has a collective responsibility to ensure soldiers are as ready as possible. Effective risk mitigation involves comprehensive training at each stage, without cutting corners or diluting the training’s intensity. This responsibility starts at the individual level and culminates in collective combat operations. There is a continuum of responsibility as an organization progresses through these stages, and it only takes one leader’s complacency to shift the burden of risk onto others.
In conclusion, embrace risk management. Take ownership of the risks you face. Do not shirk from them or pass them on. Your actions and decisions have far-reaching consequences, shaping not only your path but also the safety and preparedness of those who follow.
