Month: January 2018

The Value of the Specialist

I once served with a Warrant Officer who worked as a technical supervisor within an operational military team. Highly qualified and self motivated he did his job ably, but unremarkably. He left the Army and, due to a reorganisation he was immediately re-employed as a civilian doing exactly the same job. Within weeks it was apparent something special was happening to him; in a very short period of time he had become much better at his job. He quickly established himself as a leading expert and soon the organisation became utterly reliant on him for all technical decision making. The reason was simple; he had been freed from all the additional and distracting responsibilities that come with being in the Army. He didn’t disappear on exercises, physical training or weapon ranges – he simply did his core job, and he got very good at it very quickly. Over time he stayed in that appointment far longer than would ever be possible if he were still in the Army and as a result the effect was multiplied several times over. He became utterly indispensible.

This tale highlights a flaw in the way the British military views the profession of soldiering. We are an organisation of generalists and as a result we rarely let our people become specialist, and if we do we immediately move them on to another job. Even pilots must give up flying at a relatively junior rank because practising their core skill quickly becomes detrimental to their career prospects.

Perhaps the clue is in the rank of our senior officers; in the Army it is ‘generalism’ that gets you promoted. I agree that there is merit in leaders having a breadth of experience but it should not be such an all-pervasive philosophy that it is ruthlessly applied to everyone. There are some aspects of any business where it is important to specialise, and those that choose to do so should be valued, respected and rewarded for making that choice.

The generalist versus specialist debate has never been as important as it is now in cyber operations. As we build the cyber force it is abundantly clear it is not a discipline that people can ‘dip in and out’ of. It takes years to accrue the requisite skills to plan and deliver cyber operations. Subsequent operational experience only adds to the richness of that skill set making our best surely indispensible. Yet it is exactly these skilled and experienced practitioners that we so frequently fail to reinvest into the cyber enterprise, preferring instead to broaden their profile rather than deepen it. If we are to truly excel in cyber operations we must keep our people in the business. We must learn to value the specialist and give them opportunities to advance within cyber. Doing so is practically achievable, but it will require a change in culture and mindset that will be hard to win.

Time for a Change

After nearly 20 years of regular Army service I have decided it is time to end this chapter of my career and explore opportunities beyond the Armed Forces. The reason is simple – having decided as a family to settle in North Yorkshire I face a career of weekly commuting if I stay in the Army. Having experienced this for the last 18 months it is clear to me that living apart from my family 5 nights out of every 7 is untenable, especially as there is always the possibility of additional separation of 6, 9 or even 12 months on an operational employment that could happen at any time. After 20 years I simply need to spend more time with my young family.

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Even though the decision was the right one and somewhat inevitable, pressing ‘the button’ still felt odd and disloyal. With the click of a mouse I surrendered my job, my career (which was guaranteed to age 55), my vocation and, in part, my identity (I still get introduced as ‘David, the Army officer’). I am fortunate though; I was never one of the ‘Army Barmy’ crowd who couldn’t imagine doing anything else, helped in part by joining a little older than the average and by working in ‘Civvy Street’ before going to Sandhurst. I was fortunate too to join the Royal Signals, a capbadge that gave me a career wonderfully balanced between traditional Army officer leadership and more technical appointments. Indeed, the skill to effectively lead technical teams is probably the most valuable I learnt over the years.

I will always be eternally grateful to the Army for my career, the highlights of which read like a clichéd advert to ‘Be the Best’. I was invested in hugely; approximately 4 years of my time in the Army was spent in training or education, including an invaluable MSc in Information Systems Management. I had a daunting but character building amount of responsibility from the very beginning of my career – aged just 24 I was leading 36 soldiers. I served in British Forces Germany at a time when the sense of community and, quite frankly, fun pervaded everything we did. I learnt to ski, mountaineer and SCUBA dive, and have since instructed others in the latter two. Most importantly I deployed on operations, commanding 150 fantastic Gurkhas in Afghanistan, without doubt the career highlight. The same Gurkha connection took me to Nepal where I was able to spend time in the remote east of the country helping to ensure the money raised by the Gurkha Welfare Trust is spent effectively. There is no question I would tell my 20 year old self to do the same again.

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I might be naïve but I’m excited at the prospect of finding a new opportunity that is the right fit for me. It feels like the market is ripe with possibility and there is no question I am lucky to be in the Cyber specialism at a particularly exciting time. Old habits die hard so I have written a ‘Leaving the Army Campaign Plan’ (I’m not kidding – it has 6 Lines of Operation that subdivide into 59 Lines of Effort). Hopefully the same tried and tested methodology that planned countless operations over my Army career will be just as effective at finding the right opportunity for me. It is certainly going to be fun finding out!