Raising the Bar: Creating and Nurturing Adaptability to Deal with the Changing Face of War

by Don Vandergriff

Raising the Bar outlines the core concepts and practices developed by Major Don Vandergriff (United States Army, Retired) and now being applied across a wide spectrum of military leadership training. The text has become required reading for ROTC faculty and students. Don Vandergriff's experiences, research and interaction with fellow military professionals suggest that a cultural revolution within the U.S. military is essential if the nation is to successfully adapt and prevail in the emerging 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) or asymmetric warfare threat environment. An Army cultural revolution has three parts: 1. Strategic leaders must change a counterproductive array of long-established beliefs including many laws, regulations and policies, which are based on out-of-date assumptions. 2. Military leaders must drive and sustain a military cultural evolution through effective education and training of the next generation(s) of leaders in a system that is flexible enough to evolve alongside emerging changes in, and lessons from, war, society and technology. 3. Finally, senior leaders must continue to nurture and protect these younger leaders as they go out and put to practice what they have learned, and allow them to evolve. When the Army begins and sustains an evolutionary process of cultural change based on these or similar principles, it will be on the road to effective reform. This study aims to provide ways to plot and follow the transformational road map for the Army and nation to deal with the complexities of 4th generation warfare.

Genres: Military Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[CHAD FOSTER · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are in the business of developing leaders who can adapt to ever-changing conditions, take initiative, and accept responsibility with enthusiasm and humility, this is the book for you!

I have used "Raising the Bar" as a guide in multiple duty positions during my Army career, from instructor at the United States Military Academy, Operations Officer (S3) and Executive Officer in the 1st Cavalry Division, and (most recently) as the commander of a Cavalry Squadron. There are few written works on the "how to" aspect of leader development that are of more practical utility than this one.

The essence of Vandergriff's work is summed up by the title: "Raising the Bar." It is amazing to see that people will generally raise their game to the level you expect if given the opportunity and top-cover to do so. As a caution, the opposite is also true. If you treat your people like they are children and micro-manage their every move, they will definitely live gown to that level.

The bottom-line: train them how you want them to act!