The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions, and Results

by Stephen Bungay

The new Chief of the General Staff, Hans von Seeckt, a veteran of the mobile war in the East, decided to turn his army of 100,000 men into an army of 100,000 officers. Training was centered on inculcating a spirit of initiative and von Schlichting’s “independent thinking obedience.” To further this and create greater levels of trust, all NCOs were trained as officers, and officers were expected to master the tasks of two ranks higher up the hierarchy and to take their place if needs be. Whereas von Moltke had restricted the use of directives to the higher levels of command, their use was now pushed right down the hierarchy.44 In 1933, the German Army produced a new guide to its leadership philosophy called Truppenführung (literally “Troop Leadership”), which marks the next stage in the maturity of Auftragstaktik.