Page 4 - Cormorant Issue 20 2017

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Commandant’s Foreword
AVM Chris Luck
DEAR CORMORANTS,
Let me start by congratulating you on completing what
was a demanding academic year. You should have felt
challenged, whether by content, deliverables or deadlines. More importantly you should have been given
the cognitive skills and knowledge to elevate your sights to the operational – strategic level, which
is now home to you all. I know that some of you took the path of least resistance and still achieved the standard needed, but many of you made the effort to stretch yourselves, expand your knowledge and understanding, and maximise your learning outcomes. You will all have taken the opportunity
to network and cement bonds, national and international, with colleagues who will continue with you to the highest ranks and roles in Defence and Security. I also hope, as much as was possible, that you took advantage of the year away from the demands of operational and staff tours to catch up on personal and family goals and outside interests, and to have decompressed; fun is not a dirty word!
As I have previously stated, the world within which you will be expected to perform is one of persistent
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con ict, novelty, surprise and lethality. Technology, and creativity in using it, to defeat or diminish our historical advantages is an accelerating challenge. You will need to operate, think and act in that space and take responsibility for bringing policy and strategy to life. Those that you lead and have responsibility for will now look to you for guidance, priorities and assurance. There will be many that you will need to in uence and persuade, with clarity of analysis and purpose, if you are to meet the challenging goals given to you. You will need to apply your brains and to build genuinely diverse and inclusive teams to harness all perspectives and generate genuinely novel options to the many problems you’ll face.
As you continue to your next challenge, we at
ACSC will continue to deliberate on your course feedback and decide on how we can make both
the intellectual and lived-experience as effective as possible. This will be mapped against the bigger challenges facing Defence education as we seek
to maximise value from the time afforded to you. There will be fundamental changes both in residential time, learning methods (methodological and digital) and content to meet the demands of the rapidly changing 21st Century context and the expectation of Generation Z and beyond; there’s no escaping
the fact that the iPhone did not exist when I did staff
college, and it too will appear quaint to those coming soon. As we decide and begin to make structural changes we will remain cautious to not throw away what is good. Putting a value on what we do and must protect, from the scal challenges that exist, will continue to prove dif cult. As we cautiously move forward in this area, your continuing views on what
is and is not important for ACSC-level education is crucial. I invite you to submit comment, especially after you have had a chance to re ect back on your year, and I would welcome volunteers willing to sit on Working Groups or Judgement panels to help shape the future ACSC. This is your opportunity to protect and enhance what is your College and legacy, and if not that, then please remain connected through the Cormorant Club.
I wish you all rewarding and ful lling careers and
that you achieve your personal goals. However, my main wish is that our collective security, national and international, is enhanced through your leadership and thinking developed from re ection and synthesis whilst here at Shrivenham.
Commandant ‘Unity is Strength’
You should have
felt challenged, whether by content,
deliverables or
deadlines.
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