Page 4 - Cormorant Issue 18

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Foreword
by Maj Gen Julian Free, Commandant Joint Services Command and Staff College
Dear ACSC 18 Graduates,
Well done! The very rst thing I would
like to do is thank you for being such an engaging course. Yours is the rst course I have followed as Commandant and I have been impressed by what I have seen and the quality of the exchanges I have had
with you, be that in the Cormorant Hall,
on Regional Security Exercises or socially. Early on in the course the coffee break chats we had shaped my development
plan for joint education, which should see the College lead a Review of the Defence Education Pathway on behalf of the Chief
of Defence People. Hopefully the review will make recommendations as to how we can make the system more coherent, more contemporary in terms of its delivery and engagement with students and increase people’s access to it. You may not have realised you were involved in this work at the time, which is probably why you did not recommend more drill and exams. Your legacy may be greater than you imagined.
“I hope the Course has lived up to its
claims and has
been a catalyst in developing inter”est in your profession
I hope the Course has lived up to
its claims and has been a catalyst in developing interest in your profession; the way you learn, how you think, how you analyse ideas and problems: how you innovate. There is currently much talk of
it on to you as I think it is an effective way to consider the challenge and how to help your subordinates and others with whom you are working. The Greek professor said innovation is merely problem solving; it is what happens when people are faced with
a problem or challenge and there is no
easy or readily available solution. In this situation they have to look for other ideas or approaches and create new solutions – innovation. This understanding – a glimpse of the blindingly obvious you might say – helps, I think, because it provide an insight into how you might create that innovation environment. The trick is to set people challenges, problems that are real to them and to which they want to nd an answer.
It is perhaps why we are good at this on operations and less good at it in the comfort of a staff job.
innovation and great exhortations for people to innovate. I hope by now you know it is not possible to just direct innovation, rather it is about creating an environment in which people are comfortable to experiment and try different approaches. The best de nition of innovation I have heard this year came from a Greek academic – unfortunately I
did not hear it at the Staff College, so I pass