From Follower to Leader
Written by Irene J. Petrick and Phillip J. Ayoub
MLF 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 8 (September)
Digital Natives Will Change The Way We
Communicate, Use Technology And Conceptualize
Military Logistics. Digital Natives Will Change
The Way We Communicate, Use Technology
And Conceptualize Military Logistics.
Warfare is led by the strategies and technologies that are in the hands of the warfighter, and historically, the role of military logistics has been to follow the battle in support of those soldiers at the front. Furthermore, the evolution of supply and resupply has tended to rely on the technologies and support systems required of the most recent war or conflict. However, each new generation of warfare brings with it new and unique requirements, dynamics and challenges, which means that military logistics approaches often lag the needs of the next-generation warfighter. To innovate in military logistics we will need to pay careful attention to both the future warfighter and the next generation of warfare.
FUTURE WAR FIGHTING FAVORS THE DIGITAL NATIVE
The future of warfare is one without the traditional battlefields, where the line between civilian and soldier is blurred, the enemies are non-state actors and insurgents, and the strategy is destruction through disruption. This is network-centric fourthgeneration warfare.
The fourth-generation warfighter will act in small groups that are networked to collections of other professionals and civilian resources, intelligence centers and strategic commanders through information technology. These networks of people and technology will act against other networks over ill-determined conditions and time periods, where the front lines will exist in both digital and physical spaces. The globally integrated world will require the warfighter to understand the cultural terrain just as much as the geographic. Situation awareness will be based on multiple types of intelligence fused together often in real or near real-time. It is here in the socio-technically integrated battlefield where the digital native presents a competitive advantage.
Digital natives have never known a world that was not connected by the Internet. So named by Mark Prenskey, digital natives were first identified as a group by educators seeking to determine how students were fundamentally changing their behavior because of their immersion in the information technology world. What makes them so unique is their savvy in both technical and social aspects of the digital world. Because these incoming workers have never known a world that wasn’t networked, they think very differently about what it means to be connected. When a digital native doesn’t know the answer, he or she “googles” information on the Internet, texts a friend, or queries a larger digital social network of friends and friends of friends. This broad reach enables the digital native to rapidly access a wide range of information and expertise.
PROFICIENCIES OF THE DIGITAL NATIVE
From a technical standpoint, digital natives have been immersed in information technology since day one. They are familiar and comfortable with using a wide range of technologies. They are also competent multitaskers and managers of vast volumes of data. If you doubt this, just take a look at a screen of a World of Warcraft (WoW) player. This and several other online games require a capability in complex data management and situation awareness that is beyond that of the most advanced fighter cockpits. The digital native understands how to navigate the architecture of the digital landscape. The ability to manage such vast resources in the digital space allows for greater efficiency and effectiveness of action.
Our work suggests that digital natives communicate anywhere and anytime. For example, Nielsen Co. recently noted that the American teenager sent and received an average 2,272 messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008. That’s almost 80 messages a day and more than double the average of a year earlier. Usage of Twitter is also much more prevalent among digital natives. Brand Republic reported that one in five 18- to 34-year-olds is using Twitter, while usage drops off progressively after that age; 5 percent or less of the 44-plus age group is using Twitter.
On the social side of the equation, digital natives are remarkably savvy and are unique in their ability to socialize in the digital sphere. It is here where the digital native will really change the way we communicate. They are able to establish, develop, maintain and manage relationships online, both wholly digital and ones that blur between the physical and virtual. They organize events and their lives using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Most importantly and what truly differentiates the digital native is how they view information technology—it is an extension of who they are, their identity, and not simply another tool. Connectivity is a requirement for socialization, but it is also a valuable skill that will need to be leveraged in the future.
CHALLENGES WITH THE DIGITAL NATIVE
The digital native does not come without his or her tradeoffs. While they have strong search capabilities, they tend to be weaker in the assessment of information. With their heavy reliance on Google and sites like Wikipedia to search for information, the digital native often fails to verify the validity and reliability of the source. This is particularly relevant in situations where there may be conflicting information or where the information is nuanced. To counter this deficit, specific training in both general education and military-specific topics will be needed. In addition, we believe that to be effective, digital natives will achieve more rapid success if paired with more senior leadership.
Digital natives are also lost without technology. Remove a person’s eyes and they will be blinded. The same goes for the digital native without his or her eyes in the digital world. As information technology has become “smarter,” this tends to include everything from contacts to calendars to critical data. To the digital native, technology is not a luxury; it is essential. Loss of connectivity due to power or other constraints leaves the digital native at a disadvantage that often cannot be immediately overcome by more “traditional” means.
The digital world also comes with new issues in privacy and security. The digital trail is much more permanent than a paper one, and it is easier to track. Concerns about visibility of sensitive information have prompted the Marine Corps administrative directive banning the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace on Marine networks. While these security concerns are critical, banning all use of these technologies is in direct conflict with the expectations and habits of the digital native. We believe a balanced approach should be sought.
Lastly, an important issue particularly for the traditional military hierarchy is that digital natives expect more customization and engagement through networks. The traditional command-and-control approach of the military hierarchy may pose some conflict with aspects of the way digital natives view governance and authority.
LEADING INNOVATION IN MILITARY LOGISTICS
Programs that embrace the abilities of the digital native can significantly increase both the efficiency and the effectiveness of military logistics. It will take a major change to the way that the military and its contractors conceive the “more teeth, less tail” mandate. For example, as condition-based maintenance programs place increasing numbers of sensors into equipment in the field, digitally savvy repair mechanics can help diagnose and solve problems linked to their own networks of other mechanics who have solved similar problems. Why would maintenance manuals be needed at all forward locations when immediate access to someone who has already done a repair is possible?
The challenge of demand forecasting increases, for example, as war fighting continues to morph into more networked activities that are increasingly distributed geographically. Resupply becomes a matter of sense and supply rather than predict and supply. Imagine, for example, what Corporal Radar O’Reilly, the ever-efficient fictional character of M*A*S*H, could have accomplished if his telephone and personal contacts were replaced with today’s mobile communication technologies and Internet-based social networks.
We believe it is time for the logistics functions to lead rather than lag the future warfighter. We likewise believe that the digital native will help drive innovations in logistics practices. The digital native is particularly well-suited to coordinating resources in real-time, in evaluating alternatives, and in rapidly making choices and then monitoring their consequences. Such skills when applied to supply and resupply should not be ignored. The military’s expressed goals of enterprisewide planning and strategy and blended missions, coupled with its desire to maintain total asset visibility in transit, will require coordination and networking that is natural for the digital native.
Predictive supply planning and its challenges of forecast accuracy will need to give way to warfighter-centric pull of supplies into unanticipated locations. Logistics is more than supply chain management. In the future, the right item needs to be in the right place and be mission ready. Information about local resource availability will also help reduce the logistics footprint.
Situationally aware digital natives will be able to provide rapid input and feedback, and future systems must be configured to take advantage of this. In addition, future soldiers are going to need to tap into a highly integrated yet distributed network that will give them the status for supplies and equipment, will connect them with other military and civilian resources in the area, and will also connect them to intelligence centers and strategic commanders that can provide resupply via air or sea support. In this way, intelligence preparation of the battlespace can be proactive and not reactive.
To truly appreciate the potential of the digital native to help lead innovations in military logistics, a deeper understanding of their potential, their capabilities and their challenges is needed. To accomplish this, current leaders will need to re-examine logistics practices in light of information technology enabled innovations and the digital native. ♦
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Dr. Irene J. Petrick is a professor of practice in the College of Information Sciences & Technology at The Pennsylvania State University. In addition to her professorial activities, she has over 25 years of experience in technology planning, management, and product development in both academic and industrial settings. Her research interests include supply chain collaboration and innovation, technology roadmapping and technology forecasting. Previous sponsors include U.S. Marine Corps, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Honeywell, IBM, the U.S. National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and the PA Department of Commerce, among others.
Phillip Ayoub is a Ph.D. candidate in information sciences and technology at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his B.S. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and also obtained a master’s degree in industrial engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. He has worked as a human factors engineer at Boeing and as a design researcher at Steelcase, as well as a consultant in areas of management and information technology. His research focuses on socio-cultural and information technology aspects of innovation, organization and work.