Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. added four more titles to his revived CSAF Leadership Library in July, bringing the number of titles listed by their relevance to Brown’s “Action Orders” to 32.
This is what Brown had to say about each new selection:
“Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military” by Stephen Peter Rosen
“As we continue to Accelerate Change to [become] the Air Force our Nation needs, we must be mindful of organizational lessons from the past. Historical analysis allows us to synthesize patterns in the character of warfare and incorporate them into our future Air Force design through initiatives like Action Order D and the Operational Imperatives. … Rosen analyzes military and technological innovations during war and peacetime and offers prescriptions for managing uncertainty.” Action Order: D—Design Implementation.
“Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
“Transformation requires we aggressively overcome the organizational inertia of the status quo. [The book] is a story-driven account that reveals insights into the heuristics of our rational and emotional minds and how they relate to each other. I need your help implementing [the Action Order] to switch our organizational behavior to streamline decision-making, eliminate redundancy, and limit bureaucratic layers.” Action Order: B Mod 1—Bureaucracy.
“Bridging the Oceans Podcast: What’s All the RAUKUS About? The View from Washington” by the Royal United Services Institute
“The Air Force does not fight alone, nor do we deter alone. Last September, the United States co-signed a groundbreaking trilateral security pact alongside Australia and the United Kingdom called AUKUS, representing one of the most significant security agreements in a generation. [The podcast] illustrates the magnitude of this agreement and the enormous opportunity it presents for the Air Force to ‘Integrate by Design’ with our Allies and Partners in enhanced and novel ways.” Action Order: D–Design Implementation.
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003)
“What can a film about the crew of a British ship during the Napoleonic Wars teach us about Agile Combat Employment? In [the film], the climate of mutual trust, shared understanding, and commander’s intent under the military leadership of Captain Aubrey represents a textbook case of mission command. What is most interesting its art the crew’s ability to be ready to execute the mission in unpredictable ways and rapidly respond to the adversary’s moves by moving fluidly across a theater of operations represents the essence of the ACE operating concept.” Action Order: B—Bureaucracy.