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8/6/2019 Pointer V37N1 A Warfighter-Adaptiveness-Resilience Model
1/14POINTER, JOURNAL OF THE SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES VOL. 37 NO. 1
79eatures
Preparing Our Soldiers To Fight Tomorrow'sBattles:A Warfghter-Adaptiveness-Resilience
Modelby COL Ong Yu Lin, SLTC Lim Beng Chong and MAJ Damian Lim
INTRODUCTION
The modern operating environment is
characterised by uncertainty: the blurring o
boundaries between war and peace has changed the
battlefeld. Our soldiers ability to operate amidst
uncertainty is now key to mission success: they have
to remain rooted as warfghters and be ready to
perorm tasks that they were not traditionally
expected or trained to perorm. Recognizing that the
competitive advantage lies in the ability o our soldiers
to adapt, we will discuss the problems associated
with traditional training methods and the benefts
o training and developing our soldiers to think or
themselves. Second, to complement the adaptiveness
necessary to operate in an increasingly uncertain
environment, they must also possess the resilience
to bounce back rom adversity. We will also map out
the challenges that our soldiers ace and how their
adaptiveness and resilience interact to complement
each other. Finally, to conclude the discussion,
we propose a Warfghter-Adaptiveness-Resilience
Model to guide the development o the qualities
o Adaptiveness and Resilience in a Warfghter.
A TIME OF TROUBLED PEACE
Our undamental belie is that the world is in a
state o troubled peace. This echoes the postulation
o Rupert Smith that peace will never be ully restored
ater a conict. Given the nature o todays conictswhich closely resemble the Three Block War, this
means that military operation are most certainly
waged amongst the people.1 This troubled peace has
resulted in an operating environment where the soldiers
o today, as described by Marine Corps General Charles
Krulak, are expected to pursue multiple roles.2 They
might be required to perorm the role o peacemakers
or even humanitarians with their warfghter persona.
UNDERSTANDING THE MODERN OPERATINGENVIRONMENT
Besides having to assume dierent role identities
(as warfghters, peacemakers and humanitarians),
modern soldiers have to operate in an environment
characterised by uncertainty. Such an ability is key to
mission success. In this paper, we defne uncertainty as
a unction o (1) volatility dynamic environment due
to ast and requent changes, (2) complexity multi-
agent involvement interacting together rendering
Abstract:
Contemporary warare is becoming increasingly marked by operations that challenge traditional concepts o war
fghting. Peace keeping and humanitarian aid operations demand dierent skill s o soldiers than those required
to fght conventional battles. This article discusses the approach taken by the SAF as it trains its soldiers to
ace the uncertainties o the modern battlefeld, while retaining the skills required to handle more traditionalmissions.
Keywords: 3rd Generation SAF, Leadership, Military Psychology, Training
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cause-andeect conusion, and (3) ambiguity
multiple plausible interpretations o the emerging
situation.
This new environment requires a dierent breed
o soldiers who can exercise good judgement andbring a positive outcome to an uncertain situation
that may require all three roles to be carried out
eectively and seamlessly. Instead o leaving it
to chance or learning on the job while engaging in
prolonged operations, a systematic approach to
training and development can create not just one,
but an army o modern WAR-riorsadaptive and
resilient warfghters.
QUALITIES OF THE MODERN WARRIORHe has been called by many names: some call
him the Thinking Soldier,3 to others he is known
as the Strategic Corporal,4 while others use 3rd
Generation Soldier.5 The search or a soldier, rom
one who obediently ollows orders, to one who in
the absence o direct leadership can exercise good
judgement and bring about a positive outcome to
an uncertain situation, is vital or mission success.
The questions are: (1) what are the required qualities
o the modern WAR-riors, and (2) how they can
be trained to operate in the modern battlefeld.
The acronym W-A-R describes the qualities necessary
or the modern WAR-rior Warfghter, Adaptiveness
and Resilience (See Figure 1).
Figure 1: Qualities o the Modern WAR-rior.
QUALITY OF A WARFIGHTER
The blurring o the boundaries between Peace
and War still requires soldiers who are competent and
profcient in their military crat. They must be trained
in the art o warare to operate as warfghters. This
is the frst quality that the modern WAR-rior must
possess. They must espouse the ethos o a warfghter,
exhibiting steadast commitment and proessionalism
in carrying out their traditional military tasks. The
modern WAR-rior must be able to overcome the
physical and psychological stress associated with
warfghting. However, what dierentiate the modern
WAR-riors rom previous generations o soldiers
are their expanded capability sets which are driven
and guided by values.
This troubled peace has resulted in
an operating environment where
the soldiers o today, as described
by Marine Corps General Charles
Krulak, are expected to pursue
multiple roles.
Expanded Capability Sets. The modern WAR-
rior must not only be able to deal with various
intensities o warare, but are also expected to take
on a wider spectrum o operations spanning across the
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peace-war continuum. At a moments notice, this
versatile modern WAR-rior could be called upon
to engage in operations ranging rom an all out
conventional war to operations other than war,
which includes humanitarian aid and disaster relie
or even peace support operations. Because his
expected duties range rom one end o the peace-war
continuum to the other, a lot more is demanded o
the modern WAR-rior. He has to be a warfghter,
peacemaker and humanitarian rolled into one
(Figure 2). He needs to have the necessary
knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA), and adopt the
appropriate KSA as the situation dictates.
Driven and Guided by Values. Apart rom
the additional KSAs required due to the expanded
role and scope, there is a second component that
distinguishes a modern WAR-rior rom his
predecessors. He is defned not just by the abilities
and hardware he carries, but by the sotware within,
which some call a devotion to his proession based
on a set o belies or values. His values will guide
him to make decisions in an increasingly uncertain
environment where the boundaries between right
and wrong are unclear.6
Values serve as a moralcompass that guides this modern WAR-rior to do the
right thing in an uncertain environment, especially
in the absence o direct leadership.
Figure 2: The 3 Role Identities o the Modern WAR-rior.
QUALITY OF ADAPTIVENESS
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell mentions
the 10,000 Hour Rule. He claims the key to success
is to practise a specifc task or 10,000 hours.7 In the
same manner, soldiers are taught basic drills that
are practised repeatedly until it eventually becomes
second nature. This is easily done or simple tasks
in simple scenarios. However, or complex scenarios,
they require more than just a mechanical response.
Usually, there is a range o possible permutations
o responses in complex scenarios and as such, it
becomes virtually impossible to train or every one
o them. To operate in an uncertain environment,
training must now extend beyond the mechanical
process o repetition to ocus on gaining experience
and recognising patterns. Essentially, i given
enough scenarios or opportunities involving many
complex situations, one will eventually begin to
recognise patterns, expand one's knowledge base or
even combine acets o existing patterns to address
novel situations.
This new environment requires a
dierent breed o soldiers who can
exercise good judgement and bring
a positive outcome to an uncertain
situation that may require all three
roles to be carried out eectively
and seamlessly. Instead o leaving
it to chance or learning on the
job while engaging in prolongedoperations, a systematic approach
to training and development can
create not just one, but an army o
modern WAR-riors adaptive and
resilient warfghters.
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Training developers and providers are now aced
with a huge challenge. With uncertainty becoming
the dominant element o the battle space, the task
o identiying what to train or has also become
increasingly difcult. It is impossible to develop
training solutions to prepare soldiers or the range
and scope o possible scenarios. It is no longer
adequate to provide training that hinges on the
competency theory o learning where success o
the training requires 10,000 hours o practice to
achieve a specifc desired learned behaviour or
desired solution. A new approach is needed to
prepare our soldiers to ace an operating environment
characterised by uncertainty. Realising a new approach
is needed, military orces have begun the evolutionin the way they develop their soldiers, specifcally
in the area o adaptability.
Adaptiveness is the ability and capacity to
anticipate, recognize and understand changes in
a situation, in order to respond rapidly and retain
an optimal level o perormance. This is crucial or
the modern WAR-rior to operate and unction in
todays complex operating environment. Instead o
a comprehensive solution book with step-by-stepinstructions based on set rules and conditions, the
emerging approach is to equip the soldiers with
the necessary KSAs to construct their own meaning
and develop their own solutions. The Adaptiveness
Model (See Figure 3) proposes our inter-connected
mental states or phases an individual will transit
through while adapting to a disruption or stimulus
that changes the situation or environment.
The model suggests that practice acilitates learning
and accumulation o knowledge and a repertoireo skills necessary to unction optimally. A rich
source o stored knowledge and skill is the
experience that one can draw rom to assist the
individual to analyse and adjust their actions.
Through the process, one learns, enhances and
increases his existing knowledge and skills
which in turn, adds richness to the individuals
own experience.
Figure 3: Adaptiveness Model.
Sensemake The process o sensemaking requires
the individual to update or build-up their awarenesso the situation. Next, they will have to understand
both the positive and negative implications o the
changes and develop, to a great extent intuitively,
possible options to manage the changes. This process
also requires the individual to have good pattern
recognition ability to 'see' emerging trends and
patterns. Past experience and accumulated knowledge
are organized as patterns, trends or narratives. When
needed, we draw upon this database o patterns
in parts, whole or re-combine dierent parts o
various patterns to generate options to deal with the
prevailing situation.
Adjust The next phase is a series o adjustments
and modifcations to a selected option. This process
o mental simulation to determine the suitability o
the option takes into consideration the changes in
the situation. The process requires mental capacity,
which is developed over time and through requent
practice. As the situation changes, the selected
option is also adjusted or modifed to keep pacewith changes in the situation.
Learn Through the process o sensemaking
and adjustment o options, the individual develops
a better understanding o the situation and its
associated indicators, cues and patterns. It aids the
understanding o what might or might not work, and
more importantly, the reasons why. This essentially
is the process o learning.
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Accumulate The new learning is added to an
individuals existing repertoire o knowledge and
skill, and synthesized with existing knowledge and
skill base. The solution adopted ater many iterations
is now stored as a new pattern together with the
characteristics o the new context. Existing patternsare also refned to accommodate new additions.
The accumulated experience then provides a richer
database or the individual to draw upon when the
individual encounters a similar change or disruption.
The SAF has come to realise that every soldier,
sailor and airman is a leader who must think
independently, seize the initiative, and apply his
skills decisively.8 It is not enough or him to possess
good situational awareness but he must also learn
and create new knowledge. The desire is or a soldier
who can discern and analyse what he sees, and make
timely decisions in the midst o uncertainty.9 Every
soldier o the SAF is now a sensor and processor
who is able to sensemake and adjust his actions
in an uncertain battlefeld, utilizing kinetic and
non-kinetic eects, lethal and non-lethal capabilities
to deal with a bewildering array o challenges and
threats that require well-reasoned and independent
decisions made under extreme adversity. Thereore,
not only does the soldier need to be able to adapt,he needs to be able to deal with adversity.
QUALITY OF RESILIENCE
Resilience is recognised as an inherent trait o
every individual to cope with challenging lie events
residing in the everyday magic o ordinary, normative
human resources.10
It is also recognised thatresilience is triggered by adversity and necessitates
the achievement o positive outcomes or sustained
competence ater a period o adversity. Resilience
in the military is thus maintaining a positive mental
state despite the harsh realities o operations
that can stress and overwhelm the soldier. Lack o
resilience will result in maladaptive, dysunctional
behaviour or psychopathology. A Psychologically
Ready Soldier is one who maintains eective combat
perormance amidst difcult circumstances andkeeps on persevering even when injured.
There are two emergent states prior to a mission
that characterises a Psychologically Ready Soldier
(See Figure 4). First, he has a strong Will-To-
Fight. In his heart, he believes in the need or
military action to bring about a better tomorrow.
He is compelled by care or his loved ones and
loyalty to his commanders and peers. Injustice and
preservation o his dignity drive him to action.When he fghts, he invests himsel wholeheartedly.
Figure 4: Individual Psychological Readiness Framework.11
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Figure 5:Resiliency Resources.
In the context o psychological deence, the WTF
is equivalent to a strong motivation to deend the
country despite personal costs. This motivational
state is what initiates related desired behaviours such
as task persistence (staying to fght) and bouncing
back rom adversity.
Secondly, he has an optimal State o Mind by
appraising the mission and his ability positively.
In his mind, he expects the unexpected and views
problems/setbacks as challenges to be overcome.
He is confdent o surmounting adverse situations.
He constantly seeks opportunities instead o dwelling
on threats. Most importantly, a Psychologically
Ready Soldier engages in constant Sel-Regulation.
He is able to manage his negative emotions and
thoughts, enabling him to overcome the instinctual
tendencies to reeze or ee when conronted with
ear. He is not derailed by distraction, but is able to
stay ocused on the task at hand.
Apart rom the environmental and contextual
actors, variations in individual resilience perormance
are inuenced by several actors. A soldiers mental
resources and experiences aect how he appraises
a stressul situation, his motivation how he copes
with the situation. The individual psychological
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readiness drivers or personal resiliency resources can
be categorised into Cognitive, Aective, Physical,
Attitudinal and Behavioural components, which taken
together, constitute the soldiers resilience capacity
(Figure 5). Given what we know about the nature
o resilience, we propose training to build up the
individuals psychological readiness by developingthese personal resiliency resources. The higher
resiliency a soldier possesses, the more likely he will
be an intrepid warrior in the ace o adversity.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE MODERN WAR-RIOR
Military orces have realised that the modern
WAR-rior requires an expanded set o Knowledge,
Skills and Attitudes (KSA). However, this is not easy
or the modern WAR-rior to manage. The three
Qualities described need to be imprinted in theWAR-rior DNA to help manage this expanded set
o KSA and deal with the challenges o the modern
operating environment.
First, he must deal with an already ull training
plate. Next, he must be prepared to switch and play
the three roles seamlessly. As he is human, even a
modern WAR-rior needs time to prepare mentally or
an identity shit. In addition, the blurring o the
boundaries already presents a challenge in deciding
what should be the appropriate role to adopt and
when is it the right time to switch. The extent to
which this modern WAR-rior can pick up the cues
that help him decide the what and when, and
how ast the transition can be done determines
his eectiveness.
Conceptually, there is a dierence between
operating in war and in peace. In war, the soldier is
trained to kill, maim or incapacitate. In peace, the
soldier is trained to de-escalate violence, protectand show restraint. The issue is whether such
cross-training creates tension in the physical, mental
and psychological preparation o soldier.
Figure 6: Tensions Facing the Modern WAR-rior.
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As mentioned earlier, in the domain o knowledge
and skill, the WAR-rior must be well-grounded as a
warfghter. The training demands or a warfghter ar
outweigh the training demands o the other two roles.
The knowledge and skills required are also harder to
maintain. Much time and eort is thus required to
keep a soldier ready or war.
In a dynamic operating environment, the
attitude that accompanies a specifc role identity
must adjust to match the scenario just as ast as we
re-tool the modern WAR-rior or a new task. But
this is not as easy as it seems, because there is an
inherent tension that exists between the mindsets
o a warfghter, peacemaker and humanitarian (See
Figure 6). Sel-control and sel-restraint are easily
lost when bullets y and survival is at stake.
Any person, not just the modern WAR-rior, will fndit intuitive to switch to the warfghter mindset rom
that o a Peacemaker or a Humanitarian when their
survival is threatened. Unortunately, regaining
control takes more eort and time to cultivate. As
war is now waged amongst the people, the modern
WAR-rior must take care to exercise good judgement
and sel control. While it is easy to transit into the
warfghter mindset, returning to the mindset o the
peace keeper or humanitarian is much more difcult.
Adversity is a trigger that aects thepersonal capacity or adaptiveness
and resilience.
Difcult as it may be or modern WAR-riors to
switch mindsets, they do not have a choice. They
must be able to toggle back and orth quickly and
seamlessly to be able to unction and cope in the
ace o major environmental challenges that threaten
to overwhelm them. This is precisely the reason
why the Quality o Adaptiveness and the Quality oResilience complement the Quality o the Warfghter.
Adaptiveness helps pick up the necessary cues
to help the WAR-rior determine what role he should
switch to and when to do it. Resilience is what
helps one bounce back rom adversity, overcome the
resistance and adopt a response oriented approach.
Figure 7 compares how a psychologically
ready modern WAR-rior diers rom an unprepared
individual in times o adversity. For example, an
unwelcome and unexpected event is quite likely
to disrupt the normal daily unction o a modern
WAR-rior to some degree. Resilience retards the
downward spiral in perormance and helps recovery
ater the initial setback. Adaptiveness plays a dominant
role to acilitate sensemaking o the situation.
Thereater, once this person is able to make sense andunderstand the situation he is able to quickly adapt
to the stimulus. People with high sel-efcacy tend
to approach a challenging and difcult task as
something to master rather than to be avoided.12
Adversity may trigger the process but an optimistic
and positive outlook is what helps to overcome
adversity. This is where Resilience and Adaptiveness
work together in concert to produce a competitive
edge against adversity. Finally, to sustain an eective
or improved level o perormance, one needs the
resilience to keep going. The outcome is an individual
who is more adaptive and resilient ater an episode
o adversity.
Figure 7 also depicts a psychologically unprepared
soldier who is unable to recover rom tribulations. A
highly adaptive and resilient person normally adopts a
response-oriented thinking in response to an adversity
stimulus.13 Simply put, an adaptive and resilient
person moves quickly rom analysis to a plan o act ion
or reaction ater the onset o adversity. In contrast,a person with low adaptiveness and resilience gets
stuck in cause-oriented thinking that consumes him
and prevents a recovery.
Table 1: Cause-Oriented vs. Response-Oriented Thinking.
Cause-OrientedThinking
Response-OrientedThinking
What are the causes? What can I improve?
Who or what caused it? What are the positiveimpacts?
What is the extent othe underlying cause?
What can I do to limitthe negative eectsand generate positiveeects?
How long will it last? What can I do to addressthe problem now?
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Figure 7: Response to Uncertainty and Adversity.
Adversity is a trigger that aects the personal
capacity or adaptiveness and resilience. Learning
science tells us that or learning to occur, knowledge
must be presented in an authentic context, a setting
that closely resembles the operating environment
where it is to be applied. Thereore, the essence o
Tough and Realistic Training must still hold true
in order to bring one to a higher level. Essentially,
what does not kill you should make you stronger.
Over time, exposure to multiple episodes should
see one achieving a general improvement o task
perormance by accumulating capacity to deal with
uncertainty and adversity.
MAKING THE MUSCLES WORK TOGETHER
Soldiers need to be trained in military operations
that they are required to perorm in war or in
operations other than war. They must not only be good
at it but better than their adversaries. Furthermore,
they also need to be able to adapt in the ace o
uncertainty and bounce back rom adversity. Training
developers must incorporate the relevant elements
o uncertainty to make the training context as
authentic and challenging as possible. Oten, this can
be replicated in some orm or other in a simulated
environment. However, the actual emotions and stress
during operations are rarely ever replicated ully or
completely in current training. Lastly, or training
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to really resemble the context, doses o adversity to
stimulate the emotions and stress must be inused in
order to jolt the soldiers out o their comort zones to
expose and build up against adversity.
The Expert Decision Maker could be an approach
to bring the concept o the modern WAR-rior to
reality.14 The paradigm o technology being the orce
multiplier o modern military orces like the SAF
has now shited to that o a thinking soldier, who
despite being engaged in a myriad o challenges in
the new operating environment will be able to make
appropriate decisions and to operate seamlessly
along the peace-war continuum.15 This so called
expert decision maker is one who uses both intuitive
and analytical approaches in decision making.16 Ongand Lim (2005) have proposed a TALAC (Think and Act
Like A Commander) pedagogy that seeks to build such
an expert. (See Figure 8) It may be an appropriate
pedagogy that prepares one to understand the context
in order to rame or identiy the problem beore
working out a range o options or a solution.
The TALAC pedagogy, which is essentially an
approach or developing the cognitive aptitude,
or what this article describes as the Quality
o Adaptiveness, could be modifed to include
multi-dimensional stressors to simulate adversity
in order to develop the Quality o Resilience. Ong
et al. specifcally mention the need to leverage on
previous learning to lit the learning value o the next
activity to a higher order. Each successive training
activity aims to present a dilemma that challenges
the soldiers belies and views by conronting him
with a choice o action. While each activity is amiliar,there are dierences that orce him to re-evaluate
his thinking. It allows one to practice decision
Figure 8: Think and Act Like A Commander Pedagogy.
making and helps build a repertoire o knowledge
rom each encounter. The iterations are meant to
bolster subsequent levels and instil confdence. As we
continue to build on each level and gain experience,
the novice will eventually become an expert.17
Besides increasing the level o uncertainty in eachtraining activity, it is also possible to increase the
level o difculty by moderating the type and
intensity o stressors to enhance the process to
prepare a soldier to ace adversity in the modern
operating environment.
Having said that, we must not get carried away
as the intent o TALAC is to build up o a repertoire o
recognised patterns in a novice. Introducing adversity
induces a dierent learning outcome. Thereore, ithe purpose is to acilitate the build up in the level
o cognition, it may not be a good idea to include
multi-dimensional stressors that could inhibit
cognitive training or novices.
However, at some point in time, adaptiveness
and resilience must come together to ensure that
the cognitive component o the soldier unctions
optimally in the midst o adversity. Doing so not only
challenges the efcacy o the soldier, but also assures
commanders that the soldier is ready or operations.
For those with high efcacy, they will be motivated
to take up the challenge and master it. Second, it
builds upon the previous experience, raising the
level o resilience rom the initial state. Resilience
is like the muscles o the body. It does not work in
isolation, or every muscle that contracts, there is
another set that expands. Like muscles, we exercise
them to become stronger and to build endurance.Muscles that are let idle will atrophy and so too
does resilience.
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Figure 9: Enhanced TALAC Pedagogy.
WARFIGHTER ADAPTIVENESS RESILIENCE
(WAR) MODEL
A pedagogy that systematically transorms a
novice into an expert in dealing with uncertainty
and adversity will also develop the adaptiveness
and resilience necessary or warfghters. Such
pedagogy must have a mechanism that stimulates the
development o both adaptiveness and resilience.
The proposed training approach utilises
TALAC as the basic DNA or building block. Figure 9
indicates that each level represents a dierentstage o development which scaolds the next level.
According to the Dreyus Model o Skill Acquisition,
it can be concluded that our soldiers pass through
fve stages when acquiring a skill.18 In this case, it
is the skill o pattern recognition which is important
or Adaptiveness and the skill o coping or
Resilience. This pedagogy prepares our warfghters to
acquire such skills without having to rely on real
operations.
The principles underlying this pedagogy must
be understood or it to be used correctly. It must
be able to:
Provide sufcient challenge to orce one out o
their comort zone. For the model to be eective,
a learner-context analysis must be perormed to
understand the learners level o skill and the current
operating environment. This is to calibrate the level
o difculty and challenge that we want to expose the
warfghter to so that it orces him to achieve the next
level.
Allow or mastery over the training activity. It
is not about passing or ailing but rather to challenge
the warfghter to do better. This principle shared by
many other pedagogy ensures incremental success
at every stage. Such an approach aects the way
the warfghter views the accomplishment o task. It
encourages constant improvement instead o being
complacent once the task has been achieved.
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While adaptiveness is a necessary quality or
the warfghter, resilience is a complementary, i
neglected, quality that completes the warfghter's
preparation to ace the challenges o the new operating
environment. The ability to analyse is critical, but
resilience is required to quickly transit rom a cause-
oriented thinking to a response-oriented thinking.
While adaptiveness is a necessary
quality or the warfghter,
resilience is a complementary, i
neglected, quality that completes
the warfghter's preparation to
ace the challenges o the new
operating environment. The ability
to analyse is critical, but resilience
is required to quickly transit rom a
cause-oriented thinking to a
response-oriented thinking.
In order or such a transition to occur, three
conditions must be present. The frst condition is to
have a knowledge base and experiences organised as
a repertoire o patterns and narratives. The second
condition is to have pattern recognition skills.
The third is the ability to generate possible options
through the interaction o the frst two conditions.
These three conditions are the main learning outcomes
o TALAC pedagogy. Constantly achieving these
learning outcomes promotes the ability to transitrom a cause-oriented thinking to a response-oriented
thinking. However, the velocity o transition, while
triggered and accelerated by adversity, will depend
on the richness o ones experience and knowledge,
the mastery o pattern recognition skills and the
speed o generating options to constructively
address the adversity.
Adversity is not only a trigger but a means to
build tolerance against dysunctionality. Problem
solving and analysis are important, but too much o
both can result in paralysis. Inusing elements o
adversity at the various levels may be seen as taking
a bitter pill. I you taste bitterness oten enough,
you will get used to it. Eventually, it will seem less
bitter. Compared to the frst time when it numbed
the tongue such that you could taste little else, the
next time round you know what to expect and how
to deal with it.
CONCLUSION
The Quality o a Warfghter is still the cornerstone
even or a modern War-rior. However, being a
warfghter is not sufcient or the modern battlefeld.
Not only he has to deal with an expanded role and
scope, he has to adopt multiple roles o warfghter,
peacemaker and humanitarian. He is expected to
know what role to adopt and when to switch roles. He
also needs to do it seamlessly and quickly, assisted
by two complementary qualities o adaptiveness
and resilience.
To be an eective warfghter in the new
operating environment, the modern War-riors
competitive advantage is his Quality o Adaptiveness.Unortunately, all this is or naught i he is unable
to constantly sel-regulate and unction in the midst
o adversity. O course, we want this soldier to adapt
and thrive in whatever operating environment he
is thrust into, but it is also important to be able
to outlast his opponent. All things being equal,
the Quality o Resilience sustains the ability to
unction under adverse conditions.
Uncertainty is the new norm. The nature o
conicts in this century is more volatile, complexand ambiguous in comparison to those o centuries
past. In a time o troubled peace, the og o war
has invaded peace and blurred its boundaries.
Thereore, the chosen one must possess the quality
o the Warfghter, Adaptiveness and Resilience to
pierce this og and keep on going despite all the
unknowns thrown at him.
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ENDNOTES
1. Rupert Smith, The Utility o Force: The Art o War in the
Modern World(London: Allen Lane, 2005).
2. Accordingly to Gen. Charles Krulak, soldiers might be
called on to conduct ull-scale military operations,
peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid, all
within the space o three contiguous city blocks.
See Gen. Charles C. Krulak, "The Strategic Corporal:
Leadership in the Three Block War, Marines Magazine
(January 1999), http://www.au.a.mil/au/awc/awcgate/
usmc/strategic_corporal.htm.
3. BG Goh Kee Nguan, MAJ Damian Lim, MAJ Bryan Tan,
Learning Army Thinking Soldier, POINTER 33, no. 4 (2007).
4. Krulak, "The Strategic Corporal."
5. Singapore Armed Forces Soldier or the 3rd Generation SAF.
6. MG Neo Kian Hong, Values Based Leadership, POINTER 33,
no. 4 (2007).
7. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers (Little, Brown and Company,
2008).
8. BG Goh Kee Nguan, et al., Learning Army Thinking
Soldier.
9. Speech by BG Hugh Lim, Chie O Sta - General Sta,
at the Army Workplan Presentation on 28 March 2007,
Sharpening Our Edge.
10. A. Masten, Ordinary Magic: Resilience Processes in
Development,American Psychologist56, no. 3 (2001): 235.
11. Lim Beng Chong, Individual Psychological Readiness,unpublished work.
12. Psychologist Alber t Bandura has defned sel-efcacy as
our belie in our ability to succeed in specifc situations.
13. Joshua D. Margolis and Paul G. Stoltz, How to
Bounce Back rom Adversity, Harvard Business Review
(JanuaryFebruary 2010): 86-92.
14. COL Ong Yu Lin and LTC Lim Beng Chong, Training Expert
Decision Maker, POINTER 31, no. 2 (2005).
15. BG Goh Kee Nguan, et al., Learning Army ThinkingSoldier.
16. Gen. Charles C. Krulak, Cultivating Intuitive Decision
making, Marine Corps Gazette (May 1999).
17. COL Ong Yu Lin and LTC Lim Beng Chong, Training Expert
Decision Maker, 2005.
18. Dreyus Model o Skill Acquisition. From Stuart and
Hubert Dreyus' 1980 paper on training.
COL Ong Yu Lin is a Guards Ofcer by training and was previously Deputy
Chie Guards Ofcer. He is currently the Senior Project Ofcer in Headquarters
Guards. He holds a Bachelor o Science in Physics rom the National
University o Singapore, a Master o Management in Deence Studies rom
the University o Canberra, Australia, and an MBA rom the Nanyang Fellows
Programme in Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University.
COL Ong has also attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, U.K.,
the U.S. Army Inantry School at Fort Benning, the Australian Command and
Sta College, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army National Deence
University. He ormerly held the appointments o Commanding Ofcer, 1st
Battalion Singapore Guards, Commander, 3rd Singapore Inantry Brigade and
Commander, Ofcer Cadet School (OCS).
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SLTC Lim Beng Chong is a Psychologist by training. He is concurrently theHead o Plans and Research Branch, and Deputy Head o Deence Psychology
Department. He was also the Psychologist to the organising committee or
Youth Olympic Games (2010) and an Associate Proessor (Adj.) at Nanyang
Business School, Nanyang Technological University. SLTC Lim holds a Bachelor
o Science in Psychology rom the University o Nottingham, United Kingdom,
a Master o Science in Training and Development rom the University o
Leicester, United Kingdom, a Master o Arts and a Doctorate o Philosophy in
Industrial and Organizational Psychology rom the University o Maryland,
U.S.A. He ormerly held the appointment o Senior Field Psychologist within
Applied Behavioural Sciences Department.
MAJ Lim Sze King Damian is a Guards Ofcer and currently Commanding
Ofcer, 8th Battalion, Singapore Inantry Regiment. MAJ Lim holds a
Bachelor o Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering rom the
National University o Singapore and a Master o Science in Instructional
Systems rom Florida State University, USA. MAJ Lim has served as a Sta
Ofcer in General Sta and Headquarters Guards. He has also held the
appointments o Ofcer-Commanding and Battalion S1 in 1st Battalion
Singapore Guards, and was a Platoon Commander in Ofcer Cadet School.