Comments on: Military Training (And What We Can Learn From It)

By: Juuso

Juuso — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:27:32 +0000

@Ian: thanks for sharing

@Eli: :)

@Lumooja: “especially when dealing with Swedes” :D

@Anthony: Six years? Auch…

@Anonymous: Let’s not get into that route…

@Robert: I mostly learned to act like a robot (it was kind of fun too when you over-did it… ;)

By: Robert Dowling

Robert Dowling — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:53:19 +0000

I was in the Army (about 16 years ago), and yeah I learned a lot about self discipline. I don’t think companies need to run in a military fashion. But I do feel that a lot of people can learn a lot from being in the military. I believe it gives people better work ethics.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:18:53 +0000

If humanity could get rid of ARMY & RELIGION the world would be such a better place to live.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:09:23 +0000

Meh, I suppose I have mixed feelings about the military’s structure after spending the last 6 years as a slave to it. On one hand, you have the ) (moderate) assurance that if you tell someone to get something done, they’re probably going to do it. There is, however, (at least in the US Army) a resounding lack of initiative in a system like this. It seems like everyone lacks autonomy. People have to be micro-managed, otherwise they’ll sit idle. It’s like playing an RTS in which you not only have to tell your units to go over there and attack the enemy, you have to tell them how to get there, what to bring (and then make sure they bring it), how quickly to move, and then cover pretty much every possible change in plan along the way (which is, of course, impossible). Perhaps the worst aspect is the leaders that become accustomed to this. They monopolize valuable time with over-planning, and hold no value to improvisation. Some become frustrated with Soldiers that take initiative–usually because if you accomplish the mission early, they have nothing for you to do. Then you’re sitting around waiting for someone to decide if they’re going to make a decision.

By: Lumooja

Lumooja — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:52:52 +0000

Yeah, in the big company I work, I wish there was an army infrastructure.
It would make things so much easier and save the company a lot of money.
Especially when dealing with Swedes, there is always a never ending discussion and nobody can just say that stop talking and do it.
Even when there is no army infrastructure in the company, the consequences are still the same: You have to follow other people’s decisions. The bad thing is that you can not clearly accuse them when they make the wrong decisions, but it gets just fogged and forgotten. In a clear army infrastructre the people who made wrong decisions would be put under internal investigation to make sure that mistake does not happen again, and that it gets corrected also.

By: Eli

Eli — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:18:34 +0000

Both of my parents were survival instructors in the Air Force – so for me a huge subcategory of responsibility has been and always will be self-reliance – which translates well in to a few concepts. For one, you cannot ever assume the work will get done. Take action first. Secondly the drive for independence should filter into the drive to work at your passion. There are many other interesting facets but I’m short on time right now.

Oh and sorry for the silence for so long!
3

By: Ian Phillips

Ian Phillips — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:01:08 +0000

A good related read is the USMC book Warfighting, it covers the leadership points and also–IMHO–has some ideas that will resonate with indie game producers (although hopefully the games industry isn’t _quite_ as competitive as a real war!).

It’s freely available at http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/service_pubs/mcdp1.pdf