General Sir John Moore faced a challenge in the early 1800s. He had served in the British Army during the American Revolution where he experienced the effects of American marksmen. He was aware of what the French were doing with “light infantry” and he wanted to create light infantry units in the British Army.
They would fight differently than the other Army units. Soldiers would have more autonomy and freedom of movement. Rather than firing volleys from a rigid formation, light infantry soldiers would be marksmen, picking individual targets.
New technology would help. Ezekiel Baker had introduced a new, sturdy and lightweight rifle in 1800.
But there was the establishment to fight. They liked the old ways, fighting in formation with every soldier doing exactly as he was told. They didn’t see any need or advantage to giving soldiers more freedom of action or different training.
That’s the story with many organizational changes. Technology can help change things. But the forces of “the way we’ve always done it” have to be defeated. And there are other powerful forces that can prevent change. They’re called assumptions.
The assumption Moore had to defeat sounds comical today. Everyone assumed that British soldiers could not be trained to shoot well.
Only people from “hunting cultures” could become marksmen. At least that’s what the British Army thought. They hired Austrians and Germans for sharpshooter duties. Moore was convinced that anyone could be trained to shoot well.
He proved his point by establishing a training center at Shorncliffe where he trained British soldiers to do two things differently. He taught them to act more autonomously using light infantry tactics and he taught them to shoot rifles accurately. The units he trained became the legendary Rifles.
Today we’re moving to give more autonomy to workers in our knowledge economy. That means overturning old beliefs and practices. It also means question assumptions about what people are capable of mastering and how much oversight they need.
