The Edge

ADFA Presentation 2019 – General Sir Peter Cosgrove, AK, MC

The Governor-General of Australia, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, AK, MC, addresses ADFA staff and trainees

Thoughts from The Edge

Mick Ryan is the Commander of the Australian Defence College. This column from Ryan and his contributors focusses on intellectually preparing members of the profession of arms for strategic competition and future conflict.

How to Think (and How Not To)

In this piece, Ben McLennan discusses the pressing need to educate the Army’s workforce on how to think (and how not to). In his discussion, McLennan cogently addresses systems thinking, inherent biases and the need for open-mindedness as part of understanding the recipe to transform Army’s thinking. While specific to McLennan’s Army experience, his observations are equally applicable to other Services and anyone who aspires to think in a way that harnesses a competitive advantage.

The Royal Australian Air Force Leadership Companion

The Air Force Leadership Companion is designed to assist Air Force personnel in understanding and contextualising the foundations of leadership as espoused in ADDP 00.6 Leadership. This companion explores the context of Social Mastery: Character, Professional Ethics, Followership and Leadership in the Air Force.

CDLE Command Paper 1 - 2016

The CDLE Command Paper 1-2016 is Commodore Peter Scott’s CSC, RAN account of Submarine Command and the issues he faced during his Command. In his paper CDRE Scott covers: qualification to command an Australian submarine, leadership with ultimate accountability and authority, the essential elements of command, purpose, vision and realism as guiding concepts, methods of submarine command, lessons from submarine command, obligations inherent in submarine command, behaviours, and traits to value and nurture.

Social Contracts and the Australian Civil-Military Relationship

In Australia, troop deaths in combat remind the public of the terms of employment of Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel and raise the question of commensurate compensation. One community group is committed to the task of developing a ‘military covenant’ to articulate these terms and compensations based on the idea that the ‘unique nature’ of military service is an invocation of a social contract. But is a social contract really at the heart the Australian civil-military relationship?

ADDP 00.6 Leadership Ed2

The aim of ADDP 00.6 is to guide the development of leaders in the ADF. This publication provides philosophical and application level doctrine on leadership and describes the basic leadership tenets, principles, behaviours and considerations necessary for leadership in the ADF.

Leading Together

Leading Together is a collection of practical advice from experienced leaders in international disaster and conflict response. It is a call to reflect and invest time in ensuring that we are prepared to respond when it falls upon us to do so; because, it will be too late to develop the skills, the knowledge and the understanding, when they are needed in the field.

Delivering ‘joined-up’ government: achieving the integrated approach to offshore crisis management

Offshore crisis response requires a higher level of multi-agency interconnectedness than ever before. However, the data overload that we all face in the Information Age inhibits networking as much as it facilitates it. To achieve the necessary level of interconnectedness, individuals and organisations need to adopt a completely new way of doing government business.

CDLE Leadership Paper 2 - 2018

The CDLE Leadership Paper 2-2018 is Anne Goyne and the CDLE team addressing issues around negative leadership. The paper is couched in terms of a range of events including the JEDI Council, the ADFA skype incident, the F111 deseal/reseal, the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce (DART) and the associated findings, which relate to many negative experiences of ADF personnel. The paper goes on to explore why the ADF culture has such negative leadership experiences and what to do about it.

No better friend, no worse enemy: How different organisational cultures impede and enhance Australia’s whole-of-government approach

Since 1999, Australia has increasingly deployed the military in joint, combined, interagency environments as part of a ‘whole-of-government’ approach. Despite some successes, a number of barriers between the contributing agencies continue to interfere with attempts to synchronise disparate elements of national power into a unified national effort.

Workplace Flexibility in the ADF: anathema or panacea?

Discussions about ‘flexible work’ in Defence have brought with it questions about what ‘work’, rather than ‘service’, looks like within the organisation. Yet what ‘flexibility’ means for Navy, Army and Air Force members, what ‘flexible work’ looks like, and what its implications are for capability remain contested.