Moving Beyond Brains and Bronze as Enhancements to Military Human Capital Development

There is the brain and there is the bronze but what many people don't know is there is also something in addition to those that connects them together-Wisdom. It is a symbiotic connection between the two when one can use and master both but knows the difference of when and where to apply either. Education and training are processes that encourages knowledge generation and skill development in a way that when matched with a concept called wisdom (whole person development) it can lead to fully actualized personnel. 

Technical skill practical tools for given situations (Training on XYZ/tactics), advanced education provides the connectivity of those skills among a wider angle lens for adaptability (i.e. strategy, systems thinking, innovation, etc.), and wisdom provides the when and how of use such skills (people knowledge, self-awareness, environmental context, global knowledge, ethics, etc.).

A few random thoughts:

1.)Technical Skills one can train on in class and in the practical fields. The exceptionally trained soldier.

2.) Advanced knowledge can be learned through theory that draws from learned practical knowledge and then can find ways to apply that knowledge. A practitioner-scholar.

3.) Wisdom can be found through developing the whole person through personal and career development. A fully developed leader aware of the bigger purpose and soft and hard skills needed to get there.

Higher education is becoming increasingly more big data rich and that can be helpful for measuring performance and areas of improvement. What higher education and training doesn't often do well is develop the whole person so they create the third leg of wisdom. However, there are ways to infuse wisdom based self-learning into curriculum to create greater self and environmental awareness. There is a type of self-reflective and symbolic process that pushes deep learning beyond the big data. Things that once you learn you simply can't unlearn because they change a person and their views. Theoretically anyway.

I found this publication very interesting...

Doing and Thinking: Integrating Training and Education for the Best Outcomes

A motivating video you might want to watch. Hats off to our military!