The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 4

means. Even where a common language is used, understanding is conditioned by factors that cannot

be vocalised, including:

• expectations (based on personal style and the depth of experience of working with

someone);

• military expectations (based on doctrine, training and ethos, which do not always

translate well across departmental boundaries); and

• cultural expectations (based on societal values, which are deeply rooted and hard to

overcome).

In the multinational environment, use clear language, speech and text. (Development Concepts and

Doctrine Centre 2013, 3–41)

[TEXT BOX ENDS]

The concept of an intent is crucial in both military and social science. In reality, this practice

requires senior managers to ‘let go’ of authority and their own personal objectives; a

challenge that led to a near-disaster in the Pacific arena in 1944:

[Text Box starts] Battle of Leyte Gulf

In early 1944, the Japanese had gradually been driven back from their bases on the Solomon and

Marshall Islands in the Pacific. However, the Americans’ amphibious landings on these atolls came at

a price. At Tarawa (the Gilbert Islands), in a battle fought from 20 th to 23 rd November 1943, the

Americans for the first time faced serious opposition from a well dug-in enemy. The US Forces lost

895 killed, whereas the entire garrison of 6,500 Japanese defenders was wiped out. Yet Tarawa was

only a stepping stone in a long line of ‘island-hopping’ operations.

At the end of 1944, after a series of naval engagements, the Japanese were on their last legs.

Their outer ring of defence was broken, their carrier- and land-based air force reduced to a rag-tag

selection of inexperienced pilots. However, their surface fleet – consisting of destroyers, cruisers and

battleships, among them two super battleships − still posed an enormous threat to the American

landings in the Philippines that threatened to cut off Japan’s main supply routes altogether.

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