We must improve our strategic and tactical adaptation, particularly in the wake of the events of last week. Algorithmic support to military learning and adaptation at all levels will help.

Well, there are five key things that need to occur.

• First, military institutions must build and sustain environmental awareness: This includes fields such as geopolitics, national policy, demography, technologies, and national and institutional relationships.
• Second, they must develop a view of what is likely to succeed in that environment, from the tactical to the strategic level. The development of this view of what is likely to result in success and the extensive testing of such views by military organizations is crucial.
• Military organisations need to make changes that get them closer to their view of fitness and learn from those changes. This includes new and evolved doctrine and organisations.
• They must retain and share knowledge in themselves and in individuals about the information that improves their chances of success. This includes the ability to collect and absorb lessons, disseminate the implications of these lessons (new tactics and strategies, evolved training and education) and continue to learn based on the interaction of the institution with its environment.
• Finally, military organisations need to measure success and failure of engagement with the environment: This is the capacity of an institution to gauge its actions in moving toward this definition of fitness, which leads to further change in institutional and individual actions, objectives, and notions of suitability.