In his first appearance before the media last Thursday, our new Defence Minister, Gérard Longuet, referring to “intercepts”, mentioned the fragile morale of Colonel Gaddafi’s entourage in the face of the allied military offensive.
This explicit reference to the “morale” of the Libyan leaders is particularly interesting.
“Psychological warfare” is nothing new in the military and political arsenal, even if it has been institutionalised through “PsyOps”, with the Revolution in Military Affairs that accompanied the transformation of Western armed forces after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But while the media more often talk about numbers of air sorties, or praise technological superiority, this explicit reference to the “human factor” is unusual – particularly when it concerns the adversary.
The question is whether it expresses the particular sensitivity of a man whose culture is less technocratic than that of his predecessors, or whether – sensing it from the moment he took office – he is reflecting a new culture within the military institution, one that increasingly takes the “human factor” into account in operational approaches, and not only for its own forces, or to reduce their fragility in digitised, connected armed forces.
In any case, it is also a message for managers in the civilian world, who can tell themselves that, in the world a priori most accustomed to “execution”, the cohesion of a “leadership team” can be identified as a major risk factor – and therefore, conversely, a factor of success.
More than ever, and in all circumstances, “non-hierarchical management” and managerial facilitation are key skills in the service of performance.
We will never go and help Gaddafi. But we can help you…
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