Twenty years ago, you could get away with saying you're "just not a computer person." Leaders, even senior commanders, took pride in resisting the digital movement in the military and avoided any attempt to learn it or leverage it.

Today, the military's most prolific weapon system is Microsoft Office. We touch it more than any other system, and yet we have little to no instruction on how to maximize it.

Even a few years ago, powerful data tools were exquisite, expensive, and unavailable for leaders at the tactical level. That's no longer the case. Leaders at every level have access to programs and apps that can unlock unthinkable insight. New awareness and insight - potentially lifesaving insight - lies only on the other side of data.

We're going to talk about that in this episode, and how you can leverage data tools to augment your leadership and decision making.

And here are just a few of the questions that you could be answering if you brought some data tools into your unit:

All of these questions have been answered by units who pay attention to data and use the tools that are readily available. And the three guests today are pioneers of homegrown data innovation in military units.

Lieutenant Colonel Jon Bate commands 2-23 Infantry Battalion and uses his Stanford PhD experience to improve the unit systems and lethality of his battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Lieutenant Colonel Erik Davis brings sixteen years of special operations experience and is an Army War College Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He’s also the author of the ‘Downrange Data’ Substack, where he shares his experiences using data to outmaneuver challenges in the field. 

Major Brett Reichert is an Infantry officer and current PhD candidate at Cornell, where he is studying how technology and automation are reshaping warfare. As the Brigade Executive Officer, Brett revolutionized our Brigade's systems and processes, and managed to plan and execute the brigade's three week field exercise without using a single PowerPoint slide.

Find this episode at The Military Leader.