At its best, military innovation results from complementary top-down and bottom-up efforts. Senior leaders know this, and military commanders themselves want to innovate. What many do not have, however, is a thorough understanding of how to lead innovation efforts in their units. This essay synthesizes research from multiple fields and provides leaders with evidence-based recommendations to make military organizations more adaptable, agile, and innovative.
Key takeaways
- Tactical innovation complements top-down, strategic innovation. From stormtrooper tactics to vertical envelopment and the drone wars in Ukraine, critical battlefield advantages often grow from frontline adaptations.
- The benefits of operational units innovating can be profound. Over time, innovation becomes not just something a higher-level organization in the service does for the executors but an enterprise-wide activity of which the executors are a part. Innovation grooms leaders in this endeavor at every step of their careers, so those select few who become strategic leaders have already built competency.
- The military and the private sector are strikingly different, structurally and culturally. Military commanders cannot formulaically apply corporate innovation strategies and expect them to work. They can, however, intelligently adapt these strategies and other best practices to make their units more innovative.
- Commanders who want to innovate have a challenging dual mandate. They must build current readiness for today’s fight while innovating to create competitive advantage for tomorrow’s. To do this, they need to know how to identify opportunities, structure teams for innovation, lead innovation efforts, and exploit risk.
- Senior military leaders want their operational commands to innovate. To habituate this innovation across the force, however, they need to create a strong mandate, incentivize their subordinates, and resource it.
Tactical Innovation in the Military: A Primer by Hoover Institution
Cite this essay:
Jerome C. Greco, “Tactical Innovation: A Primer,” Technology Policy Accelerator, Hoover Institution, May 2025.
