Staring Down the Wolf by Mark Divine

Author:Mark Divine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

INNOVATION

Curiosity relates to exploring and expanding one’s perspective, and innovation is about using that new perspective to take bold action, creating something new. That means expanding your vision about what is possible and having the courage to do something with that knowledge. In that way innovation is a mindset—being eager for change and doing things differently. It’s not assuming that you’ve got it all figured out, or that your techniques, tools, and procedures are always going to work.

Innovation happens naturally to those who can’t help but tinker. An innovator thinks, I should probably break this and remake it better. They combine the old with the new through the art of emulation, addition, and subtraction.

For example, the SEALs emulate the Spartans of old, but they modified certain elements. They were not about to use metal armor, swords, and spears while their enemy is using a high-powered rifle. However, they did employ Spartan training methods and philosophies—such as using wrestling to train courage and understand fear; using breathing techniques to develop control of the stress arousal response (sprinting 800 meters in full battle gear with a mouthful of water); and marching long distances with a heavy load to develop durability. These training methods were not invented by the SEALs, but were adapted from those used by the ancient warriors.

The SEALs also bring in ideas from civilian industries that can improve how they engage the enemy. Examples include off-the-shelf technology used for night vision and high-powered flashlights to blind the enemy when entering dark places. SEALs learned the nuances of technical rock climbing from pioneering climbers like Mark Twight. They adopted commercial diving innovations from legends like Jacques Cousteau. Other cool ideas they have picked up on include wingsuit jumping, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), wave runners, and dune buggies. When the SEALs couldn’t buy something they needed, they borrowed or built it. The entire tactical backpack industry was started by my SEAL Team Three teammate Mike Noel. Mike was a parachute rigger who built his own packs; then guys started asking for their own. Soon he had a company, Blackhawk, which has found big success in the civilian adventure gear space.

Innovation requires that you always try to see things from different angles. Take a problem and look at it from the inside out, or reverse-engineer it. Look at a challenge from its end state and work backward, or start in the middle and expand out in both directions. See if you can turn it upside down, or as McRaven would do, break it into its smallest knowable parts and work them separately and sequentially.

Always ask: What are the other ways to solve this problem?

It’s important to remember that innovation can be a complete overhaul or it can be incremental, as in a 10 percent improvement. Oftentimes you’ll have both. You’ll strive for a total change and find only a 10 percent improvement. Other times, you might be looking for nothing more than an incremental change and realize that you got a complete overhaul.

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