{"id":973,"date":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/why-the-us-marines-reinvented-a-winning-formula\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:25","slug":"us-marines-robert-neller","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/us-marines-robert-neller\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the US Marines Reinvented a Winning Formula"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jan 08, 2020 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Why the US Marines Reinvented a Winning Formula<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/us-marines-robert-neller\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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General Robert Neller observed the evolving nature of modern warfare, made the necessary changes, but never lost sight of what the Marine Corps stands for.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Beyond exemplary service and routine excellence in the field, General Robert Neller\u2019s tenure as the 37th<\/sup> Commandant of the US Marine Corps came to be defined by the changes he made to the service\u2019s rifleman squads.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

In 2015, at the time of his elevation to the highest-ranking officer in the US Marine Corps, the 13-person rifle squads were composed of a leader and a dozen riflemen grouped into three \u2018fire teams\u2019 of four.<\/p>\n

These squads had been described as the finest tactical formation of the last 50 years.<\/p>\n

Neller, however, saw fit to reduce the number to 12, even as he anticipated the inevitable internal resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be like changing the catechism of the Catholic Church or the Church saying \u2018we\u2019re not going to do Communion any more,\u2019\u201d he told an audience at the 2019 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Atlanta<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neller was, however, undeterred. \u201cWe had to change,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe went to 12 guys; we needed someone to help the squad leader because of the amount of information being pressed down due to the battlespace changing. The game has changed; it\u2019s faster, the field is bigger; it\u2019s not just regional, it\u2019s global.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were other capabilities that I thought were more important and I was willing to take some risks to reduce the number of people in the squad.\u201d He clarifies \u2018capabilities\u2019 as cyber-electronic warfare, information intelligence, flying drones and air defence. \u201cIn the environment we find ourselves in, these are more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neller, who retired a week after speaking at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, says the US Marine Corps, for all its history and tradition, remains an innovative environment. The session moderator, Sam Walker, labels Neller a disruptive \u2018inside outsider\u2019 in his 2018 Wall Street Journal<\/em> interview with the then Commandant.<\/p>\n

The inside outsider<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walker, who also wrote The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World\u2019s Greatest Teams<\/em><\/a>, described the inside outsider as: \u201cone of the most exotic leadership breeds of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onstage, Neller describes himself as \u201cpresident of the \u2018I don\u2019t see why\u2019 club\u201d, adding, \u201cI was always the guy throwing the Molotov cocktail at the speaker asking \u2018why don\u2019t we change? Why don\u2019t we do this? There\u2019s other ways to do this.\u2019 It was almost a short, ignominious beginning as they yelled at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Neller was appointed Commandant at a time when, after two decades of constant deployment, the Marines needed a greater handle on the continually shifting nature of global threats, the role of female Marines, and, as Neller mentioned, the growing importance of technology in warfare. \u201cThe powers that be were almost like, \u2018OK, Neller. You\u2019ve been out here wanking for 38 years. We\u2019re going to make you own this,\u2019\u201d he told Walker in 2018.<\/p>\n

Neller joined the Marines in 1975 and Walker explains elsewhere in his article why he represented a fine choice as Commandant. \u201cAny large business in this predicament might look outside for a disruptive CEO to shake things up. As a tradition-bound citadel, the Marine Corps didn\u2019t have that option \u2013 but it did have Robert Neller.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radically traditional<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his 2018 essay for the Leaders Performance Institute, Professor Alex Hill<\/a>, Director at the London-based Centre of High Performance, spoke of \u2018radically traditional\u2019 organisations. Such organisations, he wrote, had a \u2018stable core\u2019, which was characterised by \u2018purpose, stewardship and openness\u2019, but also a \u2018disruptive edge\u2019, characterised by \u2018experts, nervousness and accidents\u2019.<\/p>\n

The primary focus of the Centre’s research is science, education, the arts and sport \u2013 NASA<\/a>, Eton College<\/a> and the All Blacks<\/a> all featured in the radically traditional study \u2013 and the paradigm readily fits Neller and the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1775, the United States Marine Corps even predates some of the \u2018centennial\u2019 organisations that made up the Centre of High Performance\u2019s study. The service has become a byword for military excellence and has developed innumerable cultural artefacts, such as the slogan \u2018once a Marine, always a Marine\u2019; Neller himself tells the audience: \u201cThe question we\u2019ve always solved first is: do you want to be a Marine? Do you want to earn the title? It\u2019s not a job, it\u2019s not a position \u2013 it\u2019s a title. It says so in the Marines\u2019 Hymn: we\u2019re proud to claim the title.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is still an organisation that does not permit itself a win-loss record. \u201cThere\u2019s just one game and we\u2019ve got to win,\u201d says Neller. \u201cWith all this change, at the same time, you want to maintain a culture of discipline, focus, honour, courage and commitment, hard training, low expectations for comfort; understanding that when you do have to go and fight you\u2019re going to get one shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

That reality is inescapable, but the Marine Corps does have its disruptive edge, which Neller embodied for all of his 44 years as a Marine. \u201cAs rigid as we may appear, we\u2019ve always had room for outliers,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s always people in your organisation who are annoying; they ask a lot of questions and people ask \u2018can\u2019t you just shut up and do what we want you to do?\u2019 And I would say at some point you have to do the mission; you have to get it done, but if you\u2019ve got people in an organisation who are contrarians, then I think you\u2019ve got to protect them to some degree because if everybody thinks the same thing, the same way all the time, you\u2019re never going to change, you\u2019re never going to have any inside friction, which I think you need in order to question yourself because if all anybody tells you is that \u2018everything is great, everything is wonderful, it\u2019s all going fine\u2019 then that\u2019s when you should get really scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marines culture, however, does not lend itself to diverse views and perspectives. Just as Matthew Syed<\/a> described the importance of cognitive diversity<\/a> at the 2019 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London, Neller made a similar observation of the Marine Corps in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the military,\u201d he begins, \u201cyou don\u2019t hire laterally; you grow up there and there can be a tendency to have everybody looking the same, thinking the same, acting the same; and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m that different but I found it ironic that I found myself in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cyber Aux<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another of Neller\u2019s notable achievements was the creation of Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliaries [Cyber Aux] to meet the changing nature of warfare. It certainly raised some eyebrows. \u201cPeople say they\u2019re not Marines; no, they\u2019re not Marines, but they\u2019re going to help the Marines. They asked \u2018What are we going to call them? Are they going to wear a uniform?\u2019 and I said, \u2018you guys are overthinking this\u2019.\u201d There is also the fact that tech-savvy Americans stand to earn far more in the private sector.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the announcement was made in May 2019 and was met with considerable interest. \u201cI just sat there and said, \u2018I told you so\u2019. I am not trying to be sanctimonious about it. There\u2019s things people can do to help us and they\u2019re leaders in their field, they are American citizens and they just want to help their military and their country; so it\u2019s a good thing. There\u2019s a lot of different ways to serve without being in the military and the only way you\u2019re going to find out is if you ask them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Cyber Aux yet to come into being at the time Neller spoke, he readily admitted that it was a risk to promote the need for such capabilities, just as it was to reduce the size of rifle squads, and he is fully aware that Marines need to be convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to sell it,\u201d he explains and, mindful of the audience sat before him, adds: \u201cI think a coach, general manager or a leader or CEO; you can say something but just because you say it isn\u2019t going to make it so. We\u2019ve used analytics, we\u2019ve done a lot of experimentation, we\u2019ve done a lot of predictions; and it\u2019s dangerous to predict what we think is going to happen in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neller also readily accepts that the experiment with 12-person rifle squads may not work out. \u201cWe\u2019ll see if I\u2019m right; my successor might change it back and they\u2019ll have to give up something else to do that because the number of Marines is fixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hope that most of the stuff you put in place will last but I think the role of the leader is to try to anticipate what\u2019s going to happen in the future and set the conditions, because none of us is going to be here forever; we\u2019re all just passing through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neller had earlier mentioned his meeting with former New Zealand rugby Head Coach Steve Hansen and the All Blacks\u2019 desire to \u2018leave the jersey in a better place\u2019 readily springs to mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cSet the conditions for your successors to be successful and relay the conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his role as moderator, Walker asks Neller if he has advice for others in the room who may be looking to change their organisational culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the leader models that behaviour it\u2019s easier to get buy-in,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it takes constant work, it takes constant effort, and it\u2019s never done; it\u2019s a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The standing ovation that greets Neller at the end of the session shows that his efforts and achievements are appreciated in his homeland.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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