Jesse Levin is the Founder of Tactivate, an expeditionary entrepreneurial firm that specializes in unconventional capacity building in the social impact venture and international crises response arenas. Jesse is also currently serving, in a volunteer capacity, as the Executive Director of the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum and is running ongoing humanitarian and emergency continuity operations in Ukraine. See his thoughts in this post.
Alex shook my hand and looked me dead in the eye with a wide grin and said “This will work out great as long as you stick to your word. If you don’t, I have an unregistered pistol under the front seat of my Audi.” With that one line and a firm handshake, I knew I had an all-in, high integrity individual who would do whatever necessary to support the team in Eastern Europe. I was thrilled to shake his hand and say “done” with someone I knew would grow into a Chief of Mission role. In fifteen years of international humanitarian and crisis response operations, little has been accomplished, at scale, without the right local counterpart. In the more geopolitically restrictive near peer areas of operations we currently face as a nation, and are likely to encounter, our conventional national security apparatus is woefully unprepared to operate. If we continue to focus predominately on tech instead of people, we will be poorly positioned to remain competitive.
Pacing threat environments demand far more subtle, informal and unsupported operational footprints than our national security apparatus has become accustomed to over the past two decades of conflict. Large, established bases of operation, logistical support apparatus and robust contract support functions that were the hallmark of counterinsurgency operations are no longer a reality in the evolving threat environment. The main driving force to compensate for this reality remains heavily focused on technology through initiatives including Replicator that champion AI and cheap UAV swarms as core to our future readiness and deterrence strategy. While technology is important, innovation in the human terrain domain is far more critical and woefully unsupported.
In near peer threat geographies, small, unconventional actors are playing critical roles in the advise, assist, accompany sphere, information space and in conducting statecraft, functions typically relegated to institutionalized agencies and branches of the DoD. Empowering this dynamic are Informal, cross-cultural relationships and informal networks. Institutionally, from a human capital cultivation and network perspective, little is being done to adjust for these very different types of kinetic environments. However, outside the confines of the conventional system, much has changed around how ad hoc, entrepreneurial resource communities form, function financially, iterate and operate to carry out de-escalation or support efforts. The rapid establishment of these trusted relationships that facilitate and enable operations when conventional support ecosystems are absent is a relevant art and science that needs to be more aggressively explored by our national security community.
In these environs, including in Ukraine, our current area of operation, trusted bonds are forged far more expeditiously and in far stranger ways than in business or normal civil society. My relationship with Alex toggles between mentor and mentee on the fly as we work with the multinational team to identify and address cross-cultural fissures in real time. Our dynamic and ability to seamlessly switch between leader and follower is critical to ensure fluid interoperability between the multitude of operational styles and expectations of the entities we engage with. Daily operations require interacting with parties ranging from Ukrainian military units, various foreign subject matter experts to multinational private sector executives across multiple continents. This type of ad hoc, rapidly established and informal collaborative support ecosystems represents the dynamic of the future. It is made possible through intimate, high trust interpersonal relationships. Missteps and cultural violation faux paus loom at every turn but can be mitigated through healthy mentor – mentee relationships amongst multicultural team counterparts. Establishing this dynamic requires a level of empathy, openness and trust not commonly associated with leading in austere environments where bravado and rigid command authority have traditionally been more typical.
Mentorship in this instance is not in the linear sense between a single mentee and mentor. Instead, it is a tool to facilitate respect, acceptance and to demonstrate trust amongst a larger group through a willingness of all parties to share unique expertise while remaining humble and open to guidance. A few principles outlined below have helped to build effective operational capacity and team cohesion through mentorship in Ukraine.
An ecology vs. pair:
Comradery through shared misery also applies to mentorship in comradery through shared stewardship. Creating a mentor-mentee ecology involving more than a linear pair often helps to balance and codify working relationships between foreign counterparts. This construct can be highlighted through my working relationship with Alex. Alex mentors me on the nuances of Ukrainian culture to help the team avoid missteps from misconstrued intent. I assist Alex decipher the intricacies of US communication and operational dynamics to help him understand the how and why behind certain elements frustratingly foreign to him. Together, we fuse our respective teachings and lessons learned from one another to mentor Alex’s younger brother, Igor. Initially Igor was a young, largely inexperienced, but motivated logistics assistant. Within a year he grew through guidance and now leads a majority of in country operations. Over a short period of time, he evolved into a more empathetic, chameleon of an operator capable of appeasing all parties at once, naturally serving as a bridge between Ukrainian, American and other Eastern European counterparts. Mine and Alex’s experience of remaining open to mutual mentorship and sharing responsibility for co-mentoring helped to create a healthy and well-balanced leadership and power dynamic our entire team and support apparatus continues to benefit from.
Back to Baseline:
“Ocean” is the term our team uses when there is an inextricable chasm between how our Eastern European counterparts and fellow Americans perceive things. Akin to a safety word in more promiscuous activity, it is important to have a tool in the quiver that enables all parties of culturally different backgrounds working side by side to call an audible to defuse tension and to reset to baseline when common ground is allusive.
Instilling national security professionals with the skills to create mentor – mentee relationships in near peer geographies may very well determine the capacity for our nation to remain competitive. More resources, training and emphasis must be placed on the human element.
Comments