What Is Mission Mastery?

This chapter identifies the essence of Mastery. It tracks back and explains what lead to the of the Prussian Army during the nineteenth century, why and how it happened. It touches on its famous heritage of success that was shattered in the defeats of 1806. Ironically the value of that defeat for twenty-first century is the response orchestrated by four key individuals, whose work led to the gestation of the first large learning organization. The two who over time have had the most influence are Clauswitz—of “On War” fame—and Moltke, the scourge of the French in 1870. The great learning here is the leadership he unfurled, which remained undetected for another 100 years. In the military context the German description of “” was recast in English by NATO countries as ‘ command’. We then briefly examine how mission command has played out in the Royal Navy. The goal of this chapter is to capture the essence of mission command and open up the discussion of what it might look like in a civilian setting. I am suggesting that when the essential components are successfully migrated from their military setting, the approach becomes Mission Mastery in the civilian world.