HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself and Your Career 6-Volume Collection

Learning in the Thick of It

by Marilyn Darling, Charles Parry, and Joseph Moore

IMAGINE AN ORGANIZATION that confronts constantly changing competitors. That is always smaller and less well-equipped than its opponents. That routinely cuts its manpower and resources. That turns over a third of its leaders every year. And that still manages to win competition after competition after competition.

The U.S. Army’s Opposing Force (commonly known as OPFOR), a 2,500-member brigade whose job is to help prepare soldiers for combat, is just such an organization. Created to be the meanest, toughest foe troops will ever face, OPFOR engages units-in-training in a variety of mock campaigns under a wide range of conditions. Every month, a fresh brigade of more ...