On January 23, 2013, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered this presentation to YPFP in Washington, DC. Here’s the blurb for his talk: Our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, growing dangers in cyberspace, and modern terrorist and criminal threats all suggest the same thing: our national security depends on the ability of disparate parts of government to come together to confront increasingly complex networked threats. The relatively straight forward days of the Cold War have yielded to a much more challenging threat environment of non-state global actors. Yet the military, intelligence community, and law enforcement agencies have not yet fully adapted to the new reality. It is time for a new national security vision. A vision predicated on building networks to defeat networks. The Department of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency are both in a key transition period. These two institutions—and indeed, the entire Nation—have been embroiled in conflict for more than a decade against enemies that are both resilient and adaptive. The need for “on-demand,” accurate, responsive intelligence has grown as have the technologies and methods for collection and analysis. In the foreseeable future, the pace of change will continue to accelerate. In this climate, we must reflect on past lessons while looking to emerging challenges to adapt. We must find ways to be increasingly integrated and collaborative and remain sufficiently adaptable and flexible to understand and respond to an increasing number of threats.

1. LTG Michael T. Flynn, USA
Director
23 January 2013
COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN DEFENSE OF THE NATION
1 One Mission. One Team. One Agency. UNCLASSIFIED

2. Washington Tribal Folklore
“When you’re riding a dead horse, the best thing to do is to dismount”
However, in Washington DC, we often try other strategies:
• Buying a stronger whip
• Changing riders
• Saying things like: “This is the way we’ve always ridden the horse”
• Appointing a committee to study the horse
• Increasing the standards to ride the dead horse
• Appointing a “tiger team” to revive the dead horse
• Changing the requirements & declaring that “this horse is not dead!”
• Hiring contractors to ride the dead horse
• Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed
• Declaring that “No horse is too dead to beat!”
And finally,
Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position
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4. The Defense Intelligence Agency
MISSION: DIA is first in all-source defense intelligence to prevent
strategic surprise and deliver decision advantage to warfighters,
defense planners and policymakers.
VISION: One team of skilled professionals providing our
military and national security leadership with timely intelligence.
PRIORITIES:
• Defense Clandestine Service
• Reshaping Defense Analysis
• Recruiting, Retention and Professional Development
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5. YESTERDAY:
Traditional, hierarchical,
regional, centralized, weeks
and months, worked well in structured
environments, information is discrete
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6. TODAY:
Fluid and complex, transnational, hybrid,
decentralized, distributed, crowd-sourced, days
and minutes, multi-nodal, difficult to discern,
smaller window for decisions
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7. The imperative to change
Intelligence must remain a strategic advantage for our nation
Lessons learned from a decade of war demand it:
• Gain a more thorough understanding of the cultures and environments in which we operate
• Recognize shortfall of spies contributed to ignoring tribal and cultural realities
• Implement strategy to meet military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) needs
• Increase importance of Cyberwarfare capabilities, ISR, and undersea systems
• Increase access to expeditionary ISR platforms
• Promote the fusion of information and reduce compartmentalization of intelligence
• Improve training to enable focused, intelligence driven operations
• Introduce new legislation to bolster interagency ties
- CJCS Enduring Lessons, Vol 1 June 2012
http://www.blogs.defensenews.com
“We‟re transitioning from a decade of war, a complex
and uncertain security environment looms, and as we
look toward the future each service in our total joint
force faces fundamental questions about their
identities, their roles, and their capabilities.”
- General Martin Dempsey, CJCS
Joint Warfighting Conference 2012
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8. Amid profound transition...
“When the rate of change outside
is faster than the rate of change inside…
the end is near.”
Winding Down Direct Combat Roles
- Former GE chairman Jack Welch
Rebalance toward Asia-Pacific
Aspiring Regional Peer Competitors
Anti-Access/Area Denial Challenges
Cyber Operations
Arab Awakening
“Even if you are on the right track,
Economic Uncertainty you will be run over if you just sit there.”
- Will Rogers
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9. Do we understand the change
WHAT: SO WHAT:
“Asia and Africa will account • Lack of arable land, access to
for most of the population growth food, water, and energy at risk
out to 2025…the „youngest‟ • Unstable governments struggling
countries, where under-30 to provide for their people
represents 60% of the • Resource competition driving
population or more, will…
be in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
WORLD POPULATION social unrest
• The rise of transnational
- National Intelligence Council
Global Trends 2025
groups expanding
1950 2000 2020 2030
3.4 BILLION 6.1 BILLION 7.6 BILLION 8.3 BILLION
(Estimated) (Estimated)
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SOURCE: UN Data

10. Do we understand the change
WHAT: SO WHAT:
“A new set of social actors—
• Technology and the cloud
super-empowered individuals
provide the crowd a voice
and even criminal networks...
empowered by their wealth and • The network is the new`
an array of national and weapon system
transnational contacts… • Bandwidth is the new class of supply
help leverage „transnational‟ • Data is our ammunition
INFORMATION REVOLUTION
outcomes across national and
organizational boundaries.”
Global Trends 2025
In 1980 In 2005*… Today By 2020…
First 24/7 news network Facebook did not exist for most 214 Jihadists are the number of
IBM’s PC still under Twitter was still a sound using Twitter Internet users
development The cloud was in the sky One has over is expected to
Mobile phone network 4G was a parking space 53,000 followers double to over
in its infancy Applications went to colleges 4 billion
LinkedIn was a prison
10 *Information taken from That Used to be Us, UNCLASSIFIED
by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum

11. Why we must succeed
• Prevent strategic surprise
• Understand rising regional ‘near-peer’ competitors
• Overcome Anti-Access/Area Denial strategies
• Counter enduring extremist threats
• Ensure decision advantage / confidence
• Weather fiscal uncertainty
Defense Intelligence Agency
You cannot fight, wage, or win war without us
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12. Thoughts on
Strategic Leadership
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14. Flynn’s Model on Strategic Leadership
Key components
• Moral courage
• Teamwork
(give credit to others)
Lead Self: your values and beliefs
• Have an ability to compromise
• Winning spirit
Work environment: what you create
• Loyalty up/down/laterally
• Compassion (time of crisis) Self: How you create output
• Energy is a combat multiplier Visualization
• Understand up/down Culture
Values
(outside / inside)
• Need to do versus nice to do
Implement Understanding Innovate
• Outreach (private, intel, Knowledge
media, public)
• Teach, coach, mentor Strategic and Political Framework
Your organization – what you control
Your environment – what you don’t control
Your output – how you take control
Ability to see yourself, your environment, and your ability to make a difference
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15. Flynn’s Model on Strategic Leadership (Self)
Be a lifelong learner
Humility at the senior most levels of command is important –
Lead no matter how senior you get, it is not about you…but the mission
We should be unapologetic about our values
Things to remember:
Self: • Trust – Can you trust too much?
Visualization • Teach, coach and mentor – Why is this important?
Culture
Values
• Communicate creatively – Writing, editing, reaching out
• Squint with your ears – “I never learned anything while I was
Understanding talking”
Implement Innovate
Knowledge • Avoid the role of chief problem solver – “Never tell people how to
Strategic and Political Framework do things. Tell them what needs doing and they will surprise you
with their ingenuity” George Patton
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16. Flynn’s Model on Strategic Leadership (Environment)
Managing / balancing time: Yours and your staff’s
Trust and harmony – If you cannot create these conditions,
you just might fail
Lead
Building a robust brain trust – Who do you include?
Clones, cronies, trusted agents, agents of change?
Things to remember:
Self:
Visualization
• Use humor well
Culture • Be decisive and exude confidence
Values • Maintain open-mindedness –
Flexibility versus inflexibility
Understanding
Implement Knowledge Innovate • Observe yourself – How do others see you?
• Give power away and make it stick
Strategic and Political Framework
• Be generous and magnanimous –
What does servant leadership mean?
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17. Flynn’s Model on Strategic Leadership (Desired Outcomes)
Relationships between commanders at Combined/Joint levels
matter – This is what accomplishes the mission
Lead
Institutions get what they reward – Look for ideas elsewhere,
we may not have the best ideas
Dempsey Doctrine: When you ask for guidance and get
Self: none, you should be prepared to say, “Unless otherwise directed,
Visualization I’m going to execute X”
Culture
Values
The single biggest deficiency of senior leaders is lack of reflection
Understanding
time – Instead we are reactive and tend to get “contained”
Implement Knowledge Innovate
At every possible point along the path your career takes
Strategic and Political Framework you, reenergize your leadership capabilities
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18. Questions
DIA is the indispensible element of the military dimension
of our national security posture
COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN DEFENSE OF THE NATION
18 One Mission. One Team. One Agency. UNCLASSIFIED