Lessons Learned from the American Experience in Vietnam

Lessons Learned from the American Experience in Vietnam

The Vietnam War was a war that seems to have thought the American Military and Government officials a lot about cooperative working and strategic planning. Each American involved most likely has a different story to tell about the War from the ground soldiers all the way up to President Johnson. However, each participated in a mission driven cooperative work environment with many different thinking styles. These styles included strategic thinkers, tactical planners, and logisticians to name a few. Each thinking style plays a critical role in the development and progression in an organization like the armed forces in the Vietnam War.

I feel that I would best be described as a strategic thinker in both my personal and professional life. Strategic thinking is defined as decisions or plans designed to impact favorably the key factors on which the desired outcome of an organization, game, system, venture, or war, depends ( Sullivan, 2010). The Military defines strategic as having an impact outside your own military unit, region or battle. The technical definition includes, designed to strike the enemy at the sources of its military, economic or political power (Sullivan, 2010). I would define myself as a strategic thinker because when making a decision I review all available options. I review the pros and cons to each option and assess where each option may lead me related to my long term goals. When review options in my professional life I also always take into account how each option will directly affect all involved with the decision. I than decide which option provides the best outcome and implement this option into my personal or professional life.

This becomes a very big task in my current position as the Director of Nursing in a skilled nursing facility. My decisions may affect many people at the end of the day and I need to ensure the safety of all of my patients and employees. I feel other traits that become important for a strategic planner include organization skills and the ability to make decisions after assessing all options and sticking with the chosen option.

Due to the fact that I am a strategic thinker others on my team can at times become frustrated with my need to review all available options and their outcomes prior to making a decision. I also require many people on my team to do research prior to coming to the decision table. I have created a team that includes tactical planner as she provides me with options to effectively implement these decisions and assists me with prioritizing the needs of our patients. I have also included a logistician on my team as he provides me with the logical information that I need to ensure my patients have what they need when they need it to be taken care of correctly.

I feel that so far in this course I have learned a great deal about military lessons that have directly