Leaders affect change at the individual, unit, and enterprise levels both in response to the external environment and internal pressures to build and sustain readiness for the next mission.

For years, a common theme in military doctrine and conventional wisdom has been that leaders must lead change. If sustaining competitive advantage in a complex and dynamic environment is a top priority, then “leading change” seems a simple and obvious enough charge for leaders. But, it is not so clear what leading change actually means. In Army doctrine alone, it has changed over time from focusing on influencing and developing individual soldiers, to aligning the enterprise with changes in society, to implementing processes of deliberate change, and, most recently, to taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.