Learned helplessness in defence

There are 1,440 minutes in your day. Please can I have two — and show you a cutaway view of a submarine.

Look at the image. It’s an engineering marvel. Thousands of systems working in unison, built on precision, control, and clarity. In the deepest complexity, there is simplicity - but only if everyone understands their role, is trusted to act, and the mission is clear.

Now contrast that with how we often operate in Defence at the moment.

It's a sector that's not short of talent, or ideas or drive. It's short of freedom to move.

In many organisations we’ve slipped into a state of learned helplessness. That’s not laziness or cynicism — it’s a conditioned response to a system that punishes risk, tolerates indecision, and rewards delay.

What does this look like?

• Bureaucracy beats process. Decision loops stretch out endlessly. “No decision” becomes safer than the wrong one. Innovation dies not from bad ideas — but from good ones lost in the admin.
• Leadership turns over too quickly. Many roles shift just as people become effective. Continuity is sacrificed for career pathways. Everyone starts initiatives — few are around to finish them.
• Services still compete. We talk joint force, but act as separate tribes. Real integration remains a concept, not a culture.
• We can’t answer a basic question: What does the UK want to be? And if we can’t answer that, Defence will continue to second-guess its role, direction, and priorities.

And perhaps most damaging of all:

• Ambition gets quietly squeezed out. People stop pushing ideas, not because they don’t care - but because the system teaches them not to bother.

The result?

A force that knows change is needed… but feels powerless to make it happen. That is learned helplessness. It’s corrosive. And it’s a liability in an age of strategic uncertainty.

So what next?

We need to reset the system to reward motion, not just management.

• Empower decision-making at the edge — the operator, the technologist, the programme lead.
• Shorten processes, not just shift deadlines.
• Create continuity in leadership, not just rotation in roles.
• Stop the internal competition and become a real joint force.
• And define our national ambition — so Defence knows not just what it’s protecting, but why it exists at all.

The cutaway of a submarine shows us how complexity can succeed through clarity.

It works because every part has purpose. Every person has trust. Every decision has ownership.

That’s what UK Defence could be — if we break the cycle.