Understanding a Complex World: Why an Emphasis on Empathy Could Better Enable Army Leaders to Win

Fontaine's monograph, published through the US Army's professional military education system, argues that empathy is a core competence for leadership in the complex operational environments modern armies face — not a soft skill to contrast with warfighting, but a prerequisite for it. The argument is specific and well-sourced: understanding adversaries, local populations and one's own soldiers requires the same disciplined empathy. For product direction the analogue is direct — the "complex environments" problem applies almost literally to any product organisation at scale, and the same capability matters. An unusual source for a product library, and more valuable for being unexpected.