Huge Contribution of High-Tech Workers To The War

The commander of the Lotem - IDF Digital & Data unit , Brigadier General Yael Grossman, understands that the new security reality will occupy Israel for decades to come, and talks about the contribution of the high-tech workers who reported to their unit's reserves on October 7 without being required to.

"Everyone who deals with security today looks at the field with much more humility" >> CTech by Calcalist

I love seeing exceptional female leaders in such critical positions. In this feature Yael Grossman is talking about the lessons learned and how due to the neighbors we have - we'll be dealing with security issues for a long time. They're now organizing platforms to share information and collaborate more than before October 7th. And the high-tech sector wants to be involved ....

"When a person feels that they are doing something with meaning, they want to continue and keep giving." Yael Grossman

She was asked how our systems failed so badly to protect us on October 7th. This is her reply: ""We will always have to have good people, fighters and commanders to operate the systems." Which is 100% correct. It's the people that drive things and determine the results - not the machines.

One great lesson is how much the reservists have to contribute, not only in times of crisis - everyone is very happy to do meaningful work. To feel like they're making a difference.

"We are now working on the development of a Lotem reserve unit from the understanding of the tremendous added value of those professionals who today are integrated into Israeli high-tech and academia and who want and are able to contribute and enrich us with their tools and insights. They brought thinking outside the box, new ideas, sometimes provided an additional professional eye. It had a lot of added value."

I love the way the IDF now has the full support of the high-tech sector:

"One of Grossman's intermediate lessons, after about four and a half months of war, talks about the development of the unit's reserves. The reservists showed up at the gates long before they were called upon. "We are now working on the development of a Lotem reserve unit from the understanding of the tremendous added value of those professionals who today are integrated into Israeli high-tech and academia and who want and are able to contribute and enrich us with their tools and insights. They brought thinking outside the box, new ideas, sometimes provided an additional professional eye. It had a lot of added value."

My Commentary

It's wonderful to see all this new cooperation across various parts of the army when it comes to sharing information and intel - so that people will have the big picture. But this isn't only about connection systems and information. The only way to truly protect our society from future attacks is to invest in connecting the people - the commanders, the soldiers and the reservists.

The only way to truly protect our society from future attacks is to invest in connecting the people - the commanders, the soldiers and the reservists.

The Bottom Line

All the tech and sharing knowledge / data is useless if we don't care about each other.

We need to systematically invest in connecting the human layer of the system across all these important units we have.

And if we learned anything from the attack it's that we have to be far more concerned with the collective than we were before.

When we're all only looking out for ourselves, or our immediate environment - we're very vulnerable.

When we're only listening to ourselves, or our immediate environment - we're very vulnerable.

When we're thinking our opinion is the only correct opinion - we're very vulnerable.

When we're united - we're unbreakable.

So it's not only the systems that need to be connected - we need to systematically invest in connecting the human layer of the system across all these important units we have. And we need to do it in a way where we all feel deeply invested in one another - that's the key to learning to care about others.

What Needs To Change

Instead of always trying to be right and the smartest people in the room, all our commanders need to learn how to tap into their group intelligence together. We need to do this inside every unit and of course between units that need to collaborate. We need to set aside a time every day to do this together. That will be our best protection.

Because there will always be a multitude of things to divide us - the differences of opinions, perspective, professional background etc.

But now we've seen that it's possible to tear all those walls down between us in a matter of minutes - when it's really important to us.

We saw it on the front line - all parts of society coming together to operate as a single well-oiled machine.

Now we need to apply all that to our digital and date teams.

Let's understand right now how we're far more perceptive when we're using the collective brain rather than only our own.