A friend of mine has a son who joined the Marines. Growing up, this young man didn’t show a particularly strong interest in technology, engineering, or mechanics. I mean, he wasn’t the kid in the garage taking apart lawnmowers, building robots, or programming computers. I knew he was bright, but in a general way.
Fast forward a couple of years, and now he’s an aircraft mechanic, working on the F-35, one of the most advanced and expensive fighter jets in existence. He’s a legitimate expert in this, even though he’s only 21.
I’ll be honest, that blew me away.
As someone who runs an IT services company, I spend a lot of time thinking about how people learn on the job, especially in a field that changes as fast as ours does. So, this Marine’s story made me stop and think.
How does someone go from “no particular mechanical passion” to “trusted with a $100 million warplane” in such a short time?
The answer, it turns out, is training. Real, serious, focused training. And it got me thinking about how in business, we approach training and talent.
What the Military Gets Right (In My View)
I’m not an expert on military systems, but from what I’ve learned, the military seems to take a completely different approach than most companies. When they decide to train someone, they go all in.
– Time: They invest months (and sometimes a full year) before someone is considered fully trained.
– Structure: There’s a formal, layered system: classroom work, simulations, hands-on work, and constant assessments.
– Focus: Trainees aren’t juggling other responsibilities. Their job is to train and learn until they’re ready.
To me, that’s a big contrast with the way training happens in most workplaces. We’re more likely to hand someone a user manual, give them a login, point them to a webinar or video, and hope for the best. (I’ve done it, and I’m sure you have, too.)
There are exceptions, of course. Commercial pilots, EMTs, and surgical teams go through rigorous training programs. But those are the outliers, not the norm.
What stood out to me about the military story wasn’t just the training itself. It was how the Marines decided who to train.
The Marines Test for Potential, Not Just Past Experience
One thing the military seems to do especially well is aptitude testing. They don’t just go by someone’s background. Indeed, they assume you probably don’t have the background to work on fighter jets or handle communications encryption in battlefield conditions. (Right?) So, they prioritize figuring out what you could be good at.
They use tools like the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) to uncover natural strengths, such as mechanical reasoning, spatial awareness, electronics, and that sort of thing. Then they match people to training programs that fit those strengths.
That feels like the opposite of what many businesses (including mine) tend to do. We try to match people to roles based on their resumes. And once someone’s in a role, we rarely step back and ask, “What else might they be great at?”
It made me wonder: What would happen if we tested for aptitude after someone joined the company?
That’s not something I’ve done systematically. But over the past year, I’ve had several occasions where I stumbled onto someone’s hidden strength or interest, and it made me realize how much any of us can miss simply because we never asked the right questions.
(For what it’s worth, aptitude testing in the workplace is legal, provided it’s job-related and fairly administered. There are tools out there, such as CliftonStrengths, that offer insight into people’s natural problem-solving styles or preferences.)
When Someone’s Not Thriving… Maybe the Role’s Wrong
Here’s where this really hit home for me.
Over the years, I’ve had employees who didn’t seem to thrive in their roles. At the time, I assumed it was a performance issue. And sometimes, it was.
But in other cases, it turned out to be something else entirely: the role just didn’t match the person’s natural wiring… the project manager who did better as a salesperson; the customer service agent who did better in an administrative role, etc.
I’ve come to believe that when someone isn’t doing well, it’s worth asking whether the issue is truly performance, or if it’s just a mismatch between the role and their strengths. That’s not always an easy distinction to make, but when we get it right, the payoff can be huge for the person and the company.
What This Means for Me… and Maybe You?
Like a lot of business owners, I’ve been guilty of assuming that smart people will figure things out on their own, or that “learning by doing” is enough. So I haven’t always been great about training.
But lately, I’ve been doing more, and that might be why seeing how military training has helped my friend’s son has made such a big impression on me. Of course, owners of small and medium-sized businesses can’t replicate the military model in civilian life. We don’t have the same budget, structure, or authority over people’s schedules. But we can learn from their priorities.
For me, that means being more deliberate about:
- Noticing people’s natural strengths (not just what’s listed on their resume)
- Asking better questions about what someone wants to learn
- Offering small, targeted ways to grow, even if we can’t launch a formal training program
Here are a few things I’m thinking about as next steps, especially for small or mid-sized businesses like mine:
- Low-stakes learning moments: Things like creating short, recorded how-tos, internal lunch-and-learns, simple things like adding more links to our documentation so (for instance) a manufacturer’s demo or YouTube video that explains something perfectly is easy for our people to find.
- Encourage external learning: I’ve covered the cost of a couple of in-depth training seminars lately in marketing and its technical back end, and members of my team are growing their responsibilities as a result.
- Revisit job fits periodically: Not just during reviews, but when someone seems disengaged or stuck or unfulfilled, I’ve started to ask “Is there something else you’d like to try in these areas we want to do more?” It has opened up useful conversations and helped add more to the career paths of our people.
- One thing I haven’t resolved: This kind of specialized training is individualized, so some of my people are getting more attention at the moment than others – although who is getting training and development will always be changing. I don’t want any of my team to feel less valued or less important just because it isn’t their turn at the moment. I’m still working on that (because, unlike the Marines, we don’t have a fleet of Drill Instructors wearing their iconic Smokey Bear hats. The “training manager” hat is one of many I still wear.)
The Bottom Line
The Marines didn’t just “get lucky” with my friend’s 21-year-old son.
They tested, trained, and trusted him.
That made me wonder what I might unlock in my company – what we all might unlock in our respective companies – by doing even a little bit of the same.
We can’t all run boot camps, but we can take training more seriously and talent more flexibly.
– We don’t have to control the clock or command the person like the military does.
– We just have to believe the person in front of us might be capable of a lot more than their current role suggests.
– And then give them the tools and direction to explore it.
So, that’s what I’ve taken away from learning about a young F-35 expert I used to see as just one of the kids in the neighborhood.
– It’s not entirely about the uniforms or the drills.
– It’s that potential can be as significant as experience, and it gets unlocked by training.
– And once that potential is developed, it can change everything.
Pictured: The F-35 Lightning II aircraft, refueling in midair. Photo courtesy of the US Department of Defense. Photo credit: Air Force Senior Airman Ryan C. Grossklag.
