"Morning fog still cloaked the pines when the bomb exploded.
The blast stunned the Special Operators. They'd been parleying with a guerrilla chieftain. But now their ears rang with the screams of a child, wounded somewhere in the forest. How badly was the child hurt? Why had the bomb gone off? Who — or what — prowled in the misty trees?
The Operators had no answers for the hundred questions now buzzing through their skulls. But they had to act swiftly — and precisely. If they hesitated or blundered, the child would die.
What happened next happened many times. And every time, it happened differently. A rotating cast of Operators entered the woods to meet the chieftain, who was not a real guerrilla but an actor playing a role in a U.S. Special Forces training simulation at a covert site near the black-water tides of Cape Fear, North Carolina. To prepare for the simulation, the Operators had spent seventy-two sleepless hours studying intel reports about the chieftain's sprawling web of illicit business interests: indentured farmers who milked opium pods on highland potash fields; weapons markets stocked with Beretta pistols and night-vision goggles; mule trains for trafficking silver antiques. The Operators believed that the simulation's purpose was to test their prowess at navigating those complex interests. Instead, its purpose was to test how they responded to an unexpected bomb.
That morning, I watched dozens of Operators pass the test. Their fluidness of action seemed eerily paranormal. But the biggest wonder was that no two Operators acted the same. One persuaded the guerrilla chieftain to lead the way into the alien vegetation. Another ventured forth alone, solving the bomb mystery solo. Another convinced the chieftain to do all the work, applauding him when he tamed the wild and rescued the child.
How did the operators devise — with such alacrity — this range of paths to victory? The short answer is: their training. Lacking that training, most soldiers either freeze when a bomb detonates or charge blindly toward it. The remaining soldiers fall back on the textbook solution: Call for backup. These three standard responses — fright, fight, and dependence — are the same ones most common in business leaders when facing an emergency. And also in elementary school students when asked to solve life problems. So what was special about the training given to the Operators? How had it made them soldiers more than ordinary?
The longer answer is: The training had improved their imagination."
