Why change will come easier to the Army than the Marines

The Marines have a tighter culture than the Army.  Within the Marines, there is consensus on both of Clay Christensen’s axes of agreement.  Marines agree on 1) what they want out of the organization, and 2) how they view the world.  Marines are called to serve, and they want to be the absolute best, and they view maintaining their strong tradition and culture as the best way to approach any problem.

In the Army, there is a less extensive agreement on both of those axes.  People in the Army want to serve, but they are also propelled by money for college, a desire to gain new skills for a post-Army career, and other factors.  They also agree less on how the world works, so they see change as being possible through trying new things in some situations.  Therefore, the Army is more suscepitable to change if it is implemented by a visionary leader, or if it is built into their training and SOPs.  That’s not true of the Marines, who would require some type of cultural change. 

These conclusions were based off the "Tools of Cooperation" theory articulated by Clay Christensen and Howard Stevenson.