Description
TLC Zoom
Wednesday 16th April 2025 @ 18:00 BST
Lt Gen Sir Charlie Stickland KCB OBE Royal Marines
Ideas to outcomes – Seeking to gain competitive advantage against your adversary
Sir Charlie has just completed a long and distinguished military career and I am most grateful to TLC member Jason Poole OBE for connecting us. I was absolutely fascinated by the suggested title for tonight’s presentation from Sir Charlie and how his knowledge and experience might well resonate and be appreciated by fellow TLC members.
I therefore asked him to elaborate further and this was his response
“My simple premise is that when challenged but complexity and ambiguity, particularly in the Defence & Security arena, Governments and their organs revert to an input conversation; loosing dynamism, agility and proactivity. Thus, given the nature of the increasingly connected global threats we, persistently and consistently, need to be outcome focused; we must determine how we are going to fight, how we are going to proactively to shape the environment to our advantage, and our attitude to risk. The status quo will see us loose – we must step to ‘Active Approach’ – active exploitation of data, rapid iteration of technology (to keep pace with our allies and seek to outpace our adversaries), and ‘Active Deterrence’. “
Enough said – there is plenty of meat in that.
Those of you who may be unfamiliar with Sir Charlie can be non other than hugely impressed with his biography
Lieutenant General Sir Charlie Stickland KCB OBE Royal Marines
Sir Charlie Stickland has served 37 years in the UK Armed Forces. His last appointment was as the UK Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) responsible to the Secretary of State for Defence for the command of all UK global operations. Constantly engaged with allies and partners, he has extensive strategic planning and operational experience across all domains (Sea, Land, Air, Space & Cyber) – leading the UK’s support to Ukraine; spearheading the UK’s operational approach to NATO; and designing and integrating military commitments to the Middle East and the Indo Asia Pacific region.
Prior to Sir Charlie’s appointment as CJO, he was the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff for Operations in the Ministry of Defence with a particular focus on Counter Terrorist and UK Resilience operations. During this role, he led the UK military response to the COVID crisis. He has commanded at all levels, as the Commandant General of the Royal Marines (which included an EU Counter Piracy Mission (Op ATALANTA)), 3 Commando Brigade RM and 42 Commando RM.
Sir Charlie’s focus is ideas to outcomes, championing the use of technology and data to drive modern ‘Command & Control’ and the pursuit of competitive advantage. He is a passionate advocate for inclusive leadership and for the LGBTQ+ community, and believes that diversity drives operational effectiveness. He is a strong and active supporter of the Royal Marines Charity.
