Maverick Author
JASON WARREN
Military Veteran, Corporate Strategist, Academic Leader & Institutional Leadership Expert
"Institutional leadership requires all components working together—vision, strategy, operations, feedback, values alignment, organizational memory, and disciplined systems. When any component fails, the entire institution suffers."
About Jason Warren
Jason Warren is a military veteran, corporate strategist, and academic leader who brings a rare cross-sector perspective to institutional leadership. Having served as a military planner with US-NATO forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2012-2013), led strategy initiatives at America's first government consulting firm dating back to World War I, and taught history at multiple military academies and universities for eight years, Jason has witnessed institutional success and failure from the inside—and isn't afraid to tell the truth about what he saw.
Jason's unique perspective on leadership comes from decades in environments where he had access to senior leadership but lacked the power to change broken systems. In Afghanistan, he served as both military planner and command historian, sitting next to officers who admitted they were cooking the books on progress reports. In corporate America, he lobbied internally for strategic restructuring as his century-old firm attempted to transform from traditional consulting to technology provider—and watched it collapse into competing fiefdoms as stock prices plummeted. In academia, he observed how even institutions with stellar reputations struggle when individual autonomy undermines collective mission. From those crucibles of institutional dysfunction, Jason developed an understanding that most leaders never grasp: mid-level leaders often see failures more clearly than executives, but without honest feedback loops and values alignment, even the best vision will fail.
Chapter: "Beyond The Battlefield"
In his unflinching chapter for Maverick Leadership, Jason Warren reveals what separates institutional leadership from the frontline heroics that fill airport bookstores—and why understanding this distinction determines whether organizations thrive or catastrophically fail. Through raw stories from Afghanistan, corporate boardrooms, and university departments, Jason exposes the critical components of institutional leadership that most leaders ignore until it's too late—and provides the exact framework for aligning vision, strategy, operations, feedback, and values across entire organizations.
Jason opens with a sobering observation: leadership books focus on battlefield bravery and boardroom challenges because those stories sell. But there's remarkably little discussion of institutional leadership—the type that affects an organization in its entirety. His chapter fills that gap with brutal honesty. He doesn't theorize from a distance. He was there: in Kandahar when generals carried on with failed policy to protect their careers, in corporate headquarters when vision without strategy destroyed a WWI-era firm, in academic departments where professors' individualism derailed institutional goals.
"When feedback loops reward dishonesty over truth-telling, even well-intentioned members become complicit in institutional failure."
Through his vision-strategy-operations-feedback loop framework—grounded in honest case studies from three vastly different institutions—Jason provides the roadmap for leaders who want to build systems that serve the mission rather than becoming the mission. The chapter culminates with a sobering truth: institutional leadership is easier to understand than to execute. The framework is straightforward. Implementation demands courage to choose truth over convenience, systems over personality, and collective mission over individual comfort.
What You'll Learn
The Institutional Leadership Framework: The vision-to-policy-to-strategy-to-operations progression, all undergirded by feedback loops—and why when any component fails, the entire institution suffers
The Afghanistan Case Study: How lack of attainable vision, dishonest feedback loops, broken systems and processes, and values misalignment led to America's chaotic withdrawal—and what every leader can learn from this institutional failure
Vision Without Strategy Is Fantasy: Why the corporate world is littered with clear visions that failed because leadership never built the strategy or restructured the organization to achieve them—and what happens when consultants realize their jobs are obsolete
The Academic Operations Problem: How even institutions with sound vision and century-long track records struggle when individual professors' autonomy undermines departmental cooperation and student development
Memory vs. History: The critical distinction between what organizations believe happened (memory) and what actually happened (history)—and why leaders need both to move institutions forward
Three Transformative Takeaways:
1. Institutional Leadership Focuses on Systems, Not Personality
Institutional leadership must concern itself primarily with processes and systems, as opposed to the personally driven style of frontline leadership. When institutional leaders reach several levels down into the organization, this often undermines lower-level leadership. There is a time and place for institutional leaders to make their presence felt, but never at the expense of subordinates or the higher-level tasks that demand attention. Systems must serve the mission, not become the mission. Compliance training often becomes a tool for institutions to win legal battles against employees—and members know it and respond with disdain.
2. Feedback Loops Only Work When Truth Is Rewarded
The feedback loop in Afghanistan that should have alerted military leadership to failed vision was not honestly managed. The books were cooked reminiscent of Vietnam's "body count." Officers admitted they were lying because of pressure from high-ranking officials. When feedback loops reward dishonesty over truth-telling, even well-intentioned members become complicit in institutional failure. Organizational values must align with institutional goals. When these fall out of sync, members become unfulfilled, demoralized, and ultimately fail to contribute to the mission.
3. Vision Without Strategy Is Aspiration. Strategy Without Structural Change Is Fantasy.
In corporate America, a CEO had mostly clear vision to transform from traditional consulting to technology provider. But without competent strategy, there were no effective operations or feedback loops. The institution remained wedded to consulting stovepipes instead of cross-functional tech teams. Tech teams burned out supporting multiple stovepipes. Values alignment collapsed as consultants realized their jobs were in jeopardy. The firm's history was ignored, institutional memory erased, and it became a multipolar fiefdom of competing interests. Stock plummeted. Employees and investors fled. A simple strategy with structural restructuring might have saved it.
Jason’s Impact
Jason's leadership extends beyond his military service in one of America's most challenging theaters to his eight years shaping future leaders in military academies and universities. His expertise in institutional systems, honest organizational assessment, and cross-sector leadership analysis has made him a sought-after voice for leaders who want to understand why institutions fail—and what it takes to build ones that succeed. His willingness to document uncomfortable truths about Afghanistan, corporate collapse, and academic dysfunction provides leaders with the rare gift of learning from others' institutional failures before repeating them.
Connect with Jason Warren
LinkedIn: @jasonwwarrenphd
