Without The Meaning Chain, There Is No Kill Chain

Ever heard of a “kill chain?”

In military terms, it’s the step-by-step process of destroying a target. First, you identify a potential target. Then you pinpoint its location, track its movements, decide how to engage it, deploy the necessary weapons, neutralize the target, document the results, debrief the team, and prepare for the next assignment. 

Each step depends on the one before it. To achieve the mission, every capability must work in tandem up and down the chain of command, hence the “kill chain.”

That’s the functional side of war. What’s much harder is the psychological side.

It’s what the U.S. Marines call their “bias to action.”

It’s the ability to make decisions and act effectively, even when the enemy is pinning you down. It’s what the USMC is known for; it’s what they relentlessly train to improve.

But it’s one thing to be motivated on the front line where all the action is, but what about the people in the back office?

The people filling out forms, working in the warehouse, doing all the unsexy stuff? How do you keep them just as motivated?

It’s incredibly simple yet wildly complicated: you must give them a “why.”

Why should I care about filling out forms? Because if you don’t, the people on the front line don’t get their supplies in time, and they lose the battle. The enemy wins, and your loved ones are in danger, or worse.

You must create a way to link their efforts, however unglamorous, to the bigger picture.

In other words, you create a “Meaning Chain.” A chain that links the most ordinary of jobs to the final victory.

This is why the Marines have always insisted on the “Every man a rifleman” ethos. Whether you are a decorated war hero or the guy in charge of office staplers, you are still, and always will be, a Marine. You will always be expected to carry a rifle and expected to fight when necessary. You will always be part of the meaning chain.

Without the meaning chain, there is no kill chain. That’s what real “bias to action” is.