ABSTRACT
Military, civilian, governmental, and corporate organizations currently face rapid changes in information technology, high-tech products, and organizational structure, which create the need for constantly changing mixes of personnel competencies and skills as well as for rapid training of new skills. Assembling just the right people with just the right knowledge and skills is increasingly critical for the successful conduct of complex tasks, such as military missions. Doing so is most important, and most di cult, when missions respond to novel challenges, such as needed for heterogeneous knowledge widely dispersed in the organization, involve systems or procedures for which there are few experts, and when there is little time to prepare. ese are all situations to be expected in future war ghting scenarios. For example, war ghters have had to become more specialized in skills working with information technology, while still maintaining additional specialized skills in such areas as languages, leadership, communication, and diplomacy.
