If I was ever asked to draw lessons from the books of Lee Child and apply them to service design I would quote this bit:
"What do you remember about the Soviets?'
'Lots of things.
I said, 'Above all they were realistic, especially about human nature, and the quality of their own personnel. They had a very big army, which meant their average grunt was lazy, incompetent, and not blessed with any kind of discernible talent.
They understood that, and they knew there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it. So instead of trying to train their people upward towards the standard of available modern weaponry, they designed their available modern weaponry downward towards the standard of their people. Which was a truly radical approach."
‘OK '
'Hence the AK-47.’"