I received and email on a Study of Law Enforcement Fatalities: Making It Safer from both Retired Chief Jeff Chudwin, a well known law enforcement trainer who has served as the president of the Illinois Tactical Officers Association and, G.I. Wilson who served 37 years in the United States Marine Corps (1969-2006), is currently part of the Adjunct Faculty Palomar College (Administration of Justice) and is the current Commissioner, North San Diego County Gang Commission and has been since 2011.

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." ~Marcus Aurelius

When teaching, writing about and discussing adaptive leadership, the critical questions that often ariseare, what type of organization operates at rapid OODA Loop tempos and how do we implement it? How are we suppose to size up situations, focus our efforts, so they are safe and effective with mission type orders and mutual trust? How do we develop an organizational climate for operational success?

On Chet Richards recommendation I surfed over to the Corporate Rebels site and found this great piece, "Why Frontline Employees Should Make All Decisions" To those of you, who know me and, frequent my blog will understand why this article was particularly appealing to me and, why it should be of interest to policing is also, glaringly clear.

In this post the Corporate Rebels discus the status quo of command-and-control:

I just had to share this piece and great illustration on John Boyd's work from Chet Richards's site Slightly East of New. All too often in policing we play follow the follower when it comes to new ideas, strategy and tactics.

In the introduction to their book Law Enforcement Close Quarter Battle: Urban Tactics For Individuals, Teams and Tactical Units, Special Tactics, defines The Four Pillars of Survival as proper mindset, situational awareness, skill proficiency and physical fitness. They go on to say, these pillars form the basis for mission success and improve split second decision-making in direct combat situations.

“Know yourself and know your enemy. You will be safe in every battle. You may know yourself but not know the enemy. You will then lose one battle for every one you win. You may not know yourself or the enemy. You will then lose every battle.” ~Sun Tzu

The late Col. John Boyd was constantly admonishing leaders in the United States to remember that in the field of human competition the three most important determinants of success are People, Ideas and Things – in that order. Identifying and developing good decision makers is the first obligation of any organization – without those decision makers the best ideas will not emerge and cannot succeed. Organizations are already full of potentially brilliant leaders who just need to be unleashed on the problems and opportunities crisis or conflicts are made of.