- Supply The Why: Difficult Conversations Season 4 Episode 3 Policing, Leadership and the Future
- Project Sapient Podcast E13: Leader or Boss?
- Embedding Our Values: Never a Better Time Than Now
- Difficult Conversations by Supply The Why Season 3 Episode 3 Warriors, Guardians or Are They One and The Same?
- Wellness for Warriors - Two amazing human beings who have been through so much, and go above and Beyond
- When One of us is Murdered: The Darkness A Project Sapient Podcast
- Project Sapient Podcast: Sheepdogs. HybridWolves. Crybabies | A Predator Hunting Predators
- "Supply The Why" Great Podcast Episode on Police Reform, Use of Force, Training and Development Discussed by a Great Panel
- Police Leadership: On Humility and the Dangers of Hubris
- Be You: Humility, Strength of Character and Swallowing Our Ego and Being Authentic Is Crucial To Sound Leadership
- Been Away From My Blog For a While...Time to Get Back At It!
- Supply The Why Doing Great Work Be Sure to Check Out This Episode
- Introduction to Scenario Learning: Guest Post Series with Michael Barr
- Auftragstaktik in One Simple Diagram by Chet Richards
- "Leaders Are Teachers": Great Insights on Leadership and Developing Your People from The Mentorship Forum
- Great Review Over at the The Mentorship Forum of My Favorite Resource on Developing Adaptability "Raising The Bar"
- Rethinking the Traditional Teacher-Student Relationship in Conflicts
- Command and Control During a Disaster: Podcast
- The Evolving Warfighter Sits Down with Don Vandergriff and Talks Mission Command
- Developing and Preparing Cops for the Adaptive Challenges of The Street: Instructors Roundtable Podcast Episode
- Unreflective Speed of Action...Do You Think Its Time Policing Reflects on the Tactical Influence of Time?
- Break It Down Show Podcast: Don Vandergriff - Mission Command, Trusting Your People, To Win
- I See You...Back Up! On The Call to Win in Crisis and in the Aftermath to Win in Life
- Technological Negation of Human Sexual Dimorphism: A Guest Post by Franklin C. Annis, EdD
- Guest Post Home Security Guide from Bank Rate
- Commonwealth Police Legacy Program of Instruction: Sound Decision Making for Cops
- Outstanding In Your Face and Much Needed Book Policing and It's Leaders Can Learn From
- THE TRUTH BEHIND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN FATAL POLICE SHOOTINGS: Great Research Every Cop and Every Citizen Should Read.
- Thought on Discipline: A Great Podcast Series from All Marine Radio, Every Police Leader Should Listen To
- Gary Klein – Cognitive Psychologist, Studies Decision Making in Crisis on The Break It Down Show..Outstanding Episode
- Tactical Decision Making Facilitation Guide Maj McBreen: The Lessons Transfer to Police Instruction as Well
- 4th Generation Warfare Interview and Yes There Are Lessons for Policing
- Keys to Training Excellence: Evidence Based Research Policing Can Use
- Adopting Mission Command: Developing Leaders for a Superior Command Culture by Don Vandergriff
- Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude: Book Review
- PODCAST: Tactical Decision Games with Bruce Gudmundsson and Don Vandergriff
- Podcast: Human Factors and Officer-Involved Shootings
- Donald Robertson - Stoicism and Thinking Like a Roman Emperor
- Dr John Sullivan and MAJ John Spencer - The Complexity of Modern Urban War
- Great Podcast: The Courageous Police Leader – Combating Cowards, Chaos, and Lies
- Recommended Reading: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Another Approach to Tactics Guest Post by Bert DuVernay
- LYNCH & KENNEY: react to clips of LtGen Van Riper’s “On Discipline” interview on All Marine Radio
- Outstanding Interview: ON DISCIPLINE: LtGen Paul K. Van Riper, USMC (ret)
- The Learning Insurgency: It’s an Evolution, not a Revolution By Donald E. Vandergriff
- On Policing a Free Society Episode 3: Toxic Bosses
- On Policing a Free Society Episode 2: Repairing Dysfunction in Police Organizations
- On Policing a Free Society Podcast: Episode 1 Dysfunctional Organizations and Their Impact On Response
- On Policing a Free Society with Fred Leland A New Podcast Coming in 2019
- Making Police Training Stick...and Learning How to Learn
- A New Conception of War: John Boyd The U.S. Marines and Maneuver Warfare
- Utilizing The Case Method: Some articles by Bruce Gudmundsson to Help Shed Some Light on How Too
- Use of Force Policy: Dispelling the Myths by Lexipol
- How to Make a Small Unit Decision Forcing Cases by Bruce Gudmundsson
- Facilitating Learning a Hybrid Of Methods to Effective Police Officer Development
- Why The OODA Loop Is Forever By Dan Grazier
- 15 Tips to Remember when Promoting a Growth Mindset in the Classroom: A Guest Post from USA Test Prep
- New Edition of Boyd’s Discourse on Winning and Losing by Grant Hammond
- My Book Review: On Tactics by B. A. Friedman
- Of Garbage Cans and Paradox: Reflexively Reviewing Design, Mission Command, and the Gray Zone:
- On Tactics: An Interview with B.A. Friedman
- Podcast Part 2 from Professional Military Education: John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1
- Podcast from Professional Military Education: John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1
- Walk,Sacrafice, Work ...Always Hungry Never Satified! What it Takes to Fight Complacency
- The Ten Deadly Errors, Plus...Failure to Learn, Failure to Anticipate and Failure to Adapt
- Turning Tragedy into Victory...We Must Start APPLYING LESSONS LEARNED
- Police Responses Demands Constant and Repeated Action...Throughout the Tactical Encounter
- All Police Actions Take Place in an Atmosphere of Uncertainty
- Adapt or Die: The Call for Police Reform...Is It Reasonable or Necessary?
- Force Science Assesses Proposed “Necessary” Deadly Force Standard
- Special Tactics Online Course Intro
- LESC is Honored to be Part of Special Tactics New Online Training Academy and Full-Featured, Professional Networking Site
- Leading Discussions and Facilitating Better Training Outcomes
- Police Leaders Mentoring and Coaching Their People: the Cornerstone to Top Performance in Crises
- Research: Adaptive Skill as the Conditio Sine Qua Non of Expertise
- Developing Adaptive Expertise: A Synthesis of Literature and Implications for Training
- How the Germans Defined Auftragstaktik: What Mission Command is - AND - is Not by Don Vandergriff
- Avioding Hostilities is the Goal But Sometimes to Gain The Advantage Reasonable Force Must Be Used
- Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations
- The Protector Ethic: Morality, Virtue, and Ethics in the Martial Way
- Police Ethos:The Warrior and Guardian Mindset Are They Not One In the Same?
- Neighborhood Watch is Homeland Security at the Most Local Level
- Developing Police Sergeants: Getting the Outcomes and Measures of Effectiveness Right
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 3: Disrupting an Adversary Using Soft and Hard Tactics
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 2: Don't Just Be a Reactor..Be a Shaper Too!
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 1
- Smart Tactics Takes Thinking Police Leaders...Leading Thinking Cops
- Wrestling With Delayed and Immediate Entry, Solo and Team Tactics...Are We Really Expecting All to Go as Rehersed?
- Guardian Joe: How Less Force Helps The Warrior
- Making It Safer: A Study of Law Enforement Fatalities Between 2010-2016
- Professional Reading and Development: It Doesn’t Give All the Answers, But It Lights What Is Often a Uncertain Path Ahead
- What Are The Force Multipliers That Allow Police Organizations to Operate at Rapid OODA Loop Tempos?
- Why Frontline Employees Should Make All Decisions:Lessons Police Can Learn From The Corporate Rebels
- What was Boyd Thinking and...What Can Policing Learn From It?
- Proper Mindset, Situational Awareness, Skill Proficiency and Physical Fitness: Force Multipliers of Great Value to Police
- Recognizing The Signs and Signals That Lead To Violent Acts At Our Schools and Making Collaborative Efforts to Prevent Them
- Adaptive Leader Program: Developing Thinking Leaders Who Lead Thinking Officers
- What Are Mission-Type Orders and How Do They Influence a More Effective Crisis Response?
- Tactics Are They More High Diddle, Diddle Straight Up the Middle the Devil Be Damned or Maneuver and Boyd Cycling an Adversary?
- There Are No School Solutions, Formulas or Recipes to School Shootings, so How Can We Develop Better Courses of Action?
- Great Break It Down Show Focus on School Shootings
- Developing Critically Needed Leadership: A Podcast on Mission Command Building Trust and Cohesion
- Powerful Facilitation: Two Critical Approaches
- Powerful Facilitation: Three Critical Competencies
- STARTING AND GROWING A NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
- Adaptive Action: Leveraging Uncertainty In Your Organization a Book Review
- The Case Method In Developing Police: "Cold Calling" Will Have to Be Unambiguous
- The Biggest Obstacle to Tactical Progress… and How to Beat It
- Pete’s Combat Wish List Pt 2: Mental Models, Mistakes, Reflection and Learning on the Fly
- Pete’s Wish List for Combat Warriors. Perhaps Some Lessons for Poliicng as Well?
- What Affect Does the Human Dimension and Human Bias Have on Policing?
- What virtues are the most essential for a warrior to live by in order to prepare for, protect against and prevent violence?
- Exploring Criminal Justice Careers Check Out the Community for Accredited Online Schools
- A Great Break It Down Show Podcast on Interview and Interrogation: A Candid Straight Up Discussion
- Experiential Learning a Big Part of The New Recruit Officer Course In Massachusetts: Looks Promising!
- Run Out and Buy: Anatomy of a Warrior: The 7 Virtues All Warriors Must Live by to Successfully Protect and Serve
- Devising Solutions to Complex Police Problems: How Can We Get Better?
- Podcast with the Break It Down Show A Candid Discussion on Policing a Free Society, Mission Command and More
- Understanding Problems Range in Complexity and Designing Police Operations
- When it comes to Police Training, When is Good Enough, Not Good Enough?
- On The Job Training and Deliberately Framing Experience
- Police Officer Discretion…and Focusing Our Efforts on Better Outcomes
- Strength of Character: The Foundation of Working Together and Getting Things Done
- A free chapter from our new book now available on Amazon
- A Major Problem We Must Confront as Police Trainers and Students: How To Improve Performance?
- MISSION COMMAND THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY An Anthology
- Conflict and Crisis are Full of Friction: The Force That Makes the Apparently Easy so Difficult
- PODCAST: Don Vandergriff on Military Personnel Reform: The Ideas Discussed Can (SHOULD) be Adapted to Policing As Well!
- Fire Nobody! by Dave Smith
- Teaching United States Marine Instructors New Tricks: Developing Adaptability Through Experiential Learning
- The Why was born out of pain
- Inspiring People to Lifelong Learning & Impacting Their Ability to Make Sound Decisions
- We Can't Just Use the Same Mental Recipes Over and Over Again: In Police Training We Must Challenge The Prevailing Mindset
- Reflection Leads to Deeper Learning...Put Each Day Up For Review
- We Must Train and Educate Within an Uncertain Environment to Prepare to Adapt
- Defining Policing 's Training & Education Challenge...Some Ideas On Achieving High Levels of Professionalism
- Defensive Tactics for Today's Law Enforcement
- Uploading John Boyd: The Legend Delivering His Opus is Online...and is as Relevant as Ever
- Make Many Mistakes and Learn
- Is Your Purpose in Life Based on Self Awareness and Strength of Character or Are You Just Following the Crowd?
- An Officer’s Principal Weapon is His Mind: Professional Development In Policing
- Outstanding Manual: Law Enforcement Close Quarter Battle: Urban Tactics for Individuals, Teams and Tactical Units
- The Art of Police Training is the Ability to Move Officers Through the Fog and Complexity of Human Interaction
- Brian Willis Interviews Yours Truly on Teaching Adaptive Leadership
- The Police Leader's True Work: Train Them, Trust Them, Let Them Do Their Job
- Sir William Slim on His Leadership Motto: No Details, No Paper, And No Regrets
- The Grid: Is There Better Ways to Approach Police Interactions?
- Teaching Officers How to Think verses Telling Them What To Think
- Develop a Philosophy and Understanding of Crime Fighting and Problem Solving That Considers Complexities of Policing
- Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission Book Review
- Thinking Leaders, Leading Thinking People is the Adaptive Leaders Focus
- Take Policing From a Training Culture to a Learning Culture
- Are You Serving Those You Lead?
- Vehicle Stops Strategies and Tactics: Being Safe and Effective Is About Options, Not Best Practices
- Teaching Adaptability and Making Marines More Effective Trainers
- Break It Down Show Podcast: Better Understanding Policing and Why it Matters
- The Last 100 Yards Series: High Diddle, Diddle Straight Up the Middle or Maneuver: How Are Your Tactics, Officer?
- Police officers I beg you to please run out and buy this book! What a great tactical resource!
- Second Episode in This Podcast Series with Complete Emergency Managment: Leadership in Public Safety
- Podcast: I sit down with George Whitney of Complete EM and discuss: Active Shooters and After Actions
- Sir Robert Peels, Nine Key Principles of Policing: Fair and Impartial Policing Defined Back In 1829!
- Herman Goldstein, Fundamental Objectives of Policing: Are They Relevant Today? I Say Yes!
- Shaping and Adapting: Using the Environment (The Last Hundred Yards) To Unlock the Power of Colonel John Boyd’s OODA Loop
- Informative Fair and Impartial Podcast: Do the legal rules for using deadly force, still make sense?
- Crisis Intervention Teams & Police Interactions with People with Mental Illness: Evolving Tactics That Make a Difference
- How Does The Last Hundred Yards, Enhance Tactical Responses to Crises?
- Complacency and False Sense of Urgency: Why We Fail to Take Advantage of The Last Hundred Yards?
- The Last Hundred Yards: Operate On Blind Luck or Win Consistently?
- My Good Friend Coach Kevin Kearns talks with 5th & 6th graders about Vision
- Keeping The Peace in a Free Society Let Us Not Forget Why We Do What We Do
- How Do We Better Assess and Grade Decision Making and Adaptability in Those We Train?
- Types of Cases
- Report: Deadly Calls And Fatal Encounters
- Developing Individuals with the Ability to Work Together Solving Real World Problems
- Five-Year Study of Police Officer Deaths: RoboCops or Guardians?
- The role of humility in the Socratic method by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- Keeping the Peace
- Experiential Learning Defined
- How We Learn Versus How We Think We Learn
- Reducing Violence is About Not Grabbing a Gun
- Boston PD & Boston Red Sox: Full Scale Complex Operating Environment Training Exercise
- Scouts in Contact Tactical Vignettes for Cavalry Leaders A Book of Tactical Decison Exercises for Cavalry Leaders
- What is the Mission and Intent of Policing a Free Society?
- Sound of Silence A Tribute to Policing and All Those Who Serve The Homeland
- Problem-Oriented Policing: Where Social Work Meets Law Enforcement
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Altering Public Expectations
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Rethinking Widely Held Assumptions Regarding Police Fuction
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Our Failure to Concern Ourselves...
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society
- Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last
- 8 Tips to Keep Your Home Wireless Network Secure From Hackers: a guest post from Wichly Cazeau
- John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Part 3
- Engaging The Community and Making Meaningful and Lasting Change
- The Pre-Class Preparation Pyramid By Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- We All Lose When it's Us Verses Them!
- Facilatating The Adaptive Leader Program at The Army ROTC Leadership Conference at Harvard University
- A Break It Down Show Pod Cast: Paying Criminal Not to Commit Crimes or is There Something More to The Story?
- Harvard ROTC Leadership Conference
- A Discourse on Policing a Free Society
- We Made the Mandatory Reading for the US Army MPs
- Patterns of Conflict Pt 2
- Hand in Hand Project, a new initiative promoting dialogue and interaction between local police officers and young people
- How May We…Rebuild the Bridge Between The People and The Police?
- Why Adaptability Trumps Hierarchy?
- Military Reform Through Education: From The Straus Military Reform Project, Something We In Policing Can Learn From
- In Building Trust, Actions…Speak Louder Than Words!
- Somewhere Along the Way
- Taking It Personally
- The Facts of the Case By Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- J.J. DID TIE BUCKLE Traits I live By
- On Fitness: Learn from my weakness, my mistakes, and my bad habits
- Don’t Do It Alone: Developing a Shared Sense of Destiny Requires We’re all on the Same Sheet of Music
- Recommended Reading List From The California Association of Tactical Officers
- Values For A New Millennium: A Book That Will Help Bridge the Gap Between People and The Police
- Teaching Adaptability…and Firearms Training
- Simon Sinek: Why Reciprocity Improves Mentor Mentee Relationships
- Felix Nader Discusses The Value of Workplace Violence Prevention
- Breaking Down Police Work and How To Win at Low Cost: Part 2 Podcast Break It Down Show
- Boyd: Adapting Isn't Good Enough
- Simon Sinek on the responsibility that leaders have to create environments where people are more productive,and inspired
- The Hunting Story - the meaning of human equality
- Ethical Warriors with Jack Hoban
- Emotional Intelligence: Re-Thinking Police Community Relations by Mark Bond
- Approaching LE with the 'What's important now?' perspective
- Staying in control when a suspect is aggressive
- 10 Overlooked Truths About Taking Action
- Warriors vs. Praetorian Guard – Which Mindset Fits You Best? By Mike Ox
- ITOA News: Articles By John Farnam, Patrick Van Horne, Jeff Chudwin, Don Vandergriff, Yours Truly and More
- The importance of mindset in policing with Chip Huth
- A Discussion on Police Work and How to Win At Low Cost, Connecting The People and Police Gap
- Be Passionate, Back Up and Empower Your People, and You Will Get The Culture Right
- Why Are Shared Visions So Important?
- Technical Skill as a Component of Creativity by Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- I Am Spartacus…No I Am Spartacus: Is Your Police Organization United?
- The Demand For Autodidacts – The Self-Taught in an Age of Shrinking Budgets by Patrick Van Horne
- It’s How You Say What You Saw by Patrick Van Horne
- The Path of Don Vandergriff: A Discussion On Leadership, Learning organizations and Adaptability
- The Newhall Incident: Failure, Adaptation and Success…Or Lost Opportunity? Published in the latest ITOA News
- NYPD’s New Strategy for Dealing with Stressful Interactions, Absurd or Realistic?
- The Mind Can Be Convinced But The Heart Must Be Won
- Imagine a Police Culture Where People Wake Up Every Day Inspired to Go to Work
- Open Letter to President's Task Force on Policing by Louis Hayes
- The Blame Game: Who @#$%ed This Up?
- Breaking Down the Stranglehold of Formality
- Boyd and Beyond: From Marine Corps University to FBI National Academy Boyd' Ideas are Expanding
- From The Art of Manliness: John Boyd’s Roll Call: Do You Want to Be Someone or Do Something?
- Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
- The Case Method Increasing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Marine Education by Captain Paul Tremblay Jr USMC
- Simon Sinek: If You Don't Understand People, You Don't Understand...
- Using Official Histories as Quarries for Case Materials By Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- Left of Bang By Patrick Van Horne and Jason Riley
- The Most Dangerous Weapon in Law Enforcement by Brian Willis
- Sizing Up Situations Is A Skill, We Need To Develop
- Change the Culture If I could Only Change One Thing by Don Vandergriff
- The Five Learning Disciplines
- Using Complete Stories in Decision Forcing Cases by Dr. Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- Newhall Shooting: A Tactical Analysis
- Tactical Decision Games, Obscure Information and Generating New Ways to Thrive in the Climate of Chaos and Uncertainty
- Calling on Cops in Class: An Anecdote for Developing Character, Confidence and Sound Tactical Decision Makers
- Solving Tactical Dilemmas with Indirect Experience (Education & Training) and White Castle Cases
- Ugly Police Force: Misunderstandings of Law & Human Factors by Lou Hayes
- Design and Facilitate, Decision Making Exercises Using The Sandwich Metaphor
- Strategic Rifleman: Key to More Moral Warfare by H. John Poole
- Developing Teamwork, Leadership Skills and Decision Makers with Case Study's "Washington's Crossing"
- FBI Report: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States
- The Art of Manliness Discusses...The Tao of Boyd: How to Master the OODA Loop
- Courage: The Backbone of Leadership by Gus Lee
- A Police Officers thoughts on the “Militarization” of our police forces.
- Cops With War Toys: Militarizing police is the worst way to fight crime.
- “Just the facts Ma’am”
- Re-Imagine the Way We Lead!
- A Milestone in Boydian Theory at the Tactical Level
- CASE STUDY: Ferguson Missouri shooting incident and aftermath by Louis Hayes
- What is Leadership?
- Use of Force Investigations: a Manual for Law Enforcement
- Do You Know How to Get Fullfillment?
- How Great Leaders Inspire Action
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
- Adaptive Leadership Handbook, Reviewed [by Mark Safranski, a.k.a. "zen"]
- Have We Not Learned Anything From History? Don Vandergriff's Book Review on American Spartan
- How Do We Inspire Action?
- Book Review: Rubicon: The Poetry of War
- Book Review: American Spartan
- Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for WWII
- What are the Basics? Developing for Mission Command by Donald E. Vandergriff
- IN COMMAND AND OUT OF CONTROL
- Adaptive Leadership By Charles “Sid” Heal and John R. Engbeck
- Why good leaders make you feel safe
- Guardians vs. Warriors: What it Takes to Win at Low Cost
- After Action Review on The Christopher Dorner Incident
- Adaptive Leader Program
- Crisis Meta-Leadership Lessons From the Boston Marathon Bombings Response: The Ingenuity of Swarm Intelligence
- Outstanding piece! The Myth of Mission Command by Don Vandergriff
- Cops or Soldiers?
- Situational Assessments: Being Mindful of What’s Important Now!
- Convinced or Committed?
- Discipline: The Lost Art of Leadership
- How Do We Develop Adaptability?
- Improve the Work…Develop the People
- Incident Strategy and Tactics: The Baby Diaper Analogy
- Adaptive Leaders …Develop Strength of Character
- How About Some Empathy, Please?
- Get Into the Sandbox, Think and Play and Let’s Inspire… Adaptability
- Stoning The Gatekeepers: Is It Not Time Society Attempts To Better Understand Police Use of Force?
- First-Line Supervisors Do The Most Important Training
- Why Tactical Decision Games? Because They Challenge The Status Quo & Emphasize Tactical Options In Developing Courses of Action.
- Why Does Understanding The OODA Loop Matter to Cops?
- How Do You Develop Strength of Character and Adaptive Leaders?
- Adaptive Leadership Handbook: Innovative Ways to Teach and Develop Your People
- Don’t Fear Failure; Instead Make Failure Your Classroom
- In Forging Adaptability…Distinguish Technical Problems from Adaptive Challenges
- The Doctor in SWAT School (and What His Performance Says About Police Culture)
- Designing Law Enforcement: Adaptive Strategies for the Complex Environment by John A. Bertetto
- Guest Post: Toward a Police Ethos: Defining Our Values as a Call to Action by John Bertetto
- Adaptability is Key in Handling Crisis Situations…Be In Command and Out Of Control
- For Meaningful Lasting Results, Get Into the Weeds…and Identify Root Causes
- Want to get better and be safer? Debrief!
- How to Forge Adaptability in Police Leaders and Culture
- Adaptive Leadership is Purposeful Learning in Real Time
- Book Review: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and The World
- Growing Leaders Who Practice Mission Command and Win the Peace, Lt. Col. Douglas A. Pryer, U.S. Army
- Achieving Greatness by Giving Control and Creating Leaders
- Choosing Adaptability by Gary Gagliardi and The Science of Strategy Institute
- The Review of Boyd & Beyond 2013…..
- Have You Thought About Why You Choose To Lead?
- Incident Command: the big picture by Louis Hayes
- Understanding the OODA Loop by Derek Stephens
- The Cops Amaze Me by Bob Lonsberry
- I Am An Optimist. It Does Not Seem Too Much Use Being Anything Else!
- Mike Rayburn Asks...What Makes A Good Street Cop?
- Fighting the good fight with moral clarity by Lt. Dan Marcou
- Are Gated Communities Really Secure?
- Top 25 Criminal Justice Blogs We made the list at # 3
- Incident Command: the team cohesion aspect of the SitRep
- Book Review: Always Picked Last: Conquering the Bullies: A Guide To Finding Your Way in Life…
- To Continuously Improve We Must Set Boundaries and Expectations
- Elite Performance...Takes WORK? Say it ain't so!
- Create Your Fantasy Island Organizational Culture by Tracey Richardson
- Have You Stopped a Car Today? Improving Patrols Tactical Effectiveness with Vehicle Stops
- Incident Command: Communicating the Situation and Location By Louis Hayes
- Incident Command: a problem-solving approach By Louis Hayes
- SWAT Cop Says American Neighborhoods Are 'Battlefields,' Claims Cops Face Same Dangers As Soldiers In Afghanistan
- Overmilitarization: Why Law Enforcement Needs to Scale Down Its Use of Military Hardware and Tactics By Evan Bernick
- John Boyd’s Art of War Why our greatest military theorist only made colonel. By William S. Lind
- Police militarization and rise of the warrior journalist by Lance Eldridge
- Strategic Studies Institute: Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico Authored by Dr. Robert J. Bunker, Mr. John P. Sullivan
- To Strengthen And Preserve Cohesion Your Values...Equal Their Values
- Another Must Read Book From Don Vandergriff: "The Path To Victory" Revised Kindle Version with a new foreword
- Safe Streets, Overruled By Heather McDonald of the City Journal
- Must Read Book On Leader Development, Updated Kindle Addition: Don Vandergriff's, Raising The Bar:
- Brian Willis Offers Great Info on Defeating...The Enemy Of Innovation
- Police militarization and the Ethical Warrior By Jack E. Hoban & Bruce J. Gourlie
- “A Way” To Develop a Toxic Leader: How We as Leaders Create Our Own Monsters
- The Guy Behind the Guy, Behind the Guy: A Case for Taking our Roles More Seriously
- Flatenning the Decision Cycle in Tactical Units
- Tactical Supervision: Coaches and Chessplayers: Guest Post By Louis Hayes
- To effectively function in the initial, chaotic stages of a crisis, develop adaptive leaders
- FEAR VS COURAGE: IT'S YOUR CHOICE By Danny Cox
- Skid Row Terrorist
- Col John Boyd: Question and Answer Video
- Great Piece on Adaptability by Brian Willis: The Dinosaur versus The Cockroach Training Model
- The Psychotic Militarization of Law Enforcement
- The Missing Piece of NIMS: Teaching Incident Commanders How to Function in the Edge of Chaos by Police Chief, Cynthia Renaud
- The Human Problem? by Frank Borelli an Officer.com article
- From Police One 3 techniques for controlling your brain with Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
- Great Article From Police One with Val Van Brocklin: How to create 'fierce followers' in law enforcement
- Deadly Force: Have We Lost Our Senses? Guest Post by Louis Hayes
- Tactical Philosophy 101 A Guest Post by Louis Hayes
- Leadership in Unconventional Crises
- Unconventional Crises, Unconventional Responses: Reforming Leadership in the Age of Catastrophic Crises and “Hyper complexity”
- JOHN BOYD WAS A PATRIOT, A MORAL LEADER, AND A BONAFIDE VISIONARY. AND YES, HE WAS A MAVERICK.
- Force Science Research Study: The Influence of Officer Positioning on Movement During a Threatening Traffic Stop Scenario
- Guest Post: Adaptive Decision-Making by Sid Heal
- “More Better,” Ideals, and To Be or To Do: Guest Post by Scott Shipman
- Learning Like an Expert: A Guest Post by Marshall Wallace
- What Represents a High Level of Professionalism?
- This Memorial Day Remember: The Path of The Warrior
- School Security: Sharing and Enhancing Best Practices
- Guest Post by Michael G. Moore: Boyd's Snowmobile ...or what made Alexander “The Great”
- Coffee Pots and Baseball Bats: Household Items Offer Protection
- Learning to Adapt With A Professional Reading Program
- Boyd and Beyond 2013
- Guest Post by Tyana Daley: Developing Law Enforcement Leaders and Nurturing Smart Thinkers
- Somewhere Between Born and Made: Where Good Leaders Come From
- Is Today Your Day?
- Guest Post by John Demand: “You look for the bomb…we look for the bomber”
- What Do OODA Loop’s Mean to the Street Cop, Wanting To Become “World Class” Tacticians?
- The Psychology of a Boston Marathon Terrorist: 10 Questions for a Retired Marine
- Watching Boston “Work Together” Made Me Proud to Be a Police Officer
- What Makes a "World Class" Tactically Proficient Peacekeeper?
- Tactical Decision Games to Increase Speed and Maturity of Problem Solving: The Lessons Learned
- The Path to Better Execution in Seeing, Understanding and Solving Complex Problems is a Learning Organization
- A Systemic Concept for Operational Design: a Robust Tool Law Enforcement Should Use in Preparing for Chaotic Crisis
- How shift debriefings can improve officer safety Published at P1
- Boyd and Beyond Boston 2013: Balancing Pursuasion and Force in The Moral, Mental and Physical Dimensions of Conflict
- Don Vandergriff, Discusses: Misinterpretation and Confusion: What is Mission Command?
- Huddling-Up To Acheive Successful Law Enforcement Outcomes
- Building Cohesive Law Enforcement Agencies That Can Decide In Crisis Situations
- Mistakes ultimately ended ex-LA cop's rampage
- Red Teaming The Workplace Violence Shooter and The "MR. Uncomfortable Factor"
- Top 30 Criminal Justice Blogs of 2012 : LESC is Number 5!
- Showing Up Is Overrated. Necessary But Not Nearly Sufficient. Can Taking An "Interest" In What You Do Enhance Performance?
- Handling Dynamic Encounters...Go Get Him, Or Set Him Up To Get Him...With An Adaptable Response
- Shift Debriefings: How Can We Be More Deliberate, More Disciplined, and More Thorough in our Approach to Learning?
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 6: Provoke Your Adversary’s Reaction
- Does Mass Violence Unfold Randomly and Chaotic or is There Hidden Order We Can Leverage in Our Prevention Efforts?
- Police One Column: 13 questions to answer in 2013: What has 2012 taught you about officer safety and effectiveness?
- Take Small Steps, Towards, Lifelong Learning In 2013
- Positive Adaptive Leadership...Tools and Tips and Critical Questions To Explore in 2013 Inspired by Many Of Those I Follow
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Adaptive Leadership By Charles “Sid” Heal and John R. Engbeck
Submitted by Fred on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 10:08am.
This article is published in the current spring 2014 edition of the NTOA publication The Tactical Edge and republished here with permission of the author. It both an honor and a privilege to be able to post the article here on our site.
The problem
On a warm summer day in 1992, Washington Park in South Central Los Angeles was busier than it had ever been. There was hardly room to walk as the entire south end was occupied by an estimated 800 gang members openly drinking beer and catcalling neighbors, pedestrians and passing motorists. They were conspicuously wearing their gang colors in the form of clothing and bandanas to identify their particular affiliation. Police kept their distance to avoid accidentally provoking an incident that could easily lead to a full-scale riot. This was a very real concern because one of the most violent riots in American history had just concluded and tensions remained extremely high.
Immediately after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, so-called “unity meetings” between historical enemies, the Crips and Bloods, were being lauded by the news media and public officials as a harbinger of “peace for our time.” While local police remained skeptical, no one wished to be accused of jinxing the peace efforts. On this day, however, the actions of the gangs were intentionally inflammatory as the local community withdrew in fear and neighbors retreated into their houses, traffic avoided the area and businesses began taking down their signs and removing merchandise from windows and sidewalks. They had just experienced one riot and were mindful of what had to be done to protect themselves.
Experience had shown that a lack of intervention only emboldened the belligerents, resulting in increasingly provocative behaviors to draw attention and incite a response. Their expected reaction was undoubtedly a large police presence in full riot gear with accompanying media exposure. Later, gang spokesmen would deride law enforcement’s overreaction to “peaceful” attempts at reconciliation. Explanations to the contrary would be seen as suspect, and no witnesses would be forthcoming for fear of retaliation.
Tension and fears mounted as the obvious threats continued growing. The lieutenant has found himself in what seems an untenable situation; a situation that has not been covered in training or texts. In point of fact, the gangs were well aware of what worked and what didn’t, as well as the typical police solutions and were anxious to win their war in the court of public opinion. Clearly, what was called for was a new approach and this required a new way of thinking about the problem.
The police lieutenant tasked with handling the incident is not helpless, however. He is a seasoned veteran with a lot of domain-specific knowledge. Thus, even though the specific circumstances are unique, the overall situation is not. In fact, he has a repertoire of similar experiences from which to draw upon and compare. He’s familiar with the people, the terrain, the time, the weather, the support available and a host of other factors. More to the point, he’s aware of what hasn’t worked in the past. This knowledge establishes him as an expert in this particular situation and allows him to quickly explore options that, if not predestined to succeed, then at least are not following the known pathways to failure.
Another factor that the lieutenant has in his favor is that the agency he works for encourages ingenuity, creativity and adaptability. Even the boldest leaders will avoid actions they know will result in punishment if they fail, and so this nurturing environment plays a major supporting role in moving his thoughts and actions in different and sometimes unconventional directions. As he considers courses of action and mentally evaluates them, he explores relatively unafraid of failure. As long as his actions are reasonable he can expect the support of his superiors.
The third factor is that he has been trained to recognize and adjust to changing circumstances. This ability to diagnose is particularly important because it provides the power to avoid actions which have proven unproductive in the past while allowing more time to think and prepare for something different. Thus, the harsh time constraints that always accompany crises are somewhat alleviated when leaders are able to use time more effectively. Of note is that in the nourishing environment of a supportive administration the initial training blossomed and grew and so the lieutenant is not only endowed with ability and confidence but empowered with the authority to think and act outside the norm.
Adaptive leadership
Among the many lessons learned in the war on terrorism has been that the best combat leaders think on their feet. They don’t automatically respond with a by-the-book solution but rather adapt their thinking and actions to better understand a situation and select a course of action that more precisely fits the problem. Understandably, the military services, especially the ground forces, wanted to understand and perpetuate what was clearly an advantage over traditional methods and began trying to understand why some combat leaders were more successful than others. Researchers discovered that in the chaos and confusion inherent in unpredictable environments the most effective leaders were able to grasp the essence of a situation and devise innovative solutions that proved far more successful than might be expected from standard practices. These same revelations have been verified by researchers in the business world resulting in a fresh outlook on what makes people innovative.
Like the military, confusing and high stakes situations are not uncommon in law enforcement and there are no shelf-ready solutions. In many respects, the situation in which the lieutenant found himself is not unlike a combat situation. There is a great deal of uncertainty and no small amount of risk. There are harsh time constraints and potentially severe consequences for acting in the wrong manner or failing to act at all. The presence of an adversary who is capable of independent thought and action complicates the problem still further. It would seem, then, that the lessons learned in the military discipline might be extrapolated for similar situations occurring in law enforcement.
Generically, the methodology of thinking and acting to surprising situations is referred to as adaptive leadership. This style of leadership involves the recruitment, training and nurturing of people to recognize and adapt to unfolding situations that do not readily conform to conventional solutions. It also includes the organizational investment of authorizing them to make mistakes. Without this, even the most creative people are stifled as they suppress ingenuity and innovation to achieve an acceptable solution in the eyes of the organization.
No leader is perfect and no solution is failsafe. If they were, it would be easier to teach the solutions as a skill set and simply reapply them when necessary. Leadership, however, is far more amorphous and difficult to define. While, singly, the individual leadership characteristics have long been known, collectively they create an empowerment of adaptability that provides clear advantages over conventional “managerial” styles of leadership, especially in resolving crises.
In examining adaptability in leaders, three factors have become apparent. The first is that a behavior change is central to the understanding. Even if it is effective, persisting in a course of action despite changes in circumstances is not adaptive. Second is that any change must be in response to some shift in circumstances. Changing solely for the sake of change itself is not adaptive. Finally, the change must be effective. It makes no sense to change something that makes things harder.
Researchers also noted that adaptability could be categorized into three predominate types. Physical adaptability describes personal abilities to adjust to tough environmental conditions, such as extreme heat or cold, winds, dust, smoke, snow, rain, fog, darkness, and so forth. Of necessity, this means the person must be able to complete physically demanding tasks and includes attributes such as strength, stamina and flexibility. Interpersonal adaptability describes a person’s abilities to accommodate other perspectives and emotions. While this often means compromise, it does not require it.
Leaders who are sure of their decisions are also more resolute in insisting on a course of action. Interpersonal adaptability more closely describes a person’s sincere attempts to understand the needs and motivations of other people. This tremendously reduces friction resulting from the strong personalities typically involved in decisions during crises. Mental adaptability is the third type and describes a person’s abilities in envisioning alternatives and overcoming obstacles. Of necessity, this also includes abilities in handling stress and accepting new ideas.
Those who are particularly adept at adaptive thinking also possess a lot of domain-specific knowledge, that is, knowledge in a particular discipline, function or subject. Naturally, someone who knows more about one thing than another gains abilities that are not available to rookies . Moreover, an expert in one subject is not necessarily an expert in others. No one expects a doctor to be a pilot, for example. What is just as interesting though, is that these same people are also aware of what they don’t know. This encourages them to search for other experts for consultation and advice.
The researchers also noticed that along with knowledge in a particular subject, the best adaptive leaders had a wide range of knowledge and experiences. While they may not be experts in all fields, they had some understanding of how things worked in other disciplines, what had happened in the past and an overall view of the big picture. They were able to envision potentials and make mental comparisons. This allowed them to see opportunities and improvisations that were missed by persons of lesser experience. After-action reviews also revealed that they engaged in “deliberate practice” by mentally correcting actions they did not want to repeat in similar situations as well as thinking about other options in handling future problems.
Adaptive decision-making
A subset of adaptive leadership is adaptive decision-making. The concept of adaptive decision-making is best understood as the mental process of effectively reacting to a change in a situation. In the simplest terms, it refers to problem-solving. Studies of leaders who seem particularly adept in this area revealed two fundamental processes in sequence. The first is that they have an existing pattern from training or experience—even if only remotely similar—upon which they can draw. They mentally compare the present problem with this existing mental image, which in turn provides insight and ideas of what might work. In other words, they have developed intuition. The second is that they don’t accept an idea at face value but rather conduct a mental simulation which allows them to mentally compare and test their intuition with the present circumstances. This mental simulation includes an action sequence in which one state of affairs is transformed and compared with another. In this manner, effective adaptive decision-makers can be best understood as having thought the problem through further than others.
Whether leaders are adaptable and to what extent can be attributed nearly entirely to three factors, all of which are present in every instance. The first involves the personal traits and characteristics of a particular leader. Every leader has a unique and infinitesimal combination of knowledge, experience, education, courage, skills, imagination, intuition, ingenuity, tact and other attributes. These work singly and in combination to inhibit or foster effective reactions. The second is the organizational rules, norms and culture that encourage or discourage adaptive behavior. Organizations that dogmatically punish failure are not conducive to experimentation or exploration. Understandably, leaders that emerge from this type of environment are reluctant to deviate from norms. The third is the extent that a person is trained to recognize and adjust to changing circumstances. This last factor is particularly important because of the implied potential for increasing creativity, ingenuity and effectiveness by preparing people to lead in chaotic and ever-changing situations.
Training adaptive leader methodology
In attempting to transfer adaptable thinking to other leaders, both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have initiated formal programs of instruction. As these programs have been instituted, the law enforcement community has also gradually become interested with at least one formal course developed and taught with the Baltimore Police Department.
While some minor differences exist between the approaches, the predominate theme is to increase a student’s knowledge by employing a type of mentorship in which experienced instructors assist students in effectively anticipating, recognizing and responding to changes in a situation.
Researchers learned that experience was at the core of the most effective adaptive leaders. Experience is necessary for developing intuition and so it quickly became apparent that developing experience would be critical for enhancing adaptability. Fortunately, experience is one of the few leadership factors that can be developed almost as easily in training as in real-life situations. This is probably because it relies entirely upon mental images, even in real life. Thus, training to mimic real life results in the same lessons learned. While students freely explore in the safety of a training exercise, they are unconsciously expanding their experience. Naturally, the closer a training scenario mimics a real one, the easier it is to make a comparison and draw insight. Even so, any experience has been shown to be a major advantage and some of the more effective and innovative solutions have been extrapolated from experiences that were only remotely similar to the one for which the solution was applied.
One condition in adaptive leader methodology training is that it frequently employs harsh time constraints. This duplicates the same conditions that are routinely encountered in real-life crises and imposes stress, which in return requires students to quickly identify alternatives and priorities. Because many problems are too complex to be easily solved within the time constraints, students must rely on guidance and advice from other experts, and so alliances and teamwork come into play, often crossing boundaries of agency or discipline. Likewise, when experts are of junior rank, delegation of authority becomes necessary. Using this mode of training, students are required to develop and employ a wide variety of coping skills and tactics to rapidly overcome obstacles. The closer these situations mimic actual situations in the future, the better the students will be able to deal with them.
The best format for instruction in adaptive leader methodology has proven to involve some form of interaction with students, especially discussions (both moderated and open), practical applications, decision-making exercises, games and free play exercises.
Students must possess a great deal of knowledge of a situation before they are able to recognize deviations from the norms and are often experts in a particular field or discipline before attending these courses. The students are presented a problem and engage in deliberate practice in attempting to identify a satisfactory resolution. During the evolution of a particular problem, scenario or exercise, the instructors are able to control the operational tempo by providing changes to a situation in the form of “injects” which mimic actual situations likely to be encountered in real life. These may be as simple as a weather change or as complex as a subtle, political influence. Regardless, students are expected to recognize the impact of the change in the situation and respond appropriately. More importantly, instructors can provide a focus or challenge conventional thinking by asking questions and stating observations. Furthermore, the training can be designed to increase knowledge and abilities in a specific discipline, subject or field or emphasize a particular skill or ability, such as stress management, establishing priorities, recognizing a change, creating alliances or allocating resources.
A resolution
The police lieutenant in charge of the operation was fully familiar with what had happened in the past and was keenly aware that responding in the expected manner would only work in the gangs’ favor. Understanding the mission to be restoring peace and order to the community, he also realized the advantages of avoiding force if possible. After confiding with a trusted sergeant, he turned his attention to briefing concerned senior executives, political officials and media representatives who wanted information.
The gang members noted the sprinklers coming on in the north end of the park with only mild interest. It was clear that the grass was well-watered, and in Southern California that task is always done with sprinklers that usually run on a timer. The sprinklers were some distance away and of little consequence. As time passed, they noted the sequence was from north to south and they gradually crowded more tightly together to avoid getting wet. Eventually, there was no alternative but to move out of the park. The sidewalks and surface streets were not big enough to hold the large crowd, and many began walking away. Within an hour only a few stragglers remained.
Unbeknownst to the gang members, the sergeant had contacted a maintenance man at the park and was controlling the sprinklers from the park headquarters out of sight from the gangs. To avoid alerting and agitating the gang, he had begun at some distance from the gathering to increase plausibility. The confrontation was averted.
The lieutenant’s solution was, of course, not the only possible solution. What would you do?
About the authors
Charles “Sid” Heal is a retired commander with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and retired from the Marine Corps as a CWO-5 with four tours of combat in four different wars. He holds two graduate degrees in management and is the author of Sound Doctrine: A Tactical Primer and Field Command, both focusing on tactical science. He is currently serving as the NTOA’s section chair for Strategy Development and is the author of the “Tactical Concepts” column featured in The Tactical Edge.
John Engbeck, Ph.D. is a former deputy with the Sacramento County Probation Department, and served in both the USMC and U.S. Army during Desert Shield/Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has been in the security and law enforcement industry since 1979. He is a published author whose focus of research has been innovation, learning and cooperation in police organizations and communities. He holds a doctorate degree in Human Services – Criminal Justice.
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