- 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
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 5: Sheath Your Sword
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 4: Score A Small Victory Along The Way
- In Mastering Tactics Shouldn’t We Be Blending Policy and Procedures with People and Ideas?
- Ready, Aim, Ready?
- IMPLEMENTATION (OODA LOOP OR BOYD’S CYCLE) by Sid Heal
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 3: Engage Your Adversary From Many Directions
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 2: Lure The Tiger Out Of The Mountain
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 1: Catch Your Adversary Sleeping
- The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck…Simple, Yet, Great Tool for Developing Strategic and Tactical Mindset
- "Certain men…come to be accepted guardians and transmitters, instructors, of established doctrines...
- On Vision
- Book Review: The Rite of Return: Coming Back From Duty Induced PTSD
- Restoring the Wounded Spirit
- Deciding Under Pressure…and Fast: You Need to Understand the Concept of “Coup d’oeil”
- How Do Adaptive Leaders Think?
- Capt Evan Bradley on Boyd, Adaptability and Understanding the Bigger Picture in Conflict
- Captain Lindsay Rodman On Boyd and Taking Ownership of What You Do!
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Does Mass Violence Unfold Randomly and Chaotic or is There Hidden Order We Can Leverage in Our Prevention Efforts?
Submitted by Fred on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 1:25pm.
“Newton’s laws describe the motion of everything under the Sun and give physics great power in its ability to relate cause and effect. Yet the path of a ball in a pin ball machine seems to defy human control, it seems chaotic.” ~Chaos, Professor Steven Strogatz, Cornell University
Chaotic, a word often used to describe, the acts of mass killings we see happening all too frequently as of late and over the past couple of decades. Although still rare statistically, the randomness, unpredictability, chaos and sheer rage and deliberate violence and lives taken, involved in these acts has us with a laser like focus on, questioning, WHY would someone be so evil and do something like this, something so senseless, seemingly random and unpredictable? Yet when we dig deeper into these seemingly chaotic and random acts there seems to be some determinism, something’s in common, that strangely attracts these killers, towards rage filled outbursts that leads to these horrific and violent acts. Within these acts of violence is there some semblance of hidden order we can harness in the prevention of violent encounters? If so, what are these strange attractors that lead to chaos, hidden within the mind of a mass killer as stress, anxiety, motive and intent? When and how do they manifest themselves in the signs and signals we can read and interpret helping us exploit an opportunity in a timely way to prevent the violence and the chaos that ensues?
The science of chaos asks a critical question I think relevant to these violent acts. How can something be chaotic and random yet follow deterministic laws? I am a non-scientist but I am an avid explorer into violent acts and the people that commit them, who asks critical questions, how does chaos relate to violence and what are the commonalties in these tragedies that can help us prevent more violence from occurring and bring order to disorder? Can we predict violence in its chaotic and disordered form or is there something hidden or fail to see or, see and fail to act on in those who would commit violence in its ugliest form, that can help us prevent violent acts and if so, how?
What is chaos? The ancient Greeks summarized the tension between order and disorder with two opposing words cosmos and chaos. Cosmos means order. Chaos initially meant chasm, the abyss, the bottomless pit. Later, it came to mean the primeval state before creation, a state of utter disorder. This sense of “chaos” as utter confusion persisted into the modern era. Over the past few decades scientist began finding strange, unexpected connections between different forms of chaos. Geologist noticed surprising patterns in the frequency of earthquakes. The same patterns appeared in the variability of human heart rates and bursts of traffic on the internet. The rules of chaos were turning out to be universal, independent of the stuff behaving chaotically, the same for electronic circuits, lasers, chemical reactions, or nerve cells. It was if disorder was a thing in itself. It didn’t matter what was behaving chaotically; the process of becoming chaotic was turning out to be lawful, but the laws were like nothing science had ever seen before. (Chaos, Professor Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, 2008)
Today chaos is defined as “a paradoxical state, a kind of unpredictable behavior in a system governed by deterministic laws.” The term “butterfly effect” derived from a lecture scientist Edward Lorenz entitled “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wing in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?” (Chaos, Professor Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, 2008) The “butterfly effect” refers to the extreme sensitivity of chaotic system to tiny, imperceptible changes in initial conditions. In the minds of those who kill, could their thoughts, intentions, motives, stresses and anxieties, poor coping skills be the “butterfly effect” influencing violent acts? Could it be that in violent chaotic acts, the vexing or, missing piece of the puzzle in how to predict and prevent them from occurring lies in the strange, unexpected connections between the different people, how they cope with life, and different methods they use to plan and carry out their acts? If so, where do we look for indicators of violence, when is the best time for prediction, how much time do we have to observe and orient to these indicators, which could lead to prevention of violence? My theory is it’s in the pre-attack stage where stress and anxiety are building and the feeling of loss of control over one’s life is building towards confusion, a sense of loss of control that if unchecked leads to rage. The signs and signals begin to manifest themselves in body language and changes in behavior that indicates this person is on the path of destruction. This destruction can lead to depression, mental conditions, abusiveness, and drug and alcohol dependency and, yes at times, violent acts.
People although complex are most of the time predictable. In an attempt to have some semblance of control over our lives we follow daily routines or habits. Think about it for just a second. What do you do when you first get out of bed, do you brush your teeth, put on your bathrobe and slippers, get your coffee and watch television? Perhaps you throw on your workout clothes and do some physical exercise? Whatever your, routine, is it the same on most days? I am willing to predict yes it is, unless something happens on a particular day(s) that cause you to change. The same goes for kids in school or you and your fellow employees in the workplace, unless something alters your situation.
If you sleep late your routine is broken and we often discuss how our day started out wrong and we had a chaotic day. Our determined routine turned unpredictable knocking us off our normal pattern of behavior and “stress out” rules the day. We may feel rushed and upset or perhaps even angry. We look and feel different to others, our loved ones, friends and co-workers, that prompt the question; you look stressed, are you ok? Once we re-establish our routines we begin to calm down and focus on the tasks we need to complete throughout the day which has a calming effect on us and we get back to our normal selves. This is how most of us respond to stress and disorder in our lives. Most of us have healthy coping skills that allow us to adapt to the changes in routine or the feeling of loss of control over our conditions. Even when something is overwhelming like a loved one, who is ill, or bills we struggle to pay, someone has made us angry; most of us cope by adapting to the situation, learning from it and persevere through the problem in a healthy and successful way. People who commit mass violence do not cope, or adapt in a healthy way and that stress of not coping and adapting shows itself in abnormal patterns of behavior, and body language, facial expressions, what they say and how they say it, leaks out as they struggle to regain control or plan and plot their violent acts.
When looking at behavior or behavioral changes it’s important to look at them in context of the situation; there is no profile. Yet there are behaviors to look for based on continuing normal patterns of behavior or a change in that behavior in an individual who may be struggling with anxiety, stress or potentially fixed on violence. Understanding these behaviors and taking action to reach out to the vast array of resources to help the individual may be the bridge between prevention of violence and the act of violence. There must be training and education in this area of recognizing the signs and signals of stress, anxiety that lead to potential violence. Some common patterns and anomalies (behaviors and behavioral changes) you can look for are:
Inflexibility Hopelessness Extreme lack of energy Identifies with perpetrators of violence Intimidation of others Need to have control over others, manipulative Paranoia, views self as a victim of society Socially awkward or uncomfortable Adverse reaction to constructive criticism Does not take responsibility for own actions Blames others Dwells on the negative Sense of entitlement Creates unrest for the sake of unrest May have history of disciplinary action Obsession with weapons. Not a strong interest but obsession Police encounters (not always) Stalking others Inability to “let it go”
These signs are common and most likely manifest themselves in every one of us at times. It’s important not to lose sight of this and that its recognizing a person’s normal patterns and then changes to those patterns that are what we need to mindful of. There are people who would never hurt a soul who show many of these signs daily because it’s their nature to do so. The context of the situation always must be considered when you’re assessing threats through pattern analysis.
Recognizing these behaviors help us in our assessment of the person. Threat assessment is situational awareness and management through; observation, orientation, decision and action cycles, on the part of individuals, teams and the organization working together to snuff out risks and threats: Good threat assessments should answer the questions; Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? The process of threat assessment is driven by information concerning the behaviors of the involved individual. In general the more information provided to the assessment process, the higher quality the assessment.
The process of information and knowledge management brought to a level of actionable knowledge to determine best prevention strategies to promote safety and a healthy workplace or learning environment. Knowledge is the catalyst to awareness; Learn-unlearn and relearn what we know or think we know about violence. Violence does not unfold in a linear way; it unfolds in a non-linear and probabilistic way. It is full of complexity and uncertainty in the potentially violent individual and in the way a violent individual carries out his violent acts. But within the uncertainty, and probabilistic way violence unfolds is some hidden order and determinism that shows itself prior to an attack and we must do our best to adapt and act here.
When these indicators manifest themselves we only have so much time to determine when someone is spiraling out of control and act to intervene in an effort to prevent violence. Violence in these people takes many forms “mass killing” is the most extreme. Others commit suicide or live abusive lives, gamble, abuse drugs or alcohol, or spend too much money. We call these people crazy, weird, nuts, and when they act out violently we call them evil or monsters. I have used the terms myself but not all of the people who commit violent acts were always monsters or evil. In general people who commit suicide or abuse were not always crazy or nuts. Many lived healthy and predictable lives much like our own until something triggered their spiraling down a horrific and violent path. Are there exceptions to this rule? Yes! There are those sociopaths who feel no stress anxiety or remorse, for their actions, but they are rare and do not manifest the pre-attack indicators in the same sense prior to attack. They do manifest the indicators in the attack stage as they move in like the predators, on their prey.
The key to preventing violence lies in taking advantage of the time we observe the changes in behavior or behavior so bazaar and out of the norm it alarms others. When we observe indicators of someone struggling and we orient towards the behavior in a confused, puzzled or even fearful state we must act on it before it goes too far. Changes in behavior are a big sign of someone struggling. These changes vary in length and extremes and their seemingly unpredictable acts of violence do not occur instantaneously. People who commit these acts do not just snap most mass killings are planned and, plotted over time. This is the time we need to focus our efforts on threat assessment, prediction and prevention. Many of these killers who have survived to talk about it have described their mental state as, their lives being out of control and their only way of gaining control was to act out violently. Many said they tried to reach out for help only to feel helpless. This is no excuse, for their behavior; in my opinion they are responsible for their horrific acts. Instead I see this as an explanation of why and a catalyst to preventing these acts from occurring.
When we recognize normal patterns of behavior in a person we can determine and predict the type of person they are. We do this all the time in developing relationships with others. The personality traits we like or see as normal in others attract us to them. This is important to recognize and understand because in people who commit unpredictable and chaotic acts we only have a certain amount of time to intervene before conflict turns to violence. In chaos theory there is another factor known as “strange attractors.” In chaos theory it is known that chaos is order as well as randomness. “Strange attractor is the natural shape of chaos. It’s strange because its geometry is strange.” (Chaos, Professor Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, 2008) It’s extremely complex much like, human beings who are termed as complex adaptive systems. “And it’s an attractor because the system that it describes is always drawn towards the behavior that it represents, as if attracted to it.” (Chaos, Professor Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, 2008) Much like normal human behavior attracts normal healthy relationships and actions, while abnormal or unhealthy behavior attracts stress, anxiety, conflict and violence. The existence of strange attractors, looking at the human condition through the lens of chaos and strange attractors helps us to see when there is order and or disorder in people’s lives. Scientists are encouraged by strange attractors because by revealing the unexpected order in chaos, strange attractors offer hope that this sort of seeming chaos might be partly predictable and controllable. Could this hold some hope for the prediction and prevention of violent acts?
In violence prevention the “strange attractors” in all of these acts lies in the pre-attack phase, in the anomalies of behavior we all hear discussed in the aftermath of a violent act. Statements like; “He did appear to be stressed.” “He changed in recent months” “He wrote letters and made phone calls that were alarming to others.” He said he was stressed but I never thought he would do something like this.” “He used to be a team player but recently he became a loner.” I knew he was having financial and family problems but this, I never thought he would do!” “He was always friendly and approachable but recently he had angry outbursts at work, that alarmed us but we never thought…” Statements like these and more in the aftermath of a violent mass killing are common in all these cases. Yes the people who carry out the acts of violence are different. The circumstances that lead to the abnormal behavior are different. The locations of the acts are carried out in different places. And the victims are different. But the signs and signals of stress and anxiety in a person struggling are almost always the same and if left unresolved, sadly the results are all too often the same.
Chaos, randomness, and disorder plague violent acts, as they are carried out in the attack phase. But it is the strange attractors, those signs and signals we observe and orient to in the pre-attack phase and that certain amount of time a person is struggling to cope we can gain the advantage and prevent violent acts from occurring. This time frame, known as the” horizon of predictability” is fleeting and it varies so we must be vigilant, be willing to work together with strength of character accepting risk of possibly being wrong or alienating a friend or co-worker to prevent violence. The “laze fair” and “it will not happen here or to me” approach is no longer good enough.
Predicting events of violence is a very difficult job but it can be done, not perfectly but in a much more efficient and effective way through planning, awareness and training those in adaptability and decision making under pressure and in recognizing the signs and signals of anxiety and stress that potentially lead to violence that often go unseen. Yes, indeed there are risks involved. But a good comprehensive threat assessment and violence prevention program involving resilient networks of people, and collaborative effort, with strength of character to implement the program fully can make these risks calculated which is far different from rash. The threat assessment is meant to prove as well as disprove the potential for violent action. The threat assessment is also a tool to get early intervention to someone struggling, helping them find their way back to productive, violent free and fulfilling life. Is there a hidden order in the midst of the chaos and uncertainty of violent acts? I believe there is and if we leverage these signs early on, disorder and chaos acted out physically in a violent way will be a lot less likely.
Stay Oriented!
Fred
Resources:
- Fred's blog
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