- 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
- 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!
- William McNulty-Team Rubicon: Boyd, Applied to Disaster Response
- Heroes Behind the Badge
- Chet Richards On Boyd...Is Your Orientation, Matched to Reality?
- Col GI Wilson on Boyd, Bureaucracy, Insight, Imagination, Intent and Implementation
- What hath Boyd wrought? With Remarks
- John Boyd, Conceptual Spiral, and the meaning of life
- Boyd and Beyond 2012, Quantico, VA — a quickie recap by Scott Shipman
- Finished Gung Ho! The Corps Most Progressive Tradition
- Dangerous Minds – The Relationship between Beliefs, Behaviors, and Tactics
- Guest Post: Super Cops - Can we create them??? “Yes you can!”
- "The importance of a proper command system...
- "Leaders gain confidence and become more tactically and technically proficient...
- Help staff practice thinking on their feet to prepare for emergencies
- More On, Gung Ho! Out of Seeming Defeat May Have Sprung Great Potential
- Latest P1 Column: The anatomy of victory (part two): Victory at minimal cost
- Chapter 1 Review of "Gung Ho! The Corps' Most Progressive Tradition
- The anatomy of victory (part one): What does it take to win?
- Proper Police Action Requires...What?
- P1 Column: Patterns of behavior, officer safety, and 'the rule of opposites'
- Be agile and win:
- Why Boyd is Agile
- Destruction & Creation: Are You Locked on One Way of Thinking or Are You Adaptable, Approaching Tactical Dilemmas?
- Book Review: Deadly Force: Firearms and American Law Enforcement, from the Wild West to the Streets of Today
- The power of a handshake!
- Winning at Low Cost: No better friend, no better role model, no better diplomat and, no worse enemy
- "The most efficient way to get the behavior you're looking for is to find positive deviants and...
- Book Review: Police Instructor: Deliver Dynamic Presentations, Create Engaging Slides & Increase Active Learning
- "Organizations by their very nature involves a series of balances...
- "Of every 100 men you send to fight, 10 shouldn't even be there. Eighty are...
- Column at Police One: Mental toughness and the power to adapt
- Mental Attitude Can Be Negative or Positive
- The Anatomy of Victory: What Does It Take For Policing To “Win"at Low Cost?
- "They can't understand why their parent organizations didn't better prepare them...
- Counter-Ambush Tactics: Thinking Tactically and Doing What You Know How To Do On The Street
- Train To Make a Difference! A Decrease in Officer Fatalities in 1st Quarter of 2012
- "They prefer to achieve their results by...
- Part 2: Train the brain: Using decision making critiques to leverage lessons learned: Published at Police One
- "Wild animals are taken by scouting, by nets, by lying in wait, by stalking...
- "If one has never personally experience war...
- Chet Richards On: Boyd's Really Real OODA Loop
- Destruction and Creation
- A Video Biography of COL John Boyd
- Book Review: Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
- Book Review: Thinking Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman
- Train the brain: Using tactical decision games in training Published at POLICE ONE
- OODA Loops: The Explorer Mentality...And Recognizing Patterns of Behavior
- OODA Loop & Human Reaction Time
- The Leaders Ultimate Reward: 'I saw Someone Grow today, and I Helped'
- Where Have All the Warriors Gone? A Spot On Article, Every Cop Should Read
- Should Street Cops, Break Routines...and Think?
- Broken Windows...A Powerful Strategy, When Applied Robustly
- Lessons from SWAT the Street Cop Can Use on The Three Speeds of Operations
- Law enforcement interaction with the dangerously mentally ill
- Tip: Have an 'exit' strategy on vehicle stops
- What Those We Train Say About Us
- Mastering Tactics with Decision Making Exercises and Critiques
- The OODA loop, reaction time, and decision making
- Leaders share the faith...and promote heretics
- COL John Boyd: Building Snowmobiles and a Fine-tuned Situational Awareness
- Mindset and Winning is About Much More than Words, Isn't It?
- Interacting Tactfully and Tactically: Is This a Strategy, Law Enforcement Can Use?
- Emotion verses Strategy: Which Helps You Gain the Position of Advantage?
- "It Never Happens Here" So WHY Do We Train?
- Think 'FAST': A mnemonic to help keep you safe, by John Demand
- PoliceOne.Com Published: Are you prepared to adapt and win on the street?
- Understanding and Developing Adaptive Leadership During Pre-commissioning
- Book Review: If I Knew Then 2: Warrior Reflections
- A VISION AND THE MISSION FOR: THE FUTURE LAW ENFORCEMENT LEARNING ORGANIZATION
- Police Leaders as Educators and Trainers...Inspiring Cops to More Effective and Safe Policing
- You've Got To Have an Ace in the Hole. Are You Prepared to Adapt and Win on the Street?
- What has 2011 Taught You About Officer Safety and Effectiveness?
- Police One, column 'Staying Oriented' article #1: 'Red Teaming' the cop killer
- Mental Toughness and The Competitive Nature of Conflict
- Police Militarization, Professionalism, and the Balance of Persuasion and Force
- Mental Toughness and...The Power to Adapt
- Mental Toughness: Optimistic Enthusiasm as a Form of Realism
- Preparing for Crisis with Tactical Decision Games, After Action Reviews and Critical Question Mapping
- Great Recap of Boyd and Beyond 2011 By Scott Shipman
- Global Warrior Averting WWIII, John Poole's Latest Strategic and Tactical Insights to Protecting the Homeland
- Brain plasticity: A whole new idea for cops
- Boyd & Beyond is on for 14 & 15 October at Quantico.
- "SWARMING TACTICS" Published in the California Association of Tactical Officers official publication CATO NEWS
- Documentary: Massacre at Virginia Tech
- Book Review: TEMPO Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative Driven Decision Making by Venkatesh Rao
- Fine Art, Fine Tuning Situation Awareness and Training Cops to See
- 15 Meters/11Seconds By C Flaherty and AR Green
- Too Focused? You Might Miss Something Important
- Dangerous Body Language: Digging Beyond What You See!
- Swarming & The Future of Conflict by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt
- Swarming Tactics by Sid Heal
- More On Swarming Tactics...An Option For Law Enforcement
- Dangerous Body Language: Detecting Deception and Danger
- Cops Line of Duty Deaths Rising in 2011 "APPLYING"Lessons Learned
- Cops, Security, Citizens Need to Be Aware: Does the Climate & Environment Shift in the Wake of bin Laden's Death?
- Progress, Interrupt and Neutralize (P.I.N.) Swarming Techniques For The Tactician
- Should We Be Thinking Like the Bad Guys?
- Meet Officers Lewis and Clark-Exploring Situational Awareness
- Dangerous Body Language,The Boyd Cycle and Winning on the Street
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! The Nose, Mouth and Lips
- The 10% of Mindset
- The 3 P's in Extreme Close Quarters Training: Pre-Assault Indicators, Precognitive Programming and Proximity
- Tactical IQ: Using "SURPRISE" to Set the Tempo of Confrontation.
- Tactical IQ: "FRICTION" Why is the Simplest Thing, So Difficult?
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! Darting Eyes
- Operation Bold Strike: Follow Me Training Support Package
- Follow Me!!! Creating and Nurturing Tactical Decision Makers With Combat Tested Methodologies
- Training the Whole Circle: Blending Boyd's Cycle and Cooper's Color Codes
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! "Gaze Avoidance"
- From OODA to AAADA ― A cycle for surviving violent police encounters
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! The Thousand Yard Stare
- Baltimore Police Sergeants Training Using Adaptive Leadership Methodology with Don Vandergriff's AAR
- Achieving Outcomes on the Street with Integrity, Building Loyalty and Mutual Trust
- Intersecting Ideas from Cross Disciplines...and Taking Boyd's Theories Beyond
- Tactical IQ: Developing "Fingertip Feel" Shaping and Reshaping Dynamic Encounters To Gain the Advantage
- Reducing Law Enforcement Misfortunes...What About the Street Officer?
- Can technology suck your brain dry?
- Organizational Culture: Is Yours Congruent with What You Do?
- Fighting Complacency Reminder: Nothing We Do is Routine, NOTHING!!!
- Street Level Red Teaming: The Cop Killer
- Street Level Red Teaming: Assessing The Situation From the Adversarial Point of View
- Take A.I.M. and Prepare To Win Dynamic Encounters
- Don't Charge Police for Mistakes
- What is a Threat?
- Benefits of Conditioning Our Decision Making...The Boyd Cycle
- Superior Situational Awareness and Decision Making...Attributes And Skills of Full Spectrum Officers
- Earning "The Right to Lead" With Character and Courage
- JUSTIFIED: Are You Serious? The Balancing Act of Persuasion, and Reasonable Force
- Adaptive Leader Methodology: An Alternative for Better Outcomes
- When Do We Teach the Basics?
- Evolving Threats Small Arms and Small Unit Swarming Tactics as Tools of Terror...Are We Up To the Challenge?
- Positive Leadership: Invest in People Building a Culture of Innovation
- Harnessing The Street Cops Wisdom: Taking Whole of Conflict...And Effective Full Spectrum Responses
- Beyond Active Response: An Operational Concept for Police Counterterrorism Response
- The Badge: Much More Than a Piece of Medal
- Wellbeing Check to Knife Attack: Anticipation-The Double Edged Sword and its Affect on Winning and Losing, Up Close and Personal
- Tactical IQ: Fast Transients Maneuvers and Manipulating the Tempo of Conflict
- Leadership By Wandering Around!
- Defeat into Victory: Battling a Tough Climate with Faith, Perseverance and Lessons Learned
- Evolving Threats and the Fourth Generation Warfare Problem Here at Home
- We were ready, they weren't...40 + Years after Newhall, Are We Applying Lessons Learned?
- When Violence Prevention Fails, Planning Must Enhance Strategy
- After Action Review: Is It a Tool Used to Learn and Become More Effective or a Tool Used to Punish?
- Maintaining Mental Calmness and Not Losing Our Cool
- Evolution of Strategy and Tactics to Ongoing Deadly Action "Active Shootings" and Operational Art
- Tactical IQ: Interaction, Insight and Imagination, and Initiative...The Building Blocks of Police Operational Art
- Coffee and Conversation: Is "Officer Friendly" a Factor to Consider in Engagements with Our Adversary?
- "Sharpening Our Orientation" and Reducing Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
- Coffee and Conversation: Police Make Mistakes But Seldom Admit Them! What's Reasonable?
- The Tactical Decision Maker: The Devil's Definitely in the Details
- "Self Awareness" The Forgotten Attribute of Decision Making
- Coffee and Conversation: Issues that Affect Law Enforcement and Security: Walking our Talk to Officer Safety
- Coffee and Conversation: Issues that Affect Law Enforcement and Security: The Inevitable Failure of Suburbia?
- Officer Created Jeopardy: Reduce it with a Strategic and Tactical Mind
- Law Enforcement and the Utility of Force...Why Cops Can't Shoot Like the Lone Ranger?
- Tactics: Applying Methods to Madness
- Dealing with Conflict, Violence and Crises: by Fred Leland
Teaching United States Marine Instructors New Tricks: Developing Adaptability Through Experiential Learning
Submitted by Fred on Sun, 07/16/2017 - 3:06pm.
“Some military commanders do not know how to adjust their methods. They can find an advantageous position. Still they cannot use their men effectively.” ~ Sun Tzu, The Art Of War 8:1.19-21
When you see a new opportunity, what is required to take advantage of it? A change in approach is the answer to the question to start this post. The steps that follows observation is orientation, decision and ACTION. This includes in developing new ways to educate and training that make a difference in how we perform under pressure and yes even where life and death decisions are made. No place is this more meaningful and important than the United States Marine Corps Marine Recruit Training Depot Paris Island. They have decided to take advantage of new opportunities to learn in an effort to improve there already outstanding training methods. After all they have been training young men and women to become Marines for now 242 years. People get comfortable in habits. Not the Marines!
I just spent the last week down with Will Foley on Parris Island with the Weapons and Training Battalion.. Will “Axe” Foley is a dynamic, professional facilitator with over twenty years’ experience as a Special Forces Supervisor, Instructor and Leader who brings outstanding organizational leadership, communication and problem-solving expertise and thrives in ambiguity.
Will and I were working with Vern Tubbs of Yorktown Systems Group and bringing a five-day Adaptive Leader Training and Education Program of Instruction. had 23 Marine trainers in class, that included primary marksmanship instructors, tactical instructors and drill instructors, including one Senior Drill Instructor.
What is Adaptive Leader Training and Education Course (ALT/E)? The ALT/E is a teaching methodology used to develop and nurture adaptability, strength of character, effective communications skills, and decision making using problem-solving games and problems while the teacher facilitates (guides) the learning through small group discussion. Student learning is evaluated through problem-solving exams where they suffer failure in a safe environment. ALT/E is based on the principles of Army Learning Model (ALM) 2015 and is laid out in detail in Donald Vandergriff’s book Raising the Bar: Creating and Nurturing Adaptive Leaders to Deal with the Changing Face of War, chapter 3, and is based on extensive historical research (how the Germans developed leaders for mission command). It is also in line with the most current learning theory by Dr. Robert Bjork, Dean of the School of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
Adaptive Leader Training and Education is a holistic approach to the planning, preparation, execution, and assessment of training that goes beyond task proficiency and incorporates a focus on developing critical attributes in Soldiers and Leaders by emphasizing the “why” behind actions and the consequences of decisions within a wider context. It takes training, how to do merges it with education, how to think to develop the Marines ability to adapt based on new circumstances.
History of ALT/E: The modern ALT/E began as Outcomes Based Training and Education or OBT&E in 2006. OBT&E evolved out of the efforts of Colonel Casey Haskins and his 198th Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia from 2006 to 2008 in the new approach they took in developing new Infantry Soldiers. Colonel Haskins then implemented it in the U.S. Military Academy’s Department of Military Instruction. Several other courses at Forts Knox, Benning, Huachuca, Jackson, Leonard Wood, and Sill also put the techniques to practice as attested by instructors in recently published Army journal articles. The ACM continued to evolve to the Army’s current Adaptive Leader Training and Education (ALTE) seminars.
Foundation of ALT/E: Put simply, ALT/E looks for results and is best described as developmental training. It puts a burden of professionalism on the shoulders of the student while the instructor determines how they get results. This is much like mission orders or tactics where the “how” is left to those executing the mission with little or no oversight from higher authority.
Dr. Robert Bjork, dean of the UCLA School of Psychology, told attendees at a U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command–hosted workshop in August 2006 that the way we thought we learned is wrong. He emphasized that when instruction occurs under constant and predictable conditions, learning appears to become contextualized. It works well in that context, but not when tested in others.
Conversely, varying conditions of practice, even just the place of study, for example, can enhance recall on a later test. Massing information, such as cramming for exams, supports short-term performance while spacing with distributed presentations, multiple study attempts, and training trials supports long-term retention. Bjork’s work, as it relates to evolving the current task and process-centric approach to Army education, can thus be summed:
“Conditions of instruction that make performance improve rapidly often fail to support long-term retention and transfer, whereas... Conditions of instruction that appear to create difficulties for the learner, slowing the rate of apparent learning, often optimize long-term retention and transfer.”
That latter statement of Dr. Bjork is what serves as the basis of developing adaptability when properly teaching using the Adaptive Leader Training and Education (ALT/E). The two main goals of teaching using ALT/E techniques are to get students to confidently: (1) Make a decision, and (2) Justify that decision in their own words.
To make effective decisions we must understand technical vs. adaptive work. The difference between one and the other lies in the idea of learning. When faced with technical work, people have to do what they already know, as opposed to adaptive work, when they have to challenge their assumptions, values, loyalties, attitudes, competencies or habits by learning something they do not already know. This also means that a command-and-control system of management is perfectly well suited for technical work but fails with adaptive work, when people’s involvement is needed. Therefore, we can extrapolate and argue that more hierarchical organizations are required in industries where technical work predominates and that more participatory organizations are required in industries where adaptive work predominates.
ALT/E considers stable vs. unstable environments.
“It is true that we are living in a world that grows continually more dynamic and uncertain. But it is also true that different industries and sectors face distinctive types of environments in this regard owing to variations in the level of competition, the speed of introduction of new technologies, the pressures from external stakeholders, the degree of political instability faced, and the impact of natural forces. If these aspects are low, there will be little need to deal with this stable environment, people will look inward by default, and the organization will be more internally oriented. However, if these aspects are high, there will be a great need to deal with in this unstable environment; people will have to look outward, and the organization will be more externally oriented." ~Adaptive Capacity: How Organizations Can Thrive in a Changing World" by Juan Carlos Eichholz
Let’s apply these distinctions to an organization we were there to improve, the U.S. Marine Corps. It is pretty evident that the environment in which the Marines operate has become more unstable than it once was, considering that many armed conflicts now have less to do with national boundaries or areas of influence and more with identity issues. Therefore, rather than nation-states battling other nation-states, we see nations or groups of nations battling formless non-state actors, like insurgent and terrorist groups, where new threats are constantly being incubated and the battlefield could be anywhere. More than ever then, the military, including the Marines, must be looking outward, at an environment that is full of active stakeholders, including the media, of course, and those allied forces with whom increasing collaboration is taking place.
Consequently, the nature of warfare has also changed. Instead of tanks, artillery, and airplanes fighting their opposite numbers, the primary means of battle have become ambushes, roadside explosives, kidnappings, assassinations, and suicide attacks —all carried out intentionally on camera for maximum informational effect. In fact, insurgents and terrorists are typically organized in cells, their motivated members using all kinds of technological devices that allow them fast and effective communication, making the cells flexible and unpredictable. From the military standpoint, this becomes a major challenge, because the type of work now required is becoming more adaptive, especially on the ground, which means that the command-and-control approach to leadership is becoming less effective. And so is the way we train and develop Marines.
The overarching outcomes our training seeks, is that our students become confident with Adaptive Leader Training and Education (ALTE) principles and how to implement them immediately to develop Marines into leaders who practice Mission Command. They are Introduced to an array of tools to assist in developing adaptability, which is an evolving process. The all must Demonstrate a proficiency in the art of facilitation while conducting decision-making exercises, tactical decision exercises, and effective AARs. All students are Introduced to and become familiar with the tools of wargaming, tactical decision games, free play force-on-force exercises, and adaptive leader physical training. The also become familiar with how to produce outcomes and measures of effectiveness (assessments) to judge student learning. While learning these methods they are also encouraged to experiment with new ways to develop adaptability and their own leadership and teaching styles as they develop recruits who are soon to become Marines.
Once the training is complete, students will be able to return to their Course/Unit/classroom, and Develop lesson plans within the restraint of:
- Personnel
- Time
- Resources
Teachers will move from a lecture “top down” centric learning environment to facilitated peer-to-peer and discovery learning where students take ownership of learning using one of several tools they were exposed too during this workshop
This is a starting point for the workshop attendee and they must continue to practice with other teachers to master the skills.
Traditional training and education may not meet all the needs of the types of adaptive challenges we face. developing new approaches are necessary. Are minimum standards enough? . . . Can we do better? Does the ability to execute tasks and drills, in and of itself, get to the development of the type of Marines and leaders that we want? How do you execute mission command in a training environment?
To be effective developing Marines we must consider that teaching the “why” is just as important as showing “how.” That effective leader training, education and development is even more important than ever, trainers must be able to do more than recite a module or follow a script. They must put actions and decisions in context with the real world. As teachers, we must understand that nurturing adaptability and confidence in individuals is always a key training objective. Ask yourself this question: How is this training getting at this? Assessments must really measure the outcomes and not the inputs make the “test” relevant and consider tangible and intangible measure of effectiveness in context (technical or adaptive problems) with how Marines make decisions under pressure. In other words, teachers must look beyond the task(s) being trained to get at things that you know are essential for unit, Marine, and leader success in combat and the types of environments they work in.
“Nine-tenths of tactics are certain and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals. It can only be ensured by instinct, sharpened by thought practicing the stroke so often that at the crisis it is as natural as a reflex.” ~T.E. Lawrence
In conflict, there is no substitute for experience, no substitute for the intuitive skill that comes from repeated practice. Tactical decision games are a practice field for the tactical leader. Experience is a powerful teacher, but experience by itself is not the most efficient way to learn. The process can often be painful and time-consuming. To learn as quickly as possible, we must be more deliberate, more disciplined, and more thorough in our approach in order to squeeze as much as possible from each experience. As with everything else about mental conditioning there is no magic here. This is what the Adaptive Leader Training and Education Course strives to instill in those they teach, to include the world’s finest trainers of the United States Marine Corps whose motto is “We Make Marines.” It was an honor and privilege for us to share this information with them.
Here is what those Marine Instructors had to say about the course:
“I didn’t know what to expect but I took a better understanding of putting my subordinates in uncomfortable positions to think outside the box. I have become more proficient in utilizing TDGs that I can use in the fleet. Not only related to combat but everyday situations as well. As an instructor, this has definitely opened my mind up to use different methods in teaching recruits and Marines.”
“This course met my expectations and much more. Overall a great course and will be sending a lot of my junior Marines in the future.”
“The seminar exceeded my expectations. I learned not to fall in love with a plan and to induce critical thinking on my Marines verses teaching plain doctrine. It was a very good seminar. I feel better prepared to be an instructor. It reinforced a lot of things I already applied as a leader and taught me new way of developing my Marines as critical thinkers and adaptive leaders.”
“My training methods will change. Great course.”
“The training opened my mind to think beyond the basics in training. The interaction between teachers and everybody was great and the professionalism was perfect and all objectives were met.”
“I highly recommend that this training is brought to victor units all over the Marine Corps. It could be very useful for Marines going to combat and the preparation beforehand.”
I was nervous at first to talk in front of everyone but after day 2 I was more confident to get up and talk to everyone. The outside the box thinking that comes with problems solving in and outside the Corps was great to learn a better way as well to do TDGs.”
“I truly liked the ALT/E teachers had us involved a lot. I was impressed and can’t wait to apply to the recruits or Fleet Marines.”
“I learned how the intangibles and tangibles really play out and the product that you want to achieve. Having both predetermined will greatly help you achieve the results you are looking for. I believe that this course is really great how it is now. Breaking away from the traditional strategic and tactical TDGs really opens your eyes on how to achieve different cogitative skills and decision making.”
“This course was very good as for being an instructor or even a senior Marine. Taking what we learned this course and being able to see recruits unfold events of training, different ways to get the same outcome will be awesome! Only thing I would change is more field training like the paint ball. “
The course met my expectations and there is nothing I would change. It built my confidence and made me think, question a situation. I learned a lot about teamwork and doing hands on instead of death by power point.”
“Great course I will use the shit out of what I learned when I go back to my unit. Awesome class makes me wish I was still a fire team leader in my old unit so I could pass off all this to my junior Marines.”
“Didn’t know the course would be related to combat as much, but it got the juices flowing. Great course, I would recommend.”
Stay Oriented!
Fred
- Fred's blog
- Login to post comments