tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45955909124163692612024-03-04T20:53:46.734-08:00Disruptive ThinkersPeople, Ideas, Movements and Technologies that are poised to change our worldBen Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-16283141045354246922012-07-31T23:36:00.000-07:002012-07-31T23:36:44.701-07:00New Website: disruptivethinkers.org<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Disruptive Thinkers has moved to a new location! Today marks the unveiling of our new website at <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/" target="_blank">disruptivethinkers.org</a><br />
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Please update your RSS feeds, bookmarks and, if you wish to continue receiving email updates about our blogs, your email addresses.<br />
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<a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/" target="_blank">DisruptiveThinkers.org</a> has many new features that will advance the cause of innovation within the military and beyond. These include:<br />
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1. <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/forums/forum/idea-forum/" target="_blank">A Member Ideas Forum</a>: Discuss the innovative challenges with Disruptive Thinkers from across the country<br />
2. <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/members-2/" target="_blank">Membership Database</a>: See what projects other Disruptive Thinkers are working on, and link up with them to create ad hoc partnerships.<br />
3. A Comprehensive database of all of our <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/dt-events/seminars/" target="_blank">previous San Diego Seminars</a><br />
4. A National Innovation cell list<br />
5. A dynamic <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/event-calendar/" target="_blank">events calendar</a><br />
6. Our <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/projects/" target="_blank">upcoming projects</a> (including the <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/projects/battlefields-and-boardrooms/" target="_blank">Battlefields and Boardrooms</a> mentorship program)<br />
7. <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.org/dt-events/photo-gallery/" target="_blank">Photo Galleries</a> of all our previous in-person events.<br />
8. Future member spotlight, highlighting one Disruptive Thinker every two weeks and see what innovative projects they are working on<br />
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Furthermore, this is an iterative project. If you see anything wrong with the new website, please email <a href="mailto:contact@disruptivethinkers.org">contact@disruptivethinkers.org</a> to let us know what to fix. We will be adding new content on a regular basis, and as always, look forward to your feedback. <br />
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Thank you to our dedicated fans -- we hope this move will continue to improve the conversation and get you more involved than ever!</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-57262599820376977992012-07-16T17:43:00.001-07:002012-07-16T17:43:42.748-07:00Conversations Between Scientists and Sailors: UNSCRIPTED<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>Dylan Ottman is a member of the Office of Naval Research's <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions Program</a>. Their goal is to allow junior warfighters to propose solutions, fund them, and see them implemented well within the standard procurement cycle. They have been involved with numerous innovative projects in the last few years. One of them is detailed below.<br /></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">---</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /><br />Most Navy aviation personnel are familiar with the aviation tool room, where repair maintenance personnel find the tools and supplies necessary to keep U.S. Navy aircraft in the sky and our pilots safe. These tool rooms are normally managed using a manual logging process that is time-consuming, error-prone and inaccurate for tracking HAZMAT use. The antiquated process increases maintenance time and causes errors that lead to misplaced resources.</span><br />
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The maintenance tool facility is centrally managed by a Sailor who is responsible for making sure that his or her fellow maintenance personnel properly check out and check in tools. The purpose is to ensure the return and safekeeping of hazardous materials, to maintain all tools and to track and order inventory.<br />
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In late June 2011, after a long day of repairing and maintaining the Navy’s air fleet, Aviation Electronics Technician 3rd Class Warren Bennett and his crew members waited in long lines to check in tools and supplies with the maintainer. The procedure was tedious, requiring the maintainer to use a pen and paper notebook to check in supplies and materials, and the Sailors in line sometimes waited hours to return supplies after a long day of work.<br />
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For the maintainer, the work can be extremely arduous; logging in materials that need to be tracked to determine supply level, recording amounts of hazardous substances before and after use, and trying to move quickly while writing clearly and accurately.<br />
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Having been a part of the process day in and day out, Bennett had accepted the system merely because it was never questioned. However, one day, Bennett began to think that in today’s information age, the process needed to be updated. New realities require adaptation.<br />
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Bennett was resourceful and had an idea to innovate the outdated process using an inventory management software program and barcode system. The software would be custom-made for the tool room and have the ability to perform inventory tracking and supply management.<br />
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<i>“Navy Innovation depends on you, the individual Sailors.”</i><br />
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Bennett had heard that one-liner from Big Navy and others but, unfortunately, had not found a channel in the Navy in which to transform innovative ideas into realities. That all changed in July 2011, when he reached out to three individuals running a program at the Office of Naval Research specifically created to accept requests from Sailors and Marines and turn them into solutions: <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions</a>.<br />
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Run by two engineers and a master chief, TechSolutions is a program that gives individual Sailors and Marines a chance to speak up about a problem or challenge that technology and innovative thinking can solve. The <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions</a> process is solely dependent upon requests from Sailors and Marines to create technology solutions — facilitating technological pull, NOT technological push.<br />
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This free-flowing, unscripted conversation between scientists and Sailors is what TechSolutions needs to exist. Both are equally instrumental to its success.<br />
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As with every project, once the <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions</a> team decided to take on Bennett’s request, they worked closely with him and other subject-matter experts to further define the problem and the required solution capabilities. They then reached out to the naval research communities for potential solution ideas.<br />
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Keeping warfighters like Bennett involved throughout the process is a major priority for <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions</a>.<br />
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“We want to ensure when we hand the completed solution prototype to the requesting Sailor or Marine, the final product is what they need to solve their problem, to improve efficiency in the fleet/force and improve their way of life. This is why we keep the submitter involved from start to finish,” said Master Chief Charles Ziervogel head of the TechSolutions program.<br />
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The time from start to finish may surprise you. <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions</a> delivers a working prototype to the requesting Sailor or Marine within 12-18 months of their submission. The team accepts requests from all ranks, communities and rates to develop creative solutions and push them forward to become new naval capabilities. TechSolutions often takes a wide variety of pre-existing technologies or resources, both conceptual and mechanical, and recombines the parts to create new and improved capabilities.<br />
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In order for Techsolutions to be successful, the program needs active engagement from Sailors and Marines. Please get involved via the <a href="https://www.onr.navy.mil/techsolutions" target="_blank">TechSolutions website</a> (NMCI access only). To submit a request, simply answer three basic questions: “Who are you?” “What is the problem?” and “What needs to happen to solve it?” Every query will be answered.<br />
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In the information age, innovation is the primary driver of advances in science and engineering. <a href="http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-innovation/tech-solutions-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">TechSolutions </a>promotes a horizontal communication chain where the lines between innovator and warfighter intersect, where the knowledgeable and determined Sailor or Marine with an idea is valued.
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<br /></div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-65728879065904217882012-07-08T10:54:00.000-07:002012-07-09T17:47:14.123-07:00Drones: Barrage Balloons of the Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i style="background-color: white;">Matt Hipple, recent author of <a href="http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-07/cloud-combat-thinking-machines-future-wars">Cloud Combat: Thinking Machines in Future Wars</a> for this month's Proceedings, and I have been tossing around innovative tactical uses for drones in our spare time. Long story short, new technologies require new tactics. This is our projection of a possible future.</i><br />
<i><br />---</i><br />
<i><b><br />circa 2035...<br /></b></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">The American carrier battle group had been identified. Although masterfully concealed in a shifting sea of phantom targets and spurious electro-magnetic signals, the Chinese systems had found their prey. The screen showed a swarm of old PLANAF airplanes refitted as drones interspersed with manned modern fighter/attack aircraft converging on the American vessels.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />Occasionally, red trackfiles, denoting the attacking aircraft, disappeared from the screen. The Chinese commander had practiced the operation thousands of times before. The American defensive screen was eliminating the aggressors at a prodigious rate, but this was a battle of numbers rather than maneuver. Most of those downed aircraft were merely the refitted drones programmed as mindless missile sponges. As the attackers reached their air to surface launch ranges, the missiles were released. Up to that moment, all had gone according to plan. Then all hell broke loose.</span><br />
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The manned aircraft started reporting a progressive blooming on both their air to surface and air to air sensor suites. One contact became three. Three became nine. Nine became a field of dispersed and re-forming shapes. And then the contacts merely disappeared. Chinese sensors were not being jammed; they were working perfectly: detecting something very real, something very wrong.<br />
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Pilots started declaring emergencies – engines catching on fire, stalling, sputtering. The red blips, manned and unmanned disappeared one by one. The American fighters, tracked by long range radar, had retired to re-arm but aircraft were being lost by the dozen. Whole formations were lost in flitting clouds of radar scatter in and amongst the clouds, fiery explosions occasionally visible as Chinese fighters were swatted out of the sky by… something. <br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />---</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />Drones had certainly caught the public’s eye over the past two decades: high profile assassinations initially made the news more frequently before fading into the commonplace. Meanwhile, tacticians were quietly looking for ways to employ them more subversively.</span><br />
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Planners came to the critical realization that radically new technologies allowed for radically new tactics. Microdrones had been the plaything of amateur aviation hackers for years – and their experimentation, subtly observed, became a tool of crowdsourced tactical free-play by forward-thinking military tacticians.<br />
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A subculture of primarily civilian amateur swarm warfare competitions arose. The advent of <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/255867/cheap_3d_printer_pops_out_parts_with_blazingly_fast_speed.html">cheap, 3D printing</a> had allowed anyone with a few thousand spare dollars to create entire fleets, and for those with less cash, experiment on online forums that leveraged a gamification of the American culture. A series of competetive robot battle brackets assured wide-spread and rigorous testing of new concepts and technologies at minimal cost.<br />
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The possibilities became apparent as the tacticians noticed hobbyists weren’t using the drones as manned aircraft were used -- huge unitary craft carrying massive payloads of weapons. The drones were optimized for specific situations, and got increasingly smaller, often doubling as weapons themselves. They would mesh, forming large targets, only to disappear into many autonomous constituent parts. Almost all were of the quadrotor design, and hardly any sported expensive avionics or complex propulsion systems. <br />
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Soon, four junior officer innovation fellows at the <a href="https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/default.aspx">Naval Warfare Development Command</a> got ahold of this idea, and received $10 million from the newly created Disruptive Tactics Fund. What they created would change naval warfare forever.<br />
<br />
They were given free reign to spend the money as they saw fit, buying whatever technology they determined would be useful within their designated funds. As they experimented, blending open crowd-sourced technology and expertise with in-house proprietary technology, they created a three step tactical paradigm for employing their new systems:<br />
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<b>First, Obfuscate. </b><span style="background-color: white;">The modern enemy had learned to deploy overwhelming numbers to overload the advanced defenses of capitol ships. However, advances in software and miniaturization allowed blue forces the opportunity to do the same to the enemy. If an adversary could send 100 platforms, each costing $250,000 at a capital ship, then the defender would deploy 1000 assets costing $1,000 each. These drones would be both collaboratively cooperative and individually autonomous, depending on the situation's requirements. They would appear to radars and far-away observers as one entity, then at the appropriate time, split into a haze of autonomous units. Their formations would be fluid, and seemingly random. They could create large radar cross section entities at will, then disperse to become virtually invisible. Indeed, their dispersal looked to the enemy as the destruction of a target – yet, it was anything but.</span><br />
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<b>Next, Obliterate</b>. Once directed by the Air Defense Coordinator, these drones would transition to a suicidal mindset. These obfuscators turned into microkillers intent on fouling aircraft engines or detonating as aircraft approached. Like an airborne, maneuverable minefield, the drones would disperse into clouds of floating debris. They could rapidly ascend and hover for extended periods of time, maneuvering at will, either en masse, or individually, to preplanned or real time defensive locations. When an enemy airframe was identified, the drones would explode, throwing tiny titanium pellets in a small, but devastating radius. Radars would lose the drones in the ambient returns or ignore them while attuned to cross sections much larger.<br />
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Visual pickups were nearly impossible on 12 inch quadrotors while moving at high speeds. Even the small explosions that threw the killer shrapnel into the sky were hard to see. The only indications were severe engine problems as drones were sucked into intakes, or titanium pellets ripped through compressor blades.<br />
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<b>Finally, Overwhelm</b>. The loss of so many drones was problematic, as only finite numbers could be carried and maintained before deployment. The answer was off the shelf 3-D printing, which could quickly produce the majority of drone parts using cheaply obtained raw materials. Deployed aboard ships, these printers saved space and time, producing fleets of drones on demand. If a design modification needed to be made, changes were simply uploaded to the CAD database, and a new batch was printed from raw materials gathered and previously stored. No changes in supplier, supply chain, or vast administrative system were necessary. <br />
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While deployed in a combat zone, an entire part of a carrier’s hangar deck was devoted to the production of these defensive drones. When the loss of one was detected, another was automatically created to replace it. A mobile, persistent chaff cloud able to wreak havoc could be produced at will. No en route maintenance was necessary, aside from ensuring there was an available supply of silicon, carbon, titanium, and other assorted raw minerals. <br />
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Furthermore, any ship in the fleet could be outfitted with printers capable of producing these drones. Detached from a combined fleet, individual ships assigned to anti-piracy or counter-drug operations could deploy their own fleets of swarming, easily replaceable air assets.<br />
<br />
An additional benefit of these drone swarms was persistent, over-the-horizon surveillance provided by evenly deployed networks. Much as <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46204828/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/radio-telescope-search-first-stars-galaxies/">radio telescopes used in detecting the farthest reaches of the universe</a> had been linked across the globe to create physically impossible aperture sizes, so too did evenly distributed drones emanating micro-bursts of energy allow for the world’s largest radar. The persistent, energy saving hover mode could transform hunter-killers into passive collection platforms. <br />
<br />
When these were first deployed in wargames, fleet commanders accustomed to traditional formations and manned aircraft tactics were incredulous. But soon they came to appreciate the effect these utterly unorthodox tactics were having on their <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10382.pdf">$450 million stealth platforms</a>. The most traditional ignored the results, knowing that such applications could "never happen" in the real world. A number of curious few, however, asked to further develop the tactics and integrate them into their battle plans. They understood the disruptive effect it would have on American adversaries, and that new technologies required entirely new applications. <br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
What the Chinese commander encountered was the first application in the next evolution of warfare. Expecting the tried-and-true tactics of a change-wary institution, they encountered a decentralized, highly resilient system using readily available technology developed by an innovative cell of junior tacticians. Bypassing normal vetting processes the navy was able to quickly harness advances in technology, processor speed, and miniaturization. By embracing risk, rather than managing it, the Navy stole a march on its opponents by deploying the tactics of tomorrow on today’s battlefield. <br />
<br /></div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-65599015069650287042012-07-03T22:46:00.005-07:002012-07-03T22:46:57.743-07:00A Proper Response to a Long Train of Abuses and Usurpations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
236 years ago, a bunch of colonists took on the most powerful empire in the world. After years of dealing with a status quo wedded to its own power, and lacking any other reasonable means of affecting change, these colonists took it upon themselves to declare independence. <br />
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This was a Disruption heard 'round the world, and forever changed the course of world history. The men who signed the Declaration of Independence did so knowing full well that their bold proclamation decrying tyranny made them marked men -- and if caught, certain death would follow. <br />
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Sometimes radical change is necessary for the preservation of freedom. The only way to get it is through a rag-tag band of scrappy insurgents with astounding intellectual fervor, and characters willing to undertake the unthinkable. Their goal may take years to accomplish, and irrevocably upend the status quo, but with a cause worth fighting for, makes the effort worth the cost.<br />
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Every year on the 4th of July, I read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety. It is a model for arguing a case, laying out a solution, and then taking personal ownership in its submission -- signing your real name to subversive thoughts is sometimes one of the boldest acts a person can take. Indeed, it can start a process that leads to an entirely new political order.<br />
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So, without further ado, The American Declaration of Independence:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.</span><br />
<br />
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,<br />
<br />
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.<br />
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.<br />
<br />
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.<br />
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.<br />
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.<br />
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.<br />
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.<br />
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.<br />
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.<br />
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.<br />
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.<br />
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.<br />
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.<br />
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.<br />
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:<br />
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:<br />
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:<br />
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:<br />
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:<br />
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:<br />
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences<br />
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:<br />
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:<br />
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.<br />
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.<br />
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.<br />
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.<br />
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.<br />
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.<br />
<br />
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.<br />
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Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.<br />
<br />
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.<br />
<br />
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:<br />
<br />
Column 1<br />
Georgia:<br />
Button Gwinnett<br />
Lyman Hall<br />
George Walton<br />
<br />
Column 2<br />
North Carolina:<br />
William Hooper<br />
Joseph Hewes<br />
John Penn<br />
South Carolina:<br />
Edward Rutledge<br />
Thomas Heyward, Jr.<br />
Thomas Lynch, Jr.<br />
Arthur Middleton<br />
<br />
Column 3<br />
Massachusetts:<br />
John Hancock<br />
Maryland:<br />
Samuel Chase<br />
William Paca<br />
Thomas Stone<br />
Charles Carroll of Carrollton<br />
Virginia:<br />
George Wythe<br />
Richard Henry Lee<br />
Thomas Jefferson<br />
Benjamin Harrison<br />
Thomas Nelson, Jr.<br />
Francis Lightfoot Lee<br />
Carter Braxton<br />
<br />
Column 4<br />
Pennsylvania:<br />
Robert Morris<br />
Benjamin Rush<br />
Benjamin Franklin<br />
John Morton<br />
George Clymer<br />
James Smith<br />
George Taylor<br />
James Wilson<br />
George Ross<br />
Delaware:<br />
Caesar Rodney<br />
George Read<br />
Thomas McKean<br />
<br />
Column 5<br />
New York:<br />
William Floyd<br />
Philip Livingston<br />
Francis Lewis<br />
Lewis Morris<br />
New Jersey:<br />
Richard Stockton<br />
John Witherspoon<br />
Francis Hopkinson<br />
John Hart<br />
Abraham Clark<br />
<br />
Column 6<br />
New Hampshire:<br />
Josiah Bartlett<br />
William Whipple<br />
Massachusetts:<br />
Samuel Adams<br />
John Adams<br />
Robert Treat Paine<br />
Elbridge Gerry<br />
Rhode Island:<br />
Stephen Hopkins<br />
William Ellery<br />
Connecticut:<br />
Roger Sherman<br />
Samuel Huntington<br />
William Williams<br />
Oliver Wolcott<br />
New Hampshire:<br />
Matthew Thornton<br />
</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-12013345680627472632012-06-28T21:00:00.001-07:002012-06-28T21:00:56.439-07:00"The Nexus of Security and Economics"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>I found this in the dusty folders of my Dropbox account. It's the opening speech I gave at our first Disruptive Thinkers (then called the Strategy and Innovation Forum...a blog was still months away) meeting back in Sept of 2011 -- where all five of us met in my living room. I thought it was interesting -- and sometimes its good to see inception points. </i><br />
<br />
<i>--- </i> <br />
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In the 1970’s, a group of officers and DoD officials formed a loose organization that eventually become known as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_Mafia">The Fighter Mafia</a>.” John Boyd (he of OODA loop fame) was the ringleader, and attracted the likes of Pierre Sprey, Tom Christie and test pilot Col Everest Riccioni. Their goal was simple -- to shake up an entrenched bureaucracy with facts and radical notions.<br /><br />For those aviators in the room, the fruits of their labors are evident in what we currently fly: the F/A-18 and F-16 were direct descendants of their fight. The main tenant of basic fighter maneuvers and aircraft design was created by Boyd in a fit of engineering inspiration, and finally adopted after every trick in the book was used to try and discredit it. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy%E2%80%93maneuverability_theory">The E-M diagram</a>, now a closely studied chart showing strengths and weakness of fighter aircraft when compared to others, was almost killed by a bureaucracy wedded to the status quo.<br />
<br />We will get to the Fighter Mafia in more depth later as this syllabus progresses, as well as the theories of Boyd himself, but their legacy sets the groundwork for what we in the Strategy and Innovation Forum seek to reform.<br /><br />Nearly every military officer in this room, regardless of rank, service or community, could rattle off a list of things that frustrate us to no end about the system we exist within. But all too often, we fail to take action on those criticisms. Change, however, comes from within – and as the Fighter Mafia proved, it can be done by dedicated, well informed actors.<br /><br />What inspired this group? When I was a college senior, we got a new Commanding Officer in our NRTOC unit. One of his jobs was to teach a class called Leadership and Ethics – but instead of utilizing the normal course materials, he supplemented the material with texts he discovered from VADM Stockdale’s naval war college class. Enthralled by this unorthodox approach, I began an independent study with a buddy of mine where we looked much deeper than the standard military texts to undercurrents underreported in mainstream strategic thought. Maneuver warfare, Mattis, Boyd, philosophy, insurgencies, anything that was successful against entrenched bureaucracies. I was hooked.<br /><br />This venture is an offshoot from that – but it goes further. <br /><br />What do we hope to accomplish? By getting innovative thinkers from both within and without the structure together, we want to ensure our military is up for the challenges of the 21st Century. The world at large is rapidly moving away from an Industrial Age model to an Information Age reality. Large, centralized institutions are fighting against this migration, and the more entrenched, the more kicking and screaming they exhibit. We are those leaders, thinkers and doers who want and can start influencing change. <br /><br />Will we all agree on everything? Absolutely not – but that’s fine. I’m reminded of a quote by Christopher Hitchens (someone who many of you would agree is about as different from me as possible)…In an argument among two well informed people, it is very unlikely that either on will come away with a changed position. However, it is equally unlikely that they will leave unchanged. Opposition and intellectual sparring only sharpens the mind. <br /><br />We’re not here to spout idealogy: “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Impact-Improbable/dp/1400063515">you can always find someone who made a well sounding statement that confirms your point of view -- and, on every topic, it is possible to find a dead thinker who said the exact opposite</a>.” The goal is to approach things with an open mind, challenge our assumptions, and think like innovators – those people who imagine the impossible, then make it reality. <br /><br />When you come up with a theory, don’t start looking for evidence to prove yourself right. Look for the observation that will prove you wrong. Your ideas will be much more robust. <br /><br />How are we set up? There are two elements to this endeavor. The first is academic. A graduate level study of philosophy, strategy, leadership and history. By combining literature, articles and online, open source lectures, we will explore books that aren’t traditionally thought of within the military cannon to get our minds thinking outside the traditional structures. Each monthly meeting will have a theme associated with it: This month’s is “The nexus of economics and military strategy.” The works selected reflect that theme. But it’s in the integration of those works that new ideas will spring. <br /><br />And this leads directly to the second element: Shaping Policy. The monthly meetings are more than just a Socratic forum to pontificate and listen. It’s also a chance to network across professional specialties. You may meet someone who intrigues you, and you elect to pursue a collaborative venture. Brian and I are passionate about education and the lack of options available to us – we may write a paper on opening up ventures (i.e. Harvard MBA/Naval War College joint Degree program.) Ben W may find he and Cowbell want to explore open source green options for sustainable, affordable defense. The ideas are limitless. You can certainly just follow along with the readings and take in the discussions, but we want to be action oriented. Gather evidence, fight for, and fix what you see is wrong.<br /><br />Finally, we want this to start adaptable cells. We will compile our syllabus and promulgate it to other like minded military and national security strategists throughout the country. They can start their own cells, tailoring the curriculum to their own local requirements. We crowd source this to some extent and though incremental change, attempt to shape the future of one of the biggest Leviathans the world knows; the DoD.<br /><br />And if our grand vision fails, well, at least weve read and listened to some intriguing theories that will shape our thinking. <br />
<br />So, keep an open mind, share what’s on your mind (the wackier, the better), make some friends and get ready for a fight. Never forget we're the insurgents – and insurgents always have to work harder and more diligently than the institutional adversary. But as Gladwell shows, if they don’t fight fair, they usually win.<br /><br />So, the topic of the night: The Nexus of Security and Economics.<br />
<br />The military has lived in a bubble the last decade. We’ve gotten pretty much everything we’ve asked for: weapons, funding, respect, influence. We’ve also gotten lazy. It was somewhat humorous, but more disconcerting, to recently see a panel of flag officers dissemble in utter confusion when asked about impending budget cuts – as if such a thing were inconceivable, but nonetheless inevitable.<br /> <br />We haven’t had to ask hard questions about force structure and the evolution of warfare because with $650 billion in base budgets, plus tens of billions more for war costs, it’s unpatriotic to question the protectors. Yet, strategic and budget realities will force a reckoning.<br /><br />We cannot continue to do business the way we have been over the past ten years. There is a strong undercurrent among junior officers and those not associated with the military-industrial complex that there is increasing bloat and inefficiency at the top. Contracts worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and decades in the making stand no chance of reform even with a new strategic landscape. <br /><br />We cling to career models and a hierarchial system that were useful during the beginning of the Cold War. But solutions of the past only work in the past; new realities require new thinking.<br /><br />I was talking with Chase on Tuesday night, and he mentioned something very interesting that I hadn’t considered – Whereas once military technology was a leading indicator for where civilian innovation would come, the tables are now reversed. Our systems are increasingly antiquated, and even when we install new software, it can hardly keep up with the pace of progress. Off the shelf technology is more useful than that supplied by the military and its slow, antiquated acquisition system. How many of you turn to Google Earth to map targets rather than JMPS [military procured mapping software]? <br /><br />This rot in acquisition and culture is even recognized by those at the top. Then <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63717/robert-m-gates/a-balanced-strategy">Secretary Robert Gates asked</a>:<br />
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Why was it necessary to go outside the normal bureaucratic process to develop technologies to counter improvised explosive devices, to build MRAPs, and to quickly expand the United States' ISR capability? In short, why was it necessary to bypass existing institutions and procedures to get the capabilities needed to protect U.S. troops and fight ongoing wars?</blockquote>
There are entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo; change means losing the golden goose. “<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7wMuF4A4XF8C&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=That+awareness+of+a+problem+does+not+mean+much+%E2%80%93+particularly+when+you+have+special+interests+and+self-serving+institutions+in+play.&source=bl&ots=yripyO5W1W&sig=ssqZEFmRCzOEoGiaafhv61U_Ak0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DybtT5fVMqWq2gXAzNHSCg&ved=0CFwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=That%20awareness%20of%20a%20problem%20does%20not%20mean%20much%20%E2%80%93%20particularly%20when%20you%20have%20special%20interests%20and%20self-serving%20institutions%20in%20play.&f=false">That awareness of a problem does not mean much – particularly when you have special interests and self-serving institutions in play.</a>”<br /><br />
It also mean a more lethal and adaptable force. <br /><br />In the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPQViNNOAkw">TED lecture on Institutions vs Collaboration</a>, the presenter mentions that the first goal of an institution is self-preservation once told they are an obstacle. It’s not mission accomplishment, cost-savings or becoming more effective. It is maintaining the status quo. Microsoft never believed open architecture could be a means to run databases or large electronic systems, yet because they were wedded to a 1990s model in the internet 2.0 phase they have been relegated to the status of once-great companies like GE and GM. Lots of market share with somewhat useful products, but unable to innovate or grow beyond their current level of influence. <br /><br />The internet age has changed everything, but even more so, the social age has opened up the ability to collaborate and innovate like never before. And money is no longer the primary motivating factor. It still plays a role, but crowd sourced entities like Wikipedia are far more useful than market driven troves of information like Encarta or Brittanica. Google has won the search wars, at least up to this point, because they have allowed users (through linking to what they perceive to be “important” websites) as opposed to a pay-to-play system like Overture (do you guys in this room even know what overture is??? Its because it lost…).<br /><br />Planning has been replaced by decentralized coordination. People can spend as little or as much time on a project as they want – and do so because they are passionate about it. We are bringing the problem to the individuals, instead of bringing the individuals to the problem as with traditional institutions. <br /><br />Along with this is the fact that the Information Age revels in the land of Extremistan while our structures are made to survive in the predictable Mediocristan. Averages mean nothing when 80 percent (or 99 percent!) of a system is influenced by 20 percent (or less!) of the actors. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Impact-Improbable/dp/1400063515">Taleb notes</a> that our absence of forecasting errors is what should cause us the most concern, specifically when it comes to wars – they are fundamentally unpredictable. <br /><br />Who in the past 50 years have we actually gone to war with that our strategists and acquisition specialists predicted we would? The only conventional place we’ve fought within over the past 20 years has been Iraq in 1991! Everywhere else has been somewhere unpredicted, and singularly unsuited for the weapons systems and structures we have in place. Sure, you can do CAS with an F/A-18, but wouldn’t an AT-6 perhaps be better? Isnt the most requested platform, the A-10, the one that was almost scrapped twenty years ago by an air force obsessed with air superiority? And although we see China as the next threat, given past history, isn’t it more likely we will be engaged in a war far different than the one we see a mirage of on the horizon?<br /><br />The Information age has also revealed that gem of Adam Smith – specialization. People need to do less and less to take action on everything, and instead can focus on one area to become extremely talented and useful. And they can use their expertise in ways they never could have imagined – why anyone would spend hours putting together a Wikipedia article on the intricacies of the clan system in World of Warcraft is beyond me,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft"> but it’s there</a> – and I can access it.<br />
<br />The military on the other hand, insists on making everything the same, or at least consolidating as much as possible. The JSF is a case in point. It theoretically does everything – but less well than individualized airframes specifically tailored would. It allows only limited flexibility, and at extreme cost. This is unsustainable. <br /><br />So here we have the crux of our discussion for the evening. In a world that is increasingly focused on individual contributions, where extreme, unexpected events disproportionately shape reality and social knowledge informs the evolution of technology and information, how do we adapt a bureaucracy that insists on sticking to the status quo? <br /><br />
Why not build weapons based on collaborative need rather than centralized planning? MRAPs were created this way – why has aviation fallen by the wayside? How does a bureaucracy take advantage of a single contribution by a single actor that can revolutionize an institution? Are steeply vertical structures still relevant when the best way to quell a village riot is by relying upon a junior officer or non-commissioned officer?<br /><br />How do we take advantage of crowd sourcing, the idea of cellular innovation, and harnessing creative ideas while maintaining the ability to respond to massive, unforeseen events? <br /><br />Those are the thoughts I’ll leave you with as we open up the floor for discussion. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-43591413416570177922012-06-24T22:56:00.000-07:002012-06-24T23:07:45.401-07:00An Alternative Version of the Twenty First Century Sailor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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About six weeks ago, I got an email from the Navy announcing
their newest website, featuring the <a href="http://www.21stcentury.navy.mil/default.aspx">Twenty First Century sailor initiative</a>. Normally, I instantly delete
the mass emailed spam that contains indecipherable Navy Message Traffic ALL
CAPS format, but for some reason this email caught my eye. </div>
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My optimistically naïve excitement that this would be an
innovation portal for junior leaders to exchange ideas was almost
instantaneously quashed upon clicking the link.
Instead of featuring the things the innovation generation finds
energizing, nearly the entire site was devoted to politically correct
platitudes and vague aspirations -- particularly the <a href="http://www.21stcentury.navy.mil/newsandmedia.aspx">News and Media portion</a>. These are elements that make it difficult to create a unified, cohesive warfighting
service. </div>
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According to the Secretary of the Navy, the twenty first
century sailor needs to be ready, safe, physically fit, inclusive and afforded
the best transition services possible.
Much like Air-Sea Battle, where we plan to bring lots of firepower to
places where threats exist using things we buy and put to sea, this vision
lacks a transformational, inspiring philosophy. </div>
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The misapplication of what the 21<sup>st</sup> century actually requires is
unfortunately indicative of a broader institutional misunderstanding of how to motivate the current generation. This
is especially apparent when very few seem to actually know about the initiative –
and if they have found it, have no way to interact with or comment on the material, aside from outside linked blogs. </div>
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Among the things notably absent are any mention of combat
effectiveness, and the adaptive, innovative integration of new technologies and
ideas by creative sailors. The
particular emphasis on sexual assault awareness was no doubt driven by
concerned Members of Congress, and as we are at their beck and call, “what interests
my boss fascinates me.” But the
additional elements missed a grand opportunity to set forth a compelling vision
extolling and encouraging our best tactical sailors. </div>
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Despite the fact that our senior leaders claim our current
service members are the most capable and intelligent our nation has ever seen, it
says a lot when the Navy’s primary personnel vision focuses on sex-crazed, out
of shape, PTSD-laden, discriminatory service members. It may surprise some to know this is not representative of the military population as a whole. </div>
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This focus, combined with the curious mandate that
all sailors <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/06/navy-to-give-breathalyzers-to-sailors-marines-as-report-for-duty-aboard-fleet/">be given breathalyzers</a> upon coming aboard ship for duty, implicitly
assumes commanding officers and junior leaders are unable to police their own charges. These are both descriptions completely at odds with the volunteers
I serve with on a daily basis. This is also completely at odds with the more horizontal hierarchies that define successful information age organizations. </div>
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As I happen to believe that 95 percent of sailors aren’t
worthy of instant suspicion (except in port...), and are instead
ripe resources for great ideas and new ways of thinking, I offer up a different
version of “The Twenty First Century Sailor,” followed by some back of the
envelope musings about what the website would ideally contain. </div>
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<b>Innovative:</b> In
rebuilding the wartorn countries of Afghanistan and Iraq, our sailors have
managed to do more with less, and adapt to cultural norms they never saw
coming. They have created counter-piracy
strategies while aiding tens of thousands in disaster prone areas. We killed bin Laden. All this has been a result of rapidly
adapting existing resources to local conditions with innovative and impressive
talent. We need leaders willing to leverage these skills and apply them to creating tactics to defeat future wily adversaries. </div>
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<b>Risk-tolerant:</b> Our
sailors are adults. They understand that
winning wars means taking risks. The
characteristics required of combat leaders sometimes translate to adventurous
off-duty interests. They usually make informed
choices, and while occasionally make mistakes, have bonds of friendship that
keep them in line. Whether it be in
combat, or at home, when faced with a tough choice, they can figure a way
through. When they cannot, we provide
resources to help them. While mitigating
unnecessary risks, they are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect
our country and their families when required.
They are, on the whole, trustworthy. As junior leaders, we are capable of disciplining those that are not. Our sailors must embrace "good" risk, and exploit success and an enemy's weakness when they can do so. </div>
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<b>Emotionally and Intellectually Fit</b>: More sailors than ever have college
educations and beyond. While physical fitness is
important, our ability to solve complex problems in a rapidly changing
environment is our greatest asset. We
have put up with consistent 8-10 month deployments. Our families feel the strain, but are proud
of what we’ve accomplished. We will
continue to educate ourselves, because in the information age, knowledge counts
for more than industrial age strength. A
Sound Body certainly contributes to a Sound Mind, but brains, not brawn, will
win the wars of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. We must encourage our future leaders to expand their minds by interacting with diverse civilian thought leaders, and make it easy to get the education they need. </div>
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<b>Meritocratic</b>: Our
sailors have grown up in an age where nearly everybody has been given a fair
shake. They have served beside women in
combat. They’ve absorbed the lessons of
diversity and have learned immensely from those different than themselves. More than anything, our sailors want the best
people to be promoted, and are tired of a system that continually tells us to
be cognizant of the “other.” We’re not
racist or sexist – we’re all Americans and "meritist." If
you’re a good leader, we don’t care what you look like or sound like. Stop insulting our intelligences, and let us
get on with the business of fighting wars. Our promotion systems are not perfect, but there is not systematic discrimination. We must focus on combat metrics and 360 evaluations to truly find the leaders of tomorrow. </div>
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<b>A Boon to Society:</b> We’ve
had experience in the most difficult of environments. We’ve managed many millions of dollars in
assets. We’ve traveled the world, and
interacted with cultures throughout. We
have a greater perspective and understanding of what America truly stands
for. Our skills are varied, but
acute. We’re problem solvers and
bursting with good ideas. Unleash us, let
us meet our potential, and see what happens. Only by embracing the innovative impulses of the twenty first century will our Navy reach its full potential. </div>
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With these in mind, what does a true 21<sup>st</sup> Century
Sailor portal look like? It is
freewheeling – twitter feeds, discussion forums, idea incubators. A place where ideas can be fed into a
<a href="http://www.informationdissemination.net/2012/06/crowd-sourcing-fleet-tactics-to-spur.html">database, torn apart, crowdsourced, and then debated by operators at the lowest level.</a> We don’t need more statements from senior
officers, vetted over and over by endless staffs. What we need are hard questions and vigorous debate from passionate
junior leaders willing to experiment and make our service better at the grassroots level. </div>
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The site should also feature true 21<sup>st</sup> Century
Sailors in their own words. An innovator
of the week or month highlighting a junior enlisted person or junior officer
who has created a new procedure or discovered an effective new technique. A meetup-type calendar for in person, ad hoc
informal discussions across service communities, where ideas can percolate and
take shape. </div>
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Ultimately, the 21<sup>st</sup> Century sailor is not a
cookie cutter, problem-ridden individual.
They are innovative, adaptable, collaborative, creative and focused on
the mission of winning our nation’s wars.
Until we recognize this, we risk squandering the true
talents of 21<sup>st</sup> century personnel as they move onto other, non-military organizations looking to leverage their unique talents. </div>
</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-47228378041179941722012-06-19T23:54:00.000-07:002012-06-19T23:54:08.058-07:00"What do the Taxpayers Have to do With This?"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Guest Blogger Ryan Bodenheimer is an F-15E Strike Eagle pilot, recently returned from Afghanistan. He is a founding member of <a href="http://www.flyingscarfs.com/" target="_blank">Flying Scarfs</a>, <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/06/female-afghan-entrepreneurs-and-their.html" target="_blank">recently profiled at Disruptive Thinkers</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz0zcg3Cl6A" target="_blank">OnwardGeneration</a>.</i> <br />
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I’ve never questioned American greatness, but I can’t help but sometimes wonder why this is so. This was especially evident as I prepped my combat survival vest for an upcoming flight into the Hindu Kush, a mountain range in North-Eastern Afghanistan. I asked myself what separates America from everyone else. On that Winter morning in 2011, as now, I couldn’t help but be struck by a recent quote I had read. <br />
<br />As Fareed Zakaria describes in his book “<span id="goog_1171965683"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/">The Post American World<span id="goog_1171965684"></span></a>," the reasons for American strength and power have changed. <br />
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The Tallest building in the world is now in Dubai. The world’s richest man is Mexican, and its [the world’s] largest publicly traded corporation is Chinese. The world’s biggest plane is built in Russia and Ukraine, its leading refinery is in India, and its largest factories are all in China. The world’s largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. Its number one casino is not in Las Vegas but Macao, which has also overtaken Vegas in annual gambling revenues. </blockquote>
This list does not gain virtue by comparing the sizes of Ferris wheels, but instead, by illuminating categories that, twenty years ago, were dominated by the United States.<br /><br />Shortly after prepping my vest, and reviewing the imagery for a coalition commander’s plan to clear a village, my flight stepped to the weather desk to receive our last update before blasting off in our F-15E Strike Eagles. <br /><br />We were told that current weather conditions made the mission unworkable, and ground forces had cancelled all requests for close air support. We had jets on alert, with a 15 minute response time in case anything happened, but for the time being there was no need for us to be airborne. Yet, we planned to press with the mission anyway.<br /><br />Perplexed, I suggested to the mission commander that we save taxpayers the roughly $125,000 in jet fuel it would cost for our two jets to fly, and cancel our mission. Unfortunately, I was the junior man, and a higher-ranking officer spoke up saying, “What do the taxpayers have to do with this?” <br /><br />I could feel my heart thump harder against my chest as I looked him in the eye and saw no regard for the people I had sworn to protect. I once swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As I stood there I came to a new realization and understanding of our military: We must protect our citizens from unnecessary military spending. <br /><br />During that flight we remained in the weather for the entire 5 hours, contributing nothing to America’s national security and her interests.<br /><br />I understood that an enemy to the American people could also be bankrupting them with superfluous military expenses. It was clear to me that this spending, at the tip of the spear, sometimes has no real checks and balances.<br /><br />Given this, I silently wondered what does, in fact, make America great. Is it our military that makes us great? Undoubtedly, the military has some of the finest Americans within its ranks. Americans willing to sacrifice their lives and time both for people they love and for people they will never meet. <br /><br />Yet, what must come first? A great nation or a great military? If we didn’t have the resources and the resolve as a great nation to build airplanes and tanks for World War II, our military would have crumbled. Without the budget produced by taxpayers, along with innovative American companies, there would be no bank account for national defense. Without education, we would not be able to prepare military warriors for the intense curriculum demanded of the modern warfighter. To me it seems reasonable that the strength of the United States is deeply rooted in things outside the military. Education, infrastructure, hospitals, commerce, and innovation all allow for the United States to have a military rivaled by no one else in the world. <br /><br />When military officers like the one I flew with on that cloudy, winter day forget who they work for, the United States starts down a path of excessive spending misaligned with the principles of trust, innovation and integrity. It is compounded when men like him are assigned to the fast track, as he was, attending prestigious leadership schools with a likelihood of being promoted to a position of eventual policy influence. <br /><br />Should the military be concerned with taxpayer dollars, or is that the job of our civilian leadership? Constitutionally, Congress sets our budgets, but too often our civilian leaders defer to the military. This can be for a multitude of reasons, the first of which may be a misunderstanding of actual military need due to lack of military experience.<br /> <br />In my limited experience in the military thus far, I have met only one military leader who I truly believe would be fiscally faithful to civilian leadership. The problem is that most see the information advantage they have as a springboard for their own career. Conversely, I have met dozens of younger officers who see rampant waste and are willing to speak up about it. Unfortunately, perhaps by military design, these younger officers do not have the ear of our legislators. <br /><br />Some may argue that it’s not the military’s job to think about the taxpayer. Maybe it wasn’t 10 years ago. But today, as we wade through the recession, witness the financial crisis in the euro-zone and fight new forms of terrorism, we must have honesty and transparency in our requests for funding. <br /><br />As <a href="http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/ike_chance_for_peace.html" target="_blank">President Eisenhower described</a>, <br />
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Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.</blockquote>
Having a strong military contributes to a strong nation. Yet, there is a difference between spending that creates a lean, efficient combat effective force, and one that is wasteful. Our needless $125,000 flight may not seem like much when stacked against a $650 billion defense budget, but these actions repeated over and over add up quickly. <br /><br />We must have people we can trust and who tell the truth, absent their own career goals or pride, in top military positions. It is a culture change that should be demanded at all levels of the military to create an atmosphere that remembers who it is we work for. Not for ourselves, nor our careers, but for the American people and their interests. <br /><br />Solutions apart from pouring more into the coffers of defense must be considered and encouraged. Innovation, creativity and technology have a real place in solving war, poverty and other world problems. <br /><br />For instance, Flying scarfs aims to help end the insurgency in Afghanistan by empowering local artisans through economics and education -- all at no cost to the government. Another organization, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OnwardGeneration">OnwardGeneration</a>, was created to highlight the need for a broader worldview and to help create organizations in America and abroad that solve social problems with entrepreneurial pursuits. <br /><br />Ventures like these prove that America has the same formula for greatness as it did when the framers of the Declaration of Independence gathered to make their break with antiquated government systems. <br /><br />Combining best practices of business, social and military entrepreneurs will facilitate lasting change in war-torn, terrorist-laden regions. Leveraging local, economically focused empowerment, in concert with military action, will bring lasting results and long-term stability to these unstable regions. It will also be a more effective use of government funds. <br /><br />America will remain the centerpiece of this new and adapting world if we are not afraid to adapt our philosophy with it. The interconnectedness of our world requires that we understand how our actions ripple through other nations, their governments and non-state sponsored groups. <br /><br />In order to keep America great, new ideas must keep flowing. They are the lifeblood of all things American. From the decision to declare Independence in 1776 to <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/01/9858">3M’s 15% rule,</a> outside the box, disruptive thinkers have and will continue to keep America at the pinnacle of economic, political and military dominance. It is readily evident that what truly makes America great are people who are not afraid to think.<br /></div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-59779986047796678922012-06-14T22:21:00.000-07:002012-06-15T08:30:10.255-07:00System Disruptions and Resilient Networks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Normally, the only thing that gets me worked up is sitting in traffic. But sometimes it gets so bad, it becomes comical.<br />
<br />
Last fall, a man threatening suicide closed off one of the more heavily traveled highways in San Diego. As it was just as rush hour began, this caused cascading gridlock throughout the region. Normally, my ten mile commute from work takes 20 minutes. This time it took 90. <br />
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There are four major highways that lead into downtown San Diego. With one being closed, the other three were forced to handle the overload. They couldn’t. A five by five mile area of San Diego roads, including interstates, feeders and normal streets, were a virtual parking lot. <br />
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Coincidentally, I had been reading a book by <a href="http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/" target="_blank">John Robb</a> entitled “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-War-Terrorism-Globalization/dp/0471780790" target="_blank">Brave New War</a>.” Its premise is that warfare is now in a new state of existence, called <a href="http://boingboing.net/2010/06/15/john-robb-interview.html" target="_blank">Open Source Warfare</a>. Instead of hitting an enemy’s armed center of gravity, terrorist networks focus on disrupting vital, centralized systems. By focusing on specific nodes in power grids, energy transport and transportation, small attacks can wreak disproportionate havoc. <br />
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For instance, the 9/11 attacks <a href="http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm" target="_blank">cost the attackers at most $500,000</a>. They caused over $80 billion in immediate economic damage. This is a return on investment of nearly 160,000 to 1. A $2,000 attack in Iraq in 2004 on oil infrastructure caused that country to lose $500 million in revenue – an ROI of 250,000. <br />
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While I sat in traffic, I couldn’t help but contemplate this asymmetric disruptive power. One man was able to bring a city of millions to a grinding halt, all because he had a political grievance over medical marijuana. Indeed, as soon as I returned home and picked up the book again, Robb mentioned the specific instance of traffic disruptions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Homer Simpson, Esq</b></td></tr>
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We live in a society that is so highly efficient and centralized, even the smallest disruption can have wide reaching effects. Much of Southern California experienced a massive system wide blackout in September 2011 because one transmission station in Arizona had a hiccup. In 2003, the Northeast was plunged into darkness because of disruptions at a single Ohio power node. This may be good for getting neighbors to actually come out and talk to each other, but little else. <br />
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The most effective first responders during the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina were <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501598.html" target="_blank">non-government sponsored entities like Wal-Mart</a>. They were not shackled by bureaucracy, but instead had decentralized networks able to rapidly adapt to a fundamentally changed environment. <br />
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Our national infrastructure is a large reason why the United States has been so successful over the last century. But it is incredibly vulnerable to massive, easily executed disruption. What we need is more resilience and local adaptation. <br />
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Sustainability is one of those buzz words that has been touted by the environmental movement for decades. But it goes well beyond being eco-friendly. Sustainability goes hand in hand with a robust, resilient infrastructure. <br />
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Imagine if we had an open-source electrical network. Instead of naturally occurring monopolists setting inefficient prices and being the sole source provider of energy, we create an open, plug and play electrical grid. We encourage individual households to generate their own power through geothermal, solar or wind. And while this would hardly suffice to take care of all our energy needs, the grid would be much less susceptible to large outages if a strategically significant location failed.<br />
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This would be analogous to the type of data storage system employed by firms like Google and Yahoo! There are no vital, strategic nodes, but instead, cells of data are located throughout the world in a well-connected, horizontal way. If one, or even several, fail, the system remains fully operable.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMawrK3DHn4j8YUOyz0LFGr1IlZXQDPjkp1RwZfCPhxlODDSqH2gYPK_FhloyzTEyFASfh97Z7jvFvnBqCu6zb6FSyCV49iCKdUpnce7K1Gp-CxQAl7CPHc69dDDdwxxAmweEPuGF33tch/s1600/Distributed+Networks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMawrK3DHn4j8YUOyz0LFGr1IlZXQDPjkp1RwZfCPhxlODDSqH2gYPK_FhloyzTEyFASfh97Z7jvFvnBqCu6zb6FSyCV49iCKdUpnce7K1Gp-CxQAl7CPHc69dDDdwxxAmweEPuGF33tch/s320/Distributed+Networks.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Resilience</b></td></tr>
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Our security apparatus is built, and reacts to disruptions, based on how it as a centralized system would seek to cause chaos. This is a recipe for failure.<br />
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We heavily secure nuclear facilities and the big ticket infrastructure. But the attacks of 9/11 were successful because the attackers completely bypassed the US military in attacking our country. They rendered our multi-million dollar air defense fighters irrelevant. <br />
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Spend a few thousand dollars to cut oil pipelines, destroy main power transmission centers or strategically cut off transportation networks, and you’ve done as much damage as a highly coordinated, high cost attack would. And bureaucrats would still sit around wondering how their hundred billion dollar planning apparatus failed. <br />
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The solution to this is not a centralized, uncreative Department of Homeland Security, but rather a system that renders Open Source Warfare irrelevant. It creates an open infrastructure of its own, able to absorb unforeseen events, of both the natural and man made kind. <br />
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Most of all, this requires a radical new way of approaching our society. It is becoming apparent that the centralized, nation state model of the past century is increasingly antiquated. Much as Wikipedia has allowed knowledge to be more broadly accessible at very little cost, so too must our infrastructure development allow small, local innovations to take hold. This will create a resilient network of citizenship in its own right, while also lessening the ability of wily adversaries to cheaply disrupt our society at low cost. John Robb has done extensive work on this with his <a href="http://www.resilientcommunities.com/" target="_blank">Resilient Communities</a> Project. <br />
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It constantly amazes me how close our society sits on the precipice of disaster, yet very few recognize the possibility. Sometimes it takes a traffic jam to show a clear road ahead. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-60065593729312603642012-06-05T18:38:00.001-07:002012-06-11T11:39:54.108-07:00Female Afghan Entrepreneurs and Their Fighter Pilot Angel Investors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">By the time Wasil arrives at the Bagram Air Base bazaar, he has already had a taxing day. The commute to the outskirts of the American installation takes over an hour, and the security screening process another hour. He then opens his shop to sell his wares to curious servicemembers. In his off time from being an entrepreneur in a wartorn country, he studies economics at a local Kabul university. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQk6SYPJtDggg0dto9yp0Y8vxgg_r7TF-_e8AuL6-w63MSBOB6VOOY3TPQkjm7GLi8c3eWp9ioDa1yx4r8McEPiHBXExzGgoEVVDJPTfDdpylxemRVLcC3P0UXtrdFT_OwTtCGrMxCnsW/s1600/flying+scarfs+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQk6SYPJtDggg0dto9yp0Y8vxgg_r7TF-_e8AuL6-w63MSBOB6VOOY3TPQkjm7GLi8c3eWp9ioDa1yx4r8McEPiHBXExzGgoEVVDJPTfDdpylxemRVLcC3P0UXtrdFT_OwTtCGrMxCnsW/s320/flying+scarfs+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Cross Cultural Solutions</b></td></tr></tbody></table>It was in selling his goods that he happened across three young American Air Force officers. Capt Jonathan Hudgins and Capt Ryan Bodenheimer are F-15 Eagle drivers, and Capt Joshua Carroll the intelligence officer from their squadron. They arrived at Bagram in September of 2011 to complete a six month deployment with the 335th Fighter Squadron out of North Carolina.<br />
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In the course of conversation one day, the four hit it off. The language barrier was a challenge at first, with some phrases being lost in translation, but soon, they were talking of everything from politics to education. Eventually they started discussing the most pressing question on Wasil’s mind: The Future of Afghanistan.<br />
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After a few visits with Wasil, it became apparent to these three innovative officers that an American withdrawal from Afghanistan would have catastrophic consequences for many that had come to depend upon foreign and American aid. They knew it was their obligation to find a creative solution to foster entrepreneurship outside of normal military or government channels.<br />
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<div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3i80R76Vy9npPKpxJyVTaZQw3bFjnKWlCHg-DNsEukCs_1sx-e0co__QDaG9khbtaKDiHaXFkvlErLn84dNVRWsXV88PaLHAOb08X0fwmV5uzM9mHq1XapHv5FU6SO3clu36wWoSGl8kv/s1600/flying+scarfs+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3i80R76Vy9npPKpxJyVTaZQw3bFjnKWlCHg-DNsEukCs_1sx-e0co__QDaG9khbtaKDiHaXFkvlErLn84dNVRWsXV88PaLHAOb08X0fwmV5uzM9mHq1XapHv5FU6SO3clu36wWoSGl8kv/s320/flying+scarfs+women.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Wasil’s mother runs a local non-profit organization devoted to employing widowed Afghan women who make handmade artisan scarves. Jon and Josh asked Wasil if his mother would want to partner with them to create an international cooperative so as to sell the scarves in the United States. The offer was enthusiastically accepted. <br />
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This model of supporting third-world entrepreneurs was most famously formulated by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhamed Yunus using the <a href="http://www.grameen-info.org/" target="_blank">Grameen Bank</a>. Instead of microlending, however, Josh, Ryan and Jon wanted to create an international marketplace for the women’s goods.<br />
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After months of filling out IRS, import and customs paperwork, Flying Scarfs began to take shape. It is still in the nascent stages, but has already imported scores of scarves to the US. <br />
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More than just fostering entrepreneurship in a society very different than ours, Flying Scarves aims to support one of the most oppressed groups in Afghanistan: women. Even with the end of formal Taliban rule, women in Afghan society are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/world/asia/afghan-rape-case-is-a-challenge-for-the-government.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all" target="_blank">subject to antiquated and unjust judicial proceedings</a>. The worth of most women comes from the social standing of the husbands. Widowed women are thus even more socially outcast. Flying Scarves is an avenue for them to continue to contribute to their local societies. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53hhY5pr5uFNEfRNZ24kdoOIMWTsotvd5c0LEpg-aohEIMsMbtT0CFGtxVod9Yub7VERZfPZ7FeNlB80E6Kn_dsFZdgLKeEv0qP9oT7gIdMlIXA9ID9y34L_6_253Cx3vazeCYboJ33DX/s1600/flying+scarfs+handiwork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53hhY5pr5uFNEfRNZ24kdoOIMWTsotvd5c0LEpg-aohEIMsMbtT0CFGtxVod9Yub7VERZfPZ7FeNlB80E6Kn_dsFZdgLKeEv0qP9oT7gIdMlIXA9ID9y34L_6_253Cx3vazeCYboJ33DX/s1600/flying+scarfs+handiwork.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Opportunity</b></td></tr></tbody></table>The three social entrepreneurs have learned from firsthand experience that by specifically targeting female entrepreneurs, and putting money directly in their pockets, the money is most effectively spent. The money they earn goes primarily to their children in the form of education and community projects. It is a small, but necessary, step in helping to close the severe gap in gender equality. <br />
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By relying on the already established talents of local Afghans, Flying Scarfs has mitigated the need for costly and bureaucratic government-run training programs. This model empowers oppressed women to seek self-employment as a means of creating lasting economic opportunity.<br />
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Furthermore, local development is more efficient than siphoning funds through the US budget – very little, if any, of which actually goes directly to the wages of female Afghans. The average American making <a href="http://www.bravenewfoundation.org/2011/04/rethink-afghanistan-war/the-war-in-afghanistan-how-much-are-you-paying/" target="_blank">$40,000 pays $1694</a> a year in taxes for the military operations in Afghanistan. Jon and Josh, from their observations, see most of this money getting lost in the foreign aid shuffle, rather than into the hands of the Afghans who need it most. Flying Scarfs is intended to deliver those resources directly into their pockets. <br />
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Flying Scarfs currently employs over 300 local Afghan women. The $30 spent on a scarf, equivalent to a week’s worth of wages, is rewarding productive impulses and supporting the development of an above board economy. It directly infuses much needed capital to the Afghan people, especially when a corrupt government disruption system struggles to allocate funds to the right places. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLy0lStDTXuITdkuX0WevCwrv4DZJnAtbNCfK0bZKVtTWwn13BtNahqesy0dAQG8WGMZTteh4ArmYgs7JcZEj9tqgWbR7wFoJXecZUdTuyVGZT_Z2RSLiqkNflweQLJIxWfTQoYYRKdn0-/s1600/flyingscarfs+group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLy0lStDTXuITdkuX0WevCwrv4DZJnAtbNCfK0bZKVtTWwn13BtNahqesy0dAQG8WGMZTteh4ArmYgs7JcZEj9tqgWbR7wFoJXecZUdTuyVGZT_Z2RSLiqkNflweQLJIxWfTQoYYRKdn0-/s320/flyingscarfs+group.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Winning Hearts and Minds</b></td></tr></tbody></table>Apart from Flying Scarfs, Josh and Ryan are working to create a more broad-based organization called “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz0zcg3Cl6A" target="_blank">Onward Generation</a>” devoted to finding entrepreneurial solutions within the military. With their first venture a success, it will be interesting to see what other ideas they develop.<br />
<br />
Wasil still studies economics and sells daily at the Bagram bazaar while helping his mother export handmade scarves abroad. He summed up the strategy of Flying Scarfs best by saying “there is no reason to join the insurgency because I have a job.” These three officers, by thinking outside normal paradigms, are trying to ensure this becomes a reality for more Afghans one scarf at a time. <br />
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<i>Please visit the <a href="http://www.flyingscarfs.com/" target="_blank">Flying Scarfs website</a> to learn more about their venture. </i></div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-67285517122927499902012-05-31T23:58:00.002-07:002012-06-25T17:02:16.222-07:00The Navy and a Sanctioned Class Divide<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Thanksgiving Day 2009 was the most professionally embarrassed I have ever been as a naval officer. At the time, my squadron was deployed aboard the USS Nimitz in support of combat operations in Afghanistan.<br />
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The day itself was remarkable for other, better, reasons. In the early afternoon, my section of Super Hornets had rushed up to a troops-in-contact situation in the far northeast corner of Afghanistan. A SEAL Team was being attacked by a group of insurgents, and we employed against the enemy mortar position. We arrived back on board ship to find General David Petraeus making the rounds and shaking hands.<br />
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Following our debrief, my crew and I happily, if a bit wearily, made our way down to the officer's wardroom for our Thanksgiving meal. Stuffing, turkey, everything. It was about 30 minutes until the wardroom was to close, and there was barely anybody in it.<br />
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I needed some time to decompress following the meal, so I wondered up to the hangar deck to get some fresh air and be alone. When I arrived, I saw a snaking line of hundreds of sailors weaving through the cavernous space. I saw a few of my squadron's sailors, and asked them what was going on. They told me it was the line to get their Thanksgiving meal. There were rumors that despite the hundreds of people still waiting, because it was closing time, they were going to cut off serving the meal. "Mission First, People Always." Right.<br />
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I was stunned. Twenty year old kids, ten thousand miles from home, pulling twelve hour shifts for weeks straight to turn wrenches so we could fly, and it seemed likely they wouldn't even get a Thanksgiving meal. Meanwhile, the officer's wardroom was still empty.<br />
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Without telling them why, I told the seven sailors I recognized to follow me. I led them down the ladderwells to the empty officers wardroom, and told them to fill a bunch of to-go plates with food. They eagerly did.<br />
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<div style="text-align: right;">
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While they did so, I tried to find the Supply Commander who ran the officers mess, and see if he would be willing to open up the wardroom to help alleviate the crush of enlisted folks that were about to miss Thanksgiving. He told me he wasn't allowed to do that. I stormed off, and told my sailors to fill their plates as full as they possibly could before leading them back upstairs.<br />
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Our Nimitz officer corps utterly failed our sailors that day. Yet, on a smaller scale, we fail them everyday aboard embarked ships.<br />
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The Navy is one of the only places left in America where a clear, enforced and openly accepted class structure still exists. If you are an enlisted sailor, you cannot walk in the blue tiled "officer's country" unless on offical business -- an even then you'd do best to avoid it.<br />
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On board a carrier, sailors line up for every meal and make their way through long cafeteria style lines to get chow. Officers head to the wardroom, and are served meals while enlisted sailors in snazzy outfits act as our waitstaff. Behind us, in cabinets covered in glass, tens of thousands of dollars worth of Tiffany's silver used to serve VIP's glistens. Mood lighting and jazz plays during Sunday brunch. It embarrassed me the first time I had an E-3 clear my plate, and it still embarrasses me. <br />
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The thing that always impressed me most about the few days I spent in the field with Marines was that their officers nearly always let their subordinates eat before they did. And then they ate amidst their Marines.<br />
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It is high time the Navy ended the archaic practice of segregating the officer corps from their enlisted subordinates during shipboard meals. It is an antiquated practice rooted in tradition that is no longer relevant for an information age, socially collaborative society. A truly Disruptive Carrier Commanding Officer would take this step of his own volition and see the transformative and unifying effects a less hierarchical meal structure would have.<br />
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Similarly, a Disruptive Division Officer would forgo the wardroom and make a commitment to spending time each day breaking bread with his charges. This is something I never had the foresight to undertake. <br />
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One of the reasons tech company's provide meals for their employees is to foster free flowing, unscripted conversation between people that wouldn't normally interact. Every employee, from the company janitor to the CEO, has access to the same space. It gets the conversants thinking about ideas within the company they hadn't considered. It also brings lower level employees in more informal contact with their superiors. Ideas are generated. Conversations are developed. And innovations are born. <br />
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As our military enters an age where innovative thought and creativity will be the hallmark of successful strategy, we must embrace the conditions that make such things possible.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_erKbWMR-Vdkh4rQ4HZEX7g2coJxpB3nBZsZxeicZ5pv7SDwE9fGrpaDWwxUYagNUdregLS8ajfxrEhkRVICEZFKwoT4QZ9JVQMPHteawrOgj7s-1EvjtCfGNq1t_r2YB-sWE8bTIWUQ/s1600/Pixar+HQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_erKbWMR-Vdkh4rQ4HZEX7g2coJxpB3nBZsZxeicZ5pv7SDwE9fGrpaDWwxUYagNUdregLS8ajfxrEhkRVICEZFKwoT4QZ9JVQMPHteawrOgj7s-1EvjtCfGNq1t_r2YB-sWE8bTIWUQ/s320/Pixar+HQ.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Deliberate Design Matters</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Jonah Lehrer, in Imagine, describes the success of Pixar: "[They] realized that its creativity emerged from its culture of collaboration, its ability to get talented people from diverse backgrounds to work together." Later, he quotes Brad Bird, the director of The Incredibles as saying, "Steve [Jobs] realized that when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen. So he made it impossible for you not to run into the rest of the company."<br />
<br />
Furthermore, on a ship, the mess decks are classic "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place" target="_blank">third places:</a>" Interactive environments that are neither home (berthings) nor the office (workcenters). Sociologist Ray Oldenberg notes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
These shared areas have played an outsize role in the history of new ideas, from the coffeehouses of eighteenth-century England where citizens gathered to discuss chemistry and radical politics, to the Left Bank bars of modernist Paris frequented by Picasso and Gertrude Stein. The virtue of these third places is that they bring together a diversity of talent, allowing people to freely interact.</blockquote>
Leadership, in many ways, is simply about being present. It's about usefully interacting with your subordinates. It is taking an interest in their complaints and taking action on their valid suggestions for improvement. Good order and discipline can be maintained while still informally engaging during unscripted social gatherings. <br />
<br />
Our most successful and recognized Naval organizations already encourage
a more horizontal communication chain, and blurred lines between
officer and enlisted. Both the Blue Angels and Naval Special Warfare
units require close bonds between leaders and led, and as such there are
very few distinctions in social standing. Let's emulate the best of
our services, and help foster more collaboration.<br />
<br />
Traditions are valuable, as long as they don't persist merely because they are traditions. New realities require adaptation. We have a highly disciplined and educated military. There is no need to still engage in a class-cleaving system that replicates the most foul excesses of the nineteenth century gilded age. End opulent differences in officer and enlisted embarked meals.</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-23543939586888899132012-05-28T06:12:00.002-07:002012-05-28T06:12:39.488-07:00Agape: No Greater Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Memorial Day is for those who have gone before us. I've been fortunate this year to have lost no friends in active service -- although there were a few close calls. Many others have. I wrote this two years ago after the loss of a fellow aviator. <br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>---</i><br />
<br />
<i>Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.</i><br />
– John 15:13 (KJV)<br /><br />There are very few instances in life where a person is truly presented with the philosopher’s favorite hypothetical: when faced with preserving your own life or those of others, whom do you choose?<br /><br />For some though, in a matter of moments, this sophistic exercise becomes reality.<br /><br />Returning home from a mission, mere miles away from the aircraft carrier, an engine indicates an oil problem. The aircrew executes their procedures and shuts the engine down, leaving them with one engine remaining. However, rather than the now static propeller feathering into the wind, minimizing drag and allowing for a much practiced single-engine approach, the prop inexplicably and unexpectedly locks in place. Instead of eight aerodynamic blades cleanly slicing through the air, the locked position becomes the airborne equivalent of a circular brick wall pushing full against the airstream.<br /><br />The plane yaws uncontrollably into the failed starboard engine, and only through the herculean effort of the pilot-in-command, putting his whole strength against the opposite rudder pedal, is controlled flight precariously maintained. Momentarily. The aircraft cannot maintain its altitude. It is only a matter of time before it impacts the water. A choice must be made.<br /><br />Before every flight, the pilot-in-command of a naval aircraft signs his name on a slip of paper kept within the aircraft maintenance log. It is the last of three signatures required before a plane is taken airborne. The first two are from the maintainers certifying that the plane is safe for flight. The last transfers responsibility for the aircraft to the pilot, meaning he is now accountable for the machine and aircrew within its confines. A mere formality on most days, especially when done in haste and hundreds of times previously, it nonetheless is something not soon forgotten.<br /><br />We live in a society where occasionally those we are meant to admire abridge their obligations to accountability. Candidates for office falsely claiming membership in the combat ranks, elected officials blaming past leaders for events occurring on their watch, business tycoons refusing to acknowledge their complicity in financial collapse or environmental disaster. Such nonsense has no place in a stricken aircraft.<br /><br />The pilot-in-command that day (March 31, 2010) was LT Steven “Abrek” Zilberman, a veteran Naval Aviator on his second combat cruise in as many years. His parents emigrated from Ukraine when he was in sixth grade, in part to escape the bigotry they feared he would face as a Jewish conscript in the Russian military. Much to their surprise, he chose to enlist in the US Navy, eventually winning his commission and Wings of Gold. As is the tradition in this brotherhood, Abrek was his bequeathed callsign, in reference to the first space monkey sent into space by the Russians prior to Yuri Garagin. Ironically, and probably unknown to the American aviators at the time, it also means “valiant man” in Russian.<br /><br />At some point, he made the decision to stay in the cockpit, fighting with all his strength to keep the aircraft relatively stable so his three fellow crewmates could bail out. This meant almost certain death – when it came time for him to bail out, the autopilot would be unable to account for the drag-induced uncontrollable yaw, and his only hope for survival would be an incredibly risky ditch into the sea. For a few days, he was listed as missing. The search came up empty handed. For his gallantry, Abrek was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross alongside the folded flag given to his wife at the funeral.<br /><br />To paraphrase Sebastian Junger, author of WAR, warriors know they may face death. When they pledge their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, they face that fact. This conscious, voluntary effort is their greatest act of courage, already accomplished. All subsequent acts in the line of duty stem from this. Some, however, are more conspicuous than others.<br /><br />Perhaps the reason we humans view such heroes so reverently is that they did not intend to seek out recognition. They do not wake up in the morning hoping to die, save others and get glory. Instead, Fate, Providence, luck, whatever you want to call it, is the initiating force behind many acts of courage. That split second decision to take action, sometimes a reaction honed from years of subtle practice and thoughts, is where the individual takes the yolk from fate and forcibly alters the outcome. Yet inimical to this heroism is the tragedy associated with any sacrifice. It is a cost not readily borne, but on occasion selflessly accepted.<br /><br />The paradox of the horrors of war and the character of the men and women who fight them is stunning. Within the depravity, death and destruction of combat exists the characteristics of awe-inspiring traits most humans struggle to emulate in more peaceful moments. These acts, demonstrated both consciously and unconsciously, are often removed from the greater political stratagems and goals of the fought-for country, and instead are directed towards preserving others. On the fields of Shiloh, men braving volleys of bullets to drag a wounded compatriot to safety. Amidst the Sands of Iwo Jima, Marines storming heavily fortified machine gun nests to ensure their buddies in subsequent waves would be safer. In the prisons of Hanoi, aviators forming a self-contained society dedicated to resisting the propaganda, torture and special favors of their captors – while being isolated and beaten for years on end as their countrymen ignored their plight.<br /><br />In the face of the greatest hardships, we find the hardiest souls and amidst the arrows of stinging hatred, the greatest love. Again, Junger: “The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire…What the Army sociologists slowly came to understand was that courage was love. In war, neither could exist without the other and that in a sense they were just different ways of saying the same thing.”<br /><br />Today, while remembering the heroic tragedy that surrounded this sacrifice, there is the legacy that remains alongside the countless others that are spread throughout our military traditions. The reminder is in more than the places of honor we bury our military dead – it is around us every day. The strangers and friends descended from ancestors saved through selfless sacrifice generations ago. The men and women still fighting abroad against those who would do our country harm. But most significantly, the very society and country we find ourselves blessed to be counted citizen among.<br /><br />The likes of Abrek and his fallen brethren gave their lives for their immediate friends and compatriots, but their collective acts are the reason for the joy we feel on a warm summer afternoon, surrounded by majestic hills, dedicated friends and the freedom to live our lives as we see fit. “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”<br /><br />Our future, full of hope and possibility, is the lasting gift we Americans continue to receive from those destined never to see it.<br /><br />Happy Memorial Day, and God Bless.</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-23376724400791998432012-05-23T23:08:00.000-07:002012-05-23T23:49:38.019-07:00Grand Strategy, Procurement Failures and Rejecting Mediocrity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are three overarching elements preventing our military and national security apparatus from fully executing the goals of our country. The first is the most important: Creating, Communicating and Understanding a Grand National Strategy. Under this theme are elements specific to the military itself: a wildly out of control procurement system and an antiquated personnel management system.<br />
<br />
Until we solve these three elements, the United States will have a difficult time fully adapting to the global leadership requirements of the Twenty-First Century. A culmination of exposure to all three in the past day have made a profound impact on me. <br />
<br />
<b>Grand Strategy</b><br />
<br />
Military members often mistake Grand Strategy as being something wholly within the purview of armed force. Those that write about it <a href="http://disruptivebookquotes.blogspot.com/2012/05/nicolay.html" target="_blank">make the same mistake</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Historical judgement of war is subject to an inflexible law, either
very imperfectly understood or very constantly lost sight of. Military
writers love to fight over the campaigns of history exclusively by the
rules of the professional chess board, always subordinating, often
totally ignoring, the element of politics. This is a radical error.
Every war is begun, dominated, and ended by political considerations.
Without a nation, without a government, without money or credit, without
popular enthusiasm which furnishes volunteers, or public support which
endures conscription, there could be no Army and no war...War and
politics, campaign and statecraft, are Siamese Twins, inseparable and
interdependent; and to talk of military operations without the direction
and interference of an administration is as absurd as to plan a
campaign without recruits, pay or rations."</blockquote>
For instance, the "strategy" of the moment happens to be Air/Sea Battle. Much discussed, much maligned, it is merely a sweeping military method for dealing with a very specific set of circumstances. It is also publicly vague; the antithesis of a clear, unifying national vision. Fundamentally, it fails to address the most important question: What is America's current and purpose in the world at large?<br />
<br />
Grand Strategy must necessarily encompass all elements of the national effort. Economic development, education, innovation, statecraft, diplomacy, and finally, military engagement all must be considered. An excellent historical primer on this is found in Edward Luttwak's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Strategy-Byzantine-Empire/dp/0674035194" target="_blank">The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire</a>." <br />
<br />
All of these elements must be crafted within the mission statement of what America is, and where we want her to be in the coming decades. This alone is what should be driving our global policies. Without a clear end state in mind, it's difficult to know where to prioritize both people and treasure. <br />
<br />
Right now, we lack that coherent message -- and as many have noted, America's purpose has been unclear since the existential Soviet threat was vanquished. The problem runs much deeper than not knowing where we are headed, however. As Capt Porter in the video below notes about our government as a whole:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Somehow we've developed institutional autism...many times autistic individuals, they suffer from an inability to understand the consequences of their actions outside their cognitive realm. They have difficulty communicating. They are unwilling to accept change. They do repetitive and compulsive behaviors. And they are incapable of recognizing or dealing with uncertainty. Does that sound familiar to anyone here? (laughter) And you know why? Its because we've disconnected the left and right hemispheres of our brain. We've disconnected institutionally, our creative, the right side of our brain, our non-linear creative side, from our left side, the technological and linguistic processing side. Weve separated those two and we are not allowing innovation to drive the nation forward where we need to go in this century."</blockquote>
This video is some of the best 20 minutes I've spent intellectually, and while laying out the challenge, makes me optimistic that some of those at the higher levels do, in fact, recognize the crossroads we as a country are at.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/q5aBOjhoiCw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
Yet, even by the end of the talk, they had not articulated what our Grand Strategy should be. They talked about how to get there in a very useful way. But I am still left wondering, what are our ultimate aims? Who is taking the responsibility to articulate them?<br />
<br />
Perhaps something as simple as an offering from Andrew Bacevich would suffice: "If America has a mission, that mission is to model freedom rather than to impose it."<br />
<br />
<b>Procurement</b><br />
<br />
Within a Grand Strategy, although not supreme, the military will necessarily play a large role. An adaptable strategy requires flexible, rapid procurement systems able to deliver technology when needed. It also requires the ability for on the ground commanders to purchase off the shelf kit, modify it, and utilize innovative non-traditional industrial firms with unique solutions.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, we are nowhere near this reality, and seem to be getting further from it with every passing day. Case in point is the continuing F-35 procurement saga. On AOL Defense, Republican Congressman and House Armed Services Committee Seapower Subcommittee Chairman asked <a href="http://defense.aol.com/2012/05/23/why-doesnt-the-f-35-program-follow-the-rules/" target="_blank">Why Doesn't the F-35 Program Follow the Rules?<b> </b></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After twenty years in development, it is time the DoD and Lockheed
Martin gave the American people some firm idea of when they could see a
return on their $400 billion investment in the F-35 program...
Sadly, after lobbying by those in opposition [<i><b>eds. note</b></i>: <span class="IN-widget" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="display: inline-block ! important; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 0pt ! important; text-indent: 0pt ! important; vertical-align: baseline ! important;"><span class="li-connect-widget" id="li_ui_li_gen_1337836079017_1"><a class="li-connect-link" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4595590912416369261" id="li_ui_li_gen_1337836079017_1-link"><span class="li-connect-mark" id="li_ui_li_gen_1337836079017_1-mark"></span></a></span></span></span><a href="http://defense.aol.com/tag/Lockheed+Martin/">Lockheed Martin</a>
lobbyists swarmed the HASC when word about the Akin amendment leaked],
members of the Armed Services Committee decided my amendment went too
far and instead required the DoD to establish an [initial operational capability] date, but without
any consequences if they fail to do so; something they have done on
multiple occasions in the past.</blockquote>
This is indicative of a system dominated by established defense firms, with no accountability to taxpayers or the warfighters they are providing equipment to. Whether it be shipbuilding, Army kit, aviation assets or cybersecurity, our procurement system is as broken as politics in Washington. Our system consistently fails to deliver the correct kit to the correct place at the correct time. <br />
<br />
Constitutionally, Congress controls the purse strings. They have been poor stewards. Even the threat of sequestration has had no effect on the trough actually being closed. Requiring budget discipline forces hard, but necessary decisions to be made with creative solutions. It culls the good ideas from the bad. Instead, there is almost bi-partisan agreement that waste in the name of defense is no vice, while restraint in the name of budgetary reality no virtue.<br />
<br />
<b>Finding, Retaining, and Promoting Talent</b><br />
<br />
Strategic coherence and disciplined spending alone will be insufficient without men and women able to execute the mission effectively. An Industrial Age career model is woefully insufficient for the information age. The military promotes too few people early enough, and too many people too far. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2012/05/10122486" target="_blank">Don't Promote Mediocrity</a> by BGen Mark C Arnold is the most compelling way forward I have ever read. A reservist with extensive experience in the private sector, his ability to conceptually blend elements from one professional field to another is a perfect example of applied Disruptive Thinking.<br />
<b></b><br />
Some highlights:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Largely unchanged since 1947, military human resources policies reward
compliance, not performance or innovation. The HR bureaucracies are
quantity-driven, not talent-focused. They are narrowly focused on
assigning officers to jobs that align with their branch or specialty,
with little consideration given to individual inclinations for
assignments and almost none to past performance for O-2s through O-4s.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Indeed, a 2010 study by the Army Research Institute found that the main
reason talented people leave is not the lure of a lucrative civilian
career, but because mediocre people stay in and get promoted. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Year-group systems promote high talent at nearly the same pace as
mediocre and below-average officers during their first 20 years of
service. For instance, the active-duty Army promoted 99 percent of
lieutenants to captain and 95 percent of captains to major during its
2011 boards. In 2010, selection rates for Army O-5s were 94 percent and
above 85 percent in all other services. This is unheard of in the
private sector. It rings loudly of institutionalizing mediocrity at
best, and poisoning the pool of future senior leaders at worst. </blockquote>
Finally, my favorite part:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
High talent demands flexibility. However, the active-duty military
manages its human capital like the priesthood: Once you leave, with rare
exceptions, you cannot return. The reserve components offer “drilling”
assignments where officers can continue to serve: Flex to a few years of
geographic stability for their family in locations other than backwater
military towns, learn new skills at civilian employment, then return to
active duty. Officers’ performance can be tracked during those years
while in a reserve-component unit, and high talent, by definition, will
be ready to serve as O-5 or O-6 commanders. Four years in those
environments will not degrade a high-caliber officer’s skills any more
than assignments at the Pentagon or a foreign embassy. </blockquote>
So, it seems the themes from these most pressing of issues center around the need to innovate and blend the best of practices from outside the military silo. All require ways of thinking in a dynamic environment that shake up existing orthodoxy.<br />
<br />
Awareness is growing, we just need leaders with the courage and willingness to act. Because if we don't, somebody else in the world surely will. <br />
</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-62406694268398669622012-05-20T23:28:00.000-07:002012-05-21T08:00:00.595-07:00Crowdsourced Wargaming<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Naval Postgraduate School is out with its <a href="https://portal.mmowgli.nps.edu/" target="_blank">latest MMOWGLI</a>, in coordination with the Office of Naval Research's Department of Innovation. If you have an interest in experimenting with alternative energy solutions for national security, now is your chance.<br />
<br />
MMOWGLI is the cool sounding name for a typical bureaucratic acronym: Massively Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet. An <i>Online</i> Wargame that Leverages the <i>Internet</i>? I never would have imagined the possiblity!<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZwY6AYjd8AuQI1dnv7lc8ya3snLbKMDT7IhD5khe9vvtF4YKYbRqmFYIVi0-Xlpr1KthejbJiJAd_z7HXiSPdyk2ZHXeWni5r_Lg8qIOyAw2jbSFs96OnOTYFaJMVEYd6XMi2bJenaH-/s1600/MMOWGLI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZwY6AYjd8AuQI1dnv7lc8ya3snLbKMDT7IhD5khe9vvtF4YKYbRqmFYIVi0-Xlpr1KthejbJiJAd_z7HXiSPdyk2ZHXeWni5r_Lg8qIOyAw2jbSFs96OnOTYFaJMVEYd6XMi2bJenaH-/s320/MMOWGLI.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Pirates of Somalia</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Before I get too snarky, I actually think this is a really cool concept. I've been intrigued by the NPS efforts in wargaming since they came out with their <a href="http://portal.mmowgli.nps.edu/piracy-blog" target="_blank">first one looking for solutions to ongoing piracy issues</a>.<br />
<br />
The current effort is described below:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The new game is <a class="external" href="http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=63277">Energy MMOWGLI</a>
which brings together players to consider how to reduce the heavy
reliance by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps on a finite, expensive and
unreliable supply of fossil fuels. This dependency degrades our
strategic position and the tactical performance of our forces. The
global supply of oil is finite, it is increasingly difficult to find,
and [its] cost continues to rise. We need to improve our <a class="external" href="http://greenfleet.dodlive.mil/">energy security</a>,
increase our energy independence, and help lead the nation towards a
clean energy economy. Among other themes, we plan to examine the <a class="external" href="http://www.navy.mil/features/Navy_EnergySecurity.pdf">Navy Energy Security Strategy</a>
and consider Energy Efficient Acquisition, Sail the "Great Green
Fleet," Reduce Non-Tactical Petroleum Use, Increase Alternative Energy
Ashore, and Increase Alternative Energy Use DON-Wide.</blockquote>
This green initiative has been the pet-project of current Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. In recent years, biofuels have been used to fly Super Hornets, and shortly, to power the <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/09/navy-to-demonstrate-great-green-fleet-this-summer/" target="_blank">Great Green Fleet</a>. I'll leave that debate for another post.<br />
<br />
In harnessing the wisdom of the crowd, especially for military problems, we're exposing our strategists to the widest possible audience. A game that sends messages back and forth seems a bit clunky for the HTML 2.0 world we live in, but it's a good start.<br />
<br />
A similar project, called <a href="http://fold.it/portal/" target="_blank">Fold-it</a>, was unveiled a few years back to help protein researchers. The complexity involved was such that computers could not accurately do what was needed, so someone had the idea of making a game out of it. They opened it up to a worldwide human audience, and had a massive response. The best players often have no knowledge of DNA proteins, yet are helping solve difficult problems. They compete not for money, but rather to help science and get the best scores.<br />
<br />
The expansion of crowdsourced military wargaming could yield similar unanticipated, but highly valuable, results. Millions already play first person shooter and strategic video games. These games could be utilized by military strategists to put crazy tactics out for trial in the Cloud. <br />
<br />
Imagine a game with a set amount of money, and a myriad of options for building a fleet -- big supercarriers, all the way down to cigarette boats. Have $10 billion? 1 carrier or 1,000 small missile boats. Who wins? Now, change the scenario and try again. <br />
<br />
The key is getting civilian gamers <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/04/art-of-wargaming-creating-interactive.html" target="_blank">immersed and interested </a>to come up with the most interesting solutions. Have them play both sides of the equation. Are Chinese hordes repelled by lots of small craft or a few strategically placed assets? Do the North Koreans ever win? What if Iran did something completely unpredictable?<br />
<br />
We debate these things all the time in our military communities. But we can also take the thousands of iterations developed by thinking, unorthodox civilians, and compile the data. Strategists can cull lessons from both brilliant and laughable strategies -- all at minimal real world cost. L3 or the like and their supporting Congressional delegation will probably throw a fit when they lose a multi-billion contract for scripted wargames, but such is life in a dynamic, ever changing world. <br />
<br />
In fact, Malcolm Gladwell, in <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=6" target="_blank">How Underdogs Can Win</a>, described something exactly like this concept, only from a 1980's iteration. A computer programmer with no experience in military strategy defeated the best military minds. Quite simply, he thought completely outside the box in terms of his fleet composition and tactical deployment. It was a shocking strategy -- agile, cheap boats swarming an opponent and leaving damaged compatriots to flounder -- but it worked. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqilNfCj10XyiMqHhffOFrTM9ibsc5PUIrbklOz9T0gxJyJ0o-hn_uOrNOz8TDQu-KIPH2ZSOUXjZjwT3Q42d0Le6byrzqxBYiAaUAyQXkmo-8He6J89IVehME5zL2FLHpg2iBupodTPhu/s1600/wow-southpark_v1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqilNfCj10XyiMqHhffOFrTM9ibsc5PUIrbklOz9T0gxJyJ0o-hn_uOrNOz8TDQu-KIPH2ZSOUXjZjwT3Q42d0Le6byrzqxBYiAaUAyQXkmo-8He6J89IVehME5zL2FLHpg2iBupodTPhu/s320/wow-southpark_v1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Captain America for the 21st Century</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To be sure, strategies that abandon fellow soldiers to their fate are not what we want to be pushing as a military. But it is good to look at the lessons from unconventional solutions. Things can always be culled. Instead of merely changing the rules, as Gladwell's organizers did, why didn't the Gamemasters consider these swarming tactics and their effectiveness? It certainly would have helped twenty years later when General Van Ripper used the same tactic during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002" target="_blank">Millennium Challenge 2002</a> -- and virtually sunk an entire US Fleet. Until the rules were changed...and the good General resigned in protest. <br />
<br />
All this is to say efforts like MMOWGLI are valuable in harnessing the power of crowdsourced solutions for military and strategic ends. People don't even have to know what they are supporting to be sucked into a game. And the lessons learned from failed, as well as unconventionally successful, strategies will be a boon to those thinking about and composing Doctrine.<br />
<br />
NPS and ONR both have at least started to think along these lines. So much more could be done at little cost, with existing technology and a volunteer workforce of videogamers ready to jump in. It may upend our conventions about how wars will be fought, but I can almost guarantee that whatever foe we fight next will do so anyway.</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-50348018890777466102012-05-14T21:20:00.000-07:002012-05-15T09:06:48.389-07:00Disruptive Thinking and How the iPad Changed Close Air Support in Afghanistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>In the essay below, <a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/contributors/michael-christman" target="_blank">Capt. Michael Christman</a> describes how an innovative junior officer took matters into his own hands, and in defiance of a reluctant bureaucracy, created an efficient and comprehensive solution using off the shelf, modern technology. It has helped transform tactical employment, and saved lives on the battlefield. He explores why the project was ultimately successful, and how others can emulate it. In many ways, it is an answer to the <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/05/getting-right-people-to-listen-army-jo.html" target="_blank">questions posed a few days ago</a> by 1LT Atwell.</i><br />
<br />
<i>Dropping a bomb from 25,000 feet (or hovering just above the treetops) with an acceptable error of mere meters, only 500 feet away from friendly positions, is a challenge. However, Close Air Support (CAS) is one of the <a href="http://conservativeorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2010/04/combat.html" target="_blank">finest examples of joint operational teamwork</a> in the military. It requires a high degree of coordination between airborne and ground based assets, many of whom have never met, and are from different services -- even different countries. </i><br />
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<i>Integral to this coordination are the use of Gridded Reference Graphics (GRG's) that airborne fixed wing and helicopter aircraft use when identifying friendly and enemy positions (see sketch below). In the past, they were simply printed products, hard to keep organized, within a cockpit undergoing heavy G's and dynamic maneuvers. New products have changed the calculus.</i><br />
<br />
<i>---</i> <br />
<br />
Most Marine Corps aviators who have served in Afghanistan in a close air support role are familiar with the over 1,000 maps that make up the Helmand Valley. These maps are made using high resolution imagery with every building identified by a unique number. Such products enable aircrew to quickly correlate friendly and enemy locations, more effectively providing accurate and timely aviation fires for ground based units. This, in turn, saves the lives of young Americans and their allies. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOPf0E5V16O6z_GkuTbSNtpx4EklfyQ461MAHtRodPDvx7A2ENQ5iJKYEiZ1Q1gccnTygu6JFnksGYQwu0Rfh2th4KXc_DlVDCjdLkKG5bVtB4TBzAl_K-d1k_YLY6LJhuZjCvOyb6YIZt/s1600/Gridded+Reference+Grid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOPf0E5V16O6z_GkuTbSNtpx4EklfyQ461MAHtRodPDvx7A2ENQ5iJKYEiZ1Q1gccnTygu6JFnksGYQwu0Rfh2th4KXc_DlVDCjdLkKG5bVtB4TBzAl_K-d1k_YLY6LJhuZjCvOyb6YIZt/s320/Gridded+Reference+Grid.jpg" width="279px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Paper or Plastic, Sir?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Until recently, aircrew carried all 1000 map sheets individually. To find the right one required sorting through 30 lbs of paper to find the appropriate gridded reference graphic for a specific operational area. In fact, there are so many maps, they won’t all physically fit inside the cockpit -- an operational liability if you are told to provide support in an unanticipated area. Additionally, finding the right map could take several minutes -- precious time during a fire fight.<br />
<br />
In order to solve this problem, an enterprising <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_AH-1_Cobra" target="_blank">AH-1W Cobra attack helicopter</a> pilot, Captain Jim “Hottie” Carlson, developed an application to electronically digitize and stitch these map sheets together so that a pilot could view them on an iPad. With the iPad’s embedded GPS, the Cobra now has a portable moving map, something that the early 1990’s era helicopter lacks. A single tablet also contains every conceivable map in an incredibly light and easily accessible touchscreen. Updates to the local geography and existing products are made with a simple download. <br />
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Of his own initiative and without official Marine Corps support, Captain Carlson provided his aging aircraft with a navigational system as advanced any available in the civilian world. This leap in capability cost less than $1000 per aircraft. Remarkably, an entire Marine Corps Cobra squadron can now be outfitted with iPads for less than the cost of fuel for one day of combat operations in Afghanistan.<br />
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While the technical details of the “Combat iPad” are best left for another discussion, the interesting story lies in exploring the key factors that allowed Captain Carlson, along with several other individuals, to overcome the bureaucratic hurdles they faced in bringing this program to operators. <br />
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First and foremost, Captain Carlson was the right person in the right place at the right time. As one of the senior pilots on the deployment, Captain Carlson had the tactical expertise and credibility to both understand the problem and navigate the bureaucratic morass of the Marine Corps. Integral to this was a technical background (a computer science major) that allowed him to view the problem from a different perspective and create a unique solution. <br />
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Second, Captain Carlson had the support of key players both in the squadron and at the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW). LtCol William “Hoss” Bufkin, a Cobra pilot who served on the Wing staff, was in the perfect position to help work through the bureaucratic red tape needed to bring these tablets to the battlefield. LtCol Bufkin had previously served as an evaluation pilot with the AH-1Z upgrade program and was no stranger to the aviation procurement process. With his experience, he was able to work through or around many of the top level challenges of procuring iPads and getting approval for their use in flight. LtCol Bufkin knew that the bureaucracy would tell him “no” when it came to asking for this new technology, but had the will to effectively fight the system in order to get this critical piece of equipment to the fleet. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS12OwKb2AsJOsWKG0tUx7HXjWHwHW6dVeK9D5c_j4vOvwGv6Q7GfbTR0LmQrTzl81hlUdJ9y_kOUS16yU1a-_QEL6k1Gdu9c_qQHmbcVDgl-PUi7rIj69A9CaY-t5RVMZKjJWHrUvS3F6/s1600/ipad+maps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS12OwKb2AsJOsWKG0tUx7HXjWHwHW6dVeK9D5c_j4vOvwGv6Q7GfbTR0LmQrTzl81hlUdJ9y_kOUS16yU1a-_QEL6k1Gdu9c_qQHmbcVDgl-PUi7rIj69A9CaY-t5RVMZKjJWHrUvS3F6/s320/ipad+maps.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Not Just for Tourists...</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Third, Captain Carlson had the entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic needed to solve this problem. It is interesting to note that many (but not all) of those Marines involved in the original iPad solution, and those who have continued to improve on the program, had experience as civilians before joining the Marine Corps. Did their experiences before entering military service help them in solving this unique problem? It seems so. <br />
<br />
Indeed, because they began their professional careers in places where innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit were valued, these change agents were already comfortable working in environments where unique approaches to problem solving existed. This is not to say that those who have worked in the civilian world are more likely to be Disruptive Thinkers than those without civilian experience. Colonel John Boyd, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_%28military_strategist%29" target="_blank">inventor of the OODA loop</a> and one of the most influential military thinkers of the 20th Century, began his military career by enlisting in the Army at age 17. However, those professionally raised in the current military culture too often write off potential solutions because they do not fit into preconceived notions of acceptable doctrine.<br />
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The Marine Corps is going to need more of these combat innovators as we enter the next 10-15 years of fiscal austerity. As is often quoted, “<a href="http://www2.quanticosentryonline.com/news/2011/oct/03/marines-to-industry-its-time-to-think-ar-1355621/" target="_blank">we’re out of money, its time to think</a>”. As Marines, especially at the Staff NCO and company grade officer level, we need to do better at taking responsibility for our own organization.<br />
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So how do we promote an entrepreneurial, problem solving spirit? How do we do this in a large organization like the Marine Corps? <br />
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The following are some ideas of how Disruptive Thinkers can be more effective: <br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Be a Disruptive Doer, not just a Disruptive Thinker. Good ideas are a starting point, but actions speak louder than words. Captain Carlson put in hundreds of hours of his own time, in addition to flying combat missions, in order to get the Combat iPad up and running. If he and LtCol Bufkin had simply talked about their solution and hadn’t put in the work, we would still be sifting through 30 lbs of paper maps. </li>
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<li>Be ready for a bureaucratic knife fight. It often takes a strong personality who is willing to get his nose bloodied to alter the bureaucratic inertia of large organizations. Choose your battles wisely and have your proverbial “stuff in one sock”. You may only get one chance to convince someone that you have a better way. Make it count. Nixon summed it up best <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4058#axzz1uteY3S8C" target="_blank">when he spoke about Admiral Rickover</a>, the father of the modern nuclear Navy: <blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I don't mean to suggest ... that he is a man who is without controversy. He speaks his mind. Sometimes he has rivals who disagree with him; sometimes they are right, and he is the first to admit that sometimes he might be wrong. But the greatness of the American military service… is symbolized in this ceremony today, because this man, who is controversial, this man, who comes up with unorthodox ideas, did not become submerged by the bureaucracy, because once genius is submerged by bureaucracy, a nation is doomed to mediocrity."</blockquote>
</li>
<li>Don’t forget that the Marine Corps is a warfighting institution, not a think tank. The Marine Corps isn’t an organization like Google that requires constant innovation out of its employees. The Marine Corps is more like McDonalds. The latter needs employees to uphold a standard, so that customers can get the same hamburger in both New York and Tokyo. With the Marine Corps, you can expect that any given battalion will perform just as well as any other. To provide this, both McDonalds and the Marine Corps have had to develop and enforce a single standard throughout their organizations. While this process may seem at times anathema to innovation or Disruptive Thinking, it is, at its core, what makes us good.</li>
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<li>Sometimes you can do more good outside of the military. There is a great tradition of American citizens leaving military service and going on and changing the world. FBI director Robert Mueller and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership-fred-smith-fedex-ceo-video-highlights/2011/07/15/gIQASV7PGI_video.html" target="_blank">FedEx founder Fred Smith</a> both earned Purple Hearts as Marine infantry officers in Vietnam. While the Marine Corps is a great organization, there are other great organizations out there. America, not just the military, needs innovative leaders.</li>
</ol>
Along with being more effective junior innovators, we need help from senior leaders. We do a very <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/why-our-best-officers-are-leaving/8346/" target="_blank">poor job at leveraging our best minds and our most talented young leaders</a>. The Marine Corps leadership can change this in several different ways.<br />
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First, bring “centralized command, decentralized control” back to the Marine Corps. Innovation is often a bottom up process, where those closest to the fight have the best solutions. Giving subordinate commanders flexibility to make these decisions will allow the most creative junior leaders to develop innovative solutions to existing problems.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzlguFV9SCZZ6vzMtn6gaQATKOzxTIRpk2VXNvaGkaRL3i6L3A8LQ7OOonuQUxLh1piAWNE3LJzuF6PqUZP_sJqwTSp5RzSnzwcCebrP7o4LVTJNzBPocAGjUqVw3MjTv_-0VCOrgw_DO0/s1600/failure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzlguFV9SCZZ6vzMtn6gaQATKOzxTIRpk2VXNvaGkaRL3i6L3A8LQ7OOonuQUxLh1piAWNE3LJzuF6PqUZP_sJqwTSp5RzSnzwcCebrP7o4LVTJNzBPocAGjUqVw3MjTv_-0VCOrgw_DO0/s320/failure.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div>
As General Patton said, “<a href="http://disruptivebookquotes.blogspot.com/search/label/Patton" target="_blank">Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.</a>” Avoiding micro-management is risky for the commander, and managing that risk is a difficult task, but giving someone “enough rope to hang himself” does two important things. First, it provides a learning environment for that junior leader, and second, it helps to separate the mediocre from the exceptional. Anyone can follow orders, but the best will excel in the absence of direction.<br />
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Finally, strive to keep the most innovative officers and enlisted leaders in the Marine Corps by offering them ownership in the organization -- embrace their creative solutions whenever possible.<br />
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Every organization from Apple to FedEx to the CIA deals with losing talent. However, the military has a unique problem in that it is an “agricultural” organization, meaning that it can’t hire mid level leaders like other organizations. Majors and colonels must be “grown” from the ground up. If you want effective Colonels and Generals, you need to keep effective Lieutenants and Captains. As <a href="http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198" target="_blank">Colonel Paul Yingling (USA) said</a>, “It is unreasonable to expect that an officer who spends 25 years conforming to institutional expectations will emerge as an innovator in his late forties. “<br />
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The post-Iraq/Afghanistan Marine Corps will present unique challenges and opportunities for the next generation of our service. Fewer resources and an undefined mission will pose challenges that most Marines have yet to experience. However, this also offers an opportunity for innovative Disruptive Thinkers and Doers to reshape the Marine Corps into the organization that will fight our nation’s future enemies, whoever they may be. Hopefully they stick around. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-75158071725002513922012-05-12T10:48:00.002-07:002012-05-12T10:49:19.211-07:00Getting the Right People to Listen: An Army JO With Solutions Wonders How<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Sparked by the discussions on this blog and at <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/topics/disruptive%20thinkers" target="_blank">Small Wars Journal</a>, 1LT Kyle Atwell emailed me with a question about implementing innovation in the military. Boiled down to it's most basic elements, it is one this blog has been trying to figure out for the past few months: How does a Junior Leader influence change in an organization that is resistant to change and highly hierarchical in nature? </i><br />
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<i>If you are a senior leader with recommendations, or a Junior Leader who has influenced change, please weigh in and help the 1LT with an effective method to implement the tactical solution he outlines below.</i><br />
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---<br />
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I am an Army 1LT Heavy Weapons Platoon Leader. I served in Wardak Province, Afghanistan as a Rifle Platoon Leader with my current unit in Tangi Valley and then on Highway 1 from October 2010 to October 2011. I love serving in the Army Infantry, but have grown frustrated with what I perceive as a high level of risk aversion that impedes company and platoon level leaders from utilizing the full potential of their forces -- the very leaders who are actually on the ground in villages fighting the fight.<br />
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My question is best understood if I provide a little background:<br />
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In my twelve months in combat I came to believe that the use of ATVs [All Terrain Vehicle] in combat operations in the mountainous parts of Afghanistan will provide a decisive tactical advantage for coalition forces. The MATVs [MRAP All Terrain Vehicle] and MRAPs [Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected] currently used by the majority of ground forces are heavily armored and withstand IED blasts well, but have limited mobility in the mountainous terrain that dominates much of Afghanistan. Infantry units like the one I served in would greatly benefit from adding light weight, high mobility vehicles like ATVs to their fleet.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Freedom of Mobility</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Special Forces unit that shared my outpost used them, and proved their value on every mission we conducted with them. They were able to quickly move into dominant positions that my conventional infantry unit could not touch without giving ourselves away to the enemy or moving dismounted. The Special Forces team would use the ATVs to set up the isolation of a village before the enemy could flee, while my unit used our heavier vehicles to enter the village along roads and conduct our mission. As a Heavy Weapons Platoon Leader, one of my key doctrinal tasks is to set up isolation of objectives for Rifle Platoons; the use of ATVs in rough terrain like Afghanistan would provide the capability to do this in a way that MATVs and MRAPs can not.<br />
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There is a possibility my unit will return to Afghanistan in the future, and so I have begun to think of how we could improve our performance if we were to face similar terrain. I have presented my idea of using ATVs as the Special Forces unit did to my superiors and peers, only to hear that many have thought the same thing in the past, and while agreeing that it would provide an advantage, no approving authority will be willing to accept the tactical risk inherent in using minimally armored vehicles. "Nobody will want to have to explain why a Soldier was killed in a vehicle that had no armor" explained one superior.<br />
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My supervisor told me directly that he agreed the use of ATVs could be useful and he had brought up the use of ATVs in the past, but had been dismissed given their inherent risk. Battalion level leadership from my deployment to Afghanistan had pushed for the use of Toyota trucks as our Afghan partners were using, only to be turned down for over a year based on similar premises.<br />
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To be clear, the use of ATVs does add additional risk. However, myself and the men who would be taking the risk agree that the potential benefits are worth it. We as leaders are trained to develop risk mitigating measures, and could implement training and tactics to use the equipment appropriately and effectively.<br />
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The first thing my current Platoon Sergeant said when I asked him if he thought ATVs were smart to use in Afghanistan, was that they absolutely would have provided an advantage for certain missions, but only if we provided the appropriate safety and operational training to the Soldiers using them. His response is a testament to the capability and professionalism of Company level leaders, and an indication they can be trusted to make appropriate risk assessments in the use of ATVs if they are only given the opportunity to add them to their toolkit.<br />
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In this instance the Commanders and leaders on the ground (including the NCO and Junior Officer war-fighters I worked with) all agree the use of ATVs, with appropriate safety measures, would provide a significant tactical advantage, yet nobody who can make it happen wants to take the leap to do so given the added risk. Either that or the idea has never reached the people who can make it happen in the first place. I see this as a problem of battling a risk averse and set bureaucracy with an innovative and potentially game changing idea. I feel particularly frustrated because as a Junior Officer, I have very little ability to impact the decision making process on this particular issue, even though I have first hand experience with the dilemma.<br />
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Do you have any advice on how a Junior Officer in my position could go about influencing an issue such as this one that would affect the realms of doctrine, training and procurement... all realms that in this instance are well above my pay-grade?<br />
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I don't want to just be told that using a piece of equipment that could change the game for us (not just my unit, but all Infantry units in the mountainous parts of Afghanistan) in the next couple years is not going to happen, and because I am a young officer I should not pursue this idea. I have considered publishing articles (though I do not know the most effective way to go about doing that) and going straight to superior officers (though I do not want to break my chain of command). How does a Junior Officer influence change in an Army that is resistant to change and highly hierarchical in nature?</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-34042084778547700052012-05-10T00:19:00.002-07:002012-05-10T11:33:29.614-07:00The Junior Military Leader Hackathon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the past few weeks, this blog and others have been asking a lot of questions pertaining to the relevance of our current military system, and the path forward. We've started discussions, and occasionally raised the ire of more experienced warriors. Questions are good, but more needs to be done by the questioners, myself included. We need to be constructive and put forth actionable solutions.<br />
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Part of the problem is that many of us who want to see change, or have a good idea, are occupied with our daily jobs. For those of us in the military, it is what we are paid to do, and hours spent daydreaming about new solutions can potentially take away from combat readiness. The latter should be the priority, especially in time of war, but there has to be some way to flesh out good ideas in detail without sacrificing the requirements of a competent operator.<br />
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A way to start would be considering the implementation of an idea used by companies such as 3M or Google. Employees are allowed to use up to 20 percent of their work hours on individual projects not related to their job. In doing so, they pursue those areas they are most passionate about, and usually create some pretty neat products. When sharing them with other colleagues during random conversations, other sparks catch fire, and new innovations occur. <br />
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Admittedly though, there is a vast difference in requirements between an engineer in a lab, and a company commander charged with the wellbeing of his troops. Some other method, leveraging outside work free time, needs to be considered.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2AaRkq0-tpVkPJdymD5n2zEiOK1Ml7zYKbC0nPgEoXTxWOJwXeQNdFnV0-PtbwDrd4uYuFddSbkcCWZ3Vv0YT9eNpqRO67DI87AcY0qHHKY9t3ek0NZHpwTPW753fe-pucOr9w2kSIlq/s1600/hackathon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2AaRkq0-tpVkPJdymD5n2zEiOK1Ml7zYKbC0nPgEoXTxWOJwXeQNdFnV0-PtbwDrd4uYuFddSbkcCWZ3Vv0YT9eNpqRO67DI87AcY0qHHKY9t3ek0NZHpwTPW753fe-pucOr9w2kSIlq/s320/hackathon.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Collaborative Hacking</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Fortunately, the private sector has an answer. The past few years have seen the rise of weekend-long Hackathons and "Startup Weekends." This is an opportunity to flesh out ideas in an unconstrained space that cannot be explored in the course of normal employment duties.<br />
<br />
They are time intensive, but incredibly productive and swift. It is a model Junior Military Leaders should embrace -- and the last part of this post will explain a formal proposal. Indeed, this was first explained to me in a military context by a Marine innovator named Tony Hatala. But first, let's look at the conceptual models further.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon" target="_blank">Hackathons</a> are usually a gathering of programmers designed with a focused goal in mind: Develop a specific app, create a new piece of software using a specific type of coding language, or even create a website for a certain cause. They begin with a presentation about the goal at hand, and the formation of ad hoc teams of any size. These teams develop their own internal hierarchy and divide up tasks. Over the next 48 hours (usually on a weekend), each team creates a fully developed product that they present to the group at the end. Some are sponsored within established companies, others are simply offered openly to the public. <br />
<br />
After the weekend, the projects are taken to full scale launch, or discarded. But the ideas generated help inform future projects and strengthen the relational ties between people who wouldnt normally work together. Ultimately, it is a way to rapidly get ideas and solutions generated in a concentrated, unconstrained way.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://startupweekend.org/" target="_blank">Startup Weekends</a> are similar, except an entire business and its associated model are created. Within each group, roles are assigned: CEO, CFO, Operational Strategist, Marketing, etc. They create a pitch for potential investors, and at the end of the weekend, try to get funding from angel investors in the audience. Many don't make it, but <a href="http://charlottesville.startupweekend.org/2012/02/09/another-startup-weekend-success-story/" target="_blank">some do</a>. At the very least, it links entrepreneurs with like-minded people, creating networks where none previously existed.<br />
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Now to the proposal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A Face of Things to Come</b></td></tr>
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On Wednesday, June 6th, the Naval Warfare Development Center is hosting a <a href="https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/Lists/Announcements/Attachments/23/NWDC%20Announces%20Junior%20Leader%20Innovation%20Symposium%20Final.pdf" target="_blank">Junior Leader Innovation Symposium</a> entitled <a href="https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/ncoi/jlis/default.aspx" target="_blank">Engaging and Empowering Junior Leaders to Regain our Innovative Advantage</a>. A large part of this Symposium is a forum where Junior Military Leaders will be able to discuss problems and solutions, with the possibility of them being acted upon by Senior Leadership. It is a superb example of innovative thought being incubated and supported by two and three-star leaders. <br />
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One day in one space is a great start, but more can be done to develop whatever ideas are proposed. Thus, Disruptive Thinkers will be hosting a cross-service Military Leaders Hackathon in San Diego on the weekend of June 9-10. We want this to happen in other cities as well. We encourage entrepreneurial military leaders of any rank to take part.<br />
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The session will begin with an explanation of the specific problem to be tackled. Rank will be irrelevant, and first name exchanges will be highly encouraged. We will then form teams of 8-10 people, and break off for two 8 hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday to come up with a comprehensive solution to the problem. Each team will create their own assignments, and determine the best way to move forward with solving the given issue. <br />
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These problems will be culled from those assembled at the Innovation Symposium the Wednesday before, as well as bigger issues like Creating a 21st Century Career Model, Reforming Military Procurement, and Military Pension Reform. By the end of the Sunday session, a fully referenced white paper with the proposals will be submitted and reviewed. Even better, individual cells can propose more innovative ways like new websites or products that would be more accessible than the traditional document. The best solutions will be posted on the DT blog and sent up for action to senior leaders.<br />
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We want max participation from junior officers and junior enlisted across the services. Senior leaders are welcome to participate, with the understanding that it is a grassroots, non-military endorsed venture. Civilians of all stripes are encouraged to take part, both the get a feel for the military culture, and add their valuable outside insights to the issues being tackled. <br />
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Please email <a href="mailto:disruptivethinkers@gmail.com">disruptivethinkers@gmail.com</a> if you are interested in taking part or leading a Hackathon cell in your city. Additionally, please pass this along to any and all of your networks -- lets leverage the networking tools our generation utilizes anyway for the good of the services we love.<br />
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I've been inundated by requests from junior personnel who want to make a difference. This is our first shot at making it work, and we will learn from our failures and successes. Many of us have discussed the same problems over and over -- now is our chance to truly push for change in a constructive, collaborative and meaningful way. Perhaps none of our proposals will be accepted, but the act of taking part will be valuable, and get some new ideas into the increasingly open-sourced square of military thought.<br />
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</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-42258207142680640642012-05-03T08:19:00.001-07:002012-05-03T08:19:33.394-07:00Launch of the DC Cell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Washington, DC Disruptive Thinkers Cell will be having their first meeting this evening (Thursday, May 3rd) at 6:30pm. If you are in the DC area, and interested in what we're doing out here in San Diego, be sure to stop by Bullfeathers. (401 1st St SE) Michael Clauser is the point of contact for the event. Email me directly if you want his information.<br />
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If you are interested in starting a chapter in your own city, please let me know. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-32474857322482696412012-05-02T01:08:00.001-07:002012-05-02T22:16:59.938-07:00A Response to the Critics of Disruptive Thinking<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>The following is adapted from a response I wrote to the <a href="http://lists.alidade.net/" target="_blank">Alidade Forum</a>, after a <a href="http://lists.alidade.net/pipermail/alidadeonlinediscussion/2012-April/thread.html" target="_blank">month's worth</a> of intense back and forth between their members. I received many comments via email and other means, both in support of and critical of my contention in <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/" target="_blank">Small Wars Journal</a> that <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-military-needs-more-disruptive-thinkers" target="_blank">The Military Needs More Disruptive Thinkers</a>. This is a catch-all response, and a further fleshing out of my initial contention.</i> <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>"It's Above Your Paygrade"</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of my favorite, yet disturbing, stories is from a very close friend who recently got his commission as a Naval Officer. Previously, he served in the White House, then as an Aide to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and finally at Southern Command running some pretty innovative projects. He even started his own Strategic Consulting firm. In the DoD job, as a 25 year old, he frequently briefed Admirals and Generals in the Pentagon for his boss. They listened, and accepted his suggestions. He wore a suit. When he pinned on his butter bars 5 years later, had he been in the same room, he would have been relegated to grabbing the coffee, at most. Same guy, more experience, more education, and five years later, in uniform, he is disregarded because he is “merely” an Ensign. Ludicrous, but indicative of how seniority nearly always trumps merit in the military. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Jonah Lehrer, in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Creativity-Works-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0547386079" target="_blank">Imagine: How Creativity Works</a>, says the following about young innovators:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> “Why are young physicists and poets more creative? One possibility is that time steals ingenuity, that the imagination starts to wither in middle age. But that’s not the case-we are not biologically destined to get less creative. Simonton argues that youth benefits from their outsider status –they’re innocent and ignorant, which makes them more willing to embrace radical new ideas. Because they haven’t become encultured, or weighted down with too much conventional wisdom, they’re more likely to rebel against the status quo. After a few years in the academy, Simonton says, the ‘creators start to repeat themselves, so that it becomes more of the same-old, same-old.’ They have become insiders…The young know less, which is why they often invent more.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Favreau_%28speechwriter%29" target="_blank">Jon Favreau</a>, the head speechwriter for President Obama, was 27 when appointed. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Schock" target="_blank">Aaron Schock</a>, a Congressman from Illinois, is 30. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook when he was still an undergrad at Harvard. Tom Brady won multiple Super Bowls in his twenties. This is a remarkable list, with some household names. Yet, I must ask, where are our young strategic military geniuses in uniform? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Why are we one of the only professions without young people that have risen to positions of significant authority and leadership? Is it that they don’t exist? Or does our military culture systematically repress rapidly rising leaders and subject them to decades of institutionalization before they are deemed worthy of Great Responsibility? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">From personal experience I can say the latter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of my most innovative friends in uniform has submitted many ideas to his Commanding Officer and USMC HQ via their hierarchical innovation and recommendation channels. He has received zero response from the latter, and non-interest from the former. These include creating a Twitter-like service for the military, alternative energy projects for MCAS Yuma, and a proposal to use a LegalZoom type product to streamline basic services like wills and powers of attorney. They were fully developed and ready for integration, or easily could have been. No one listened. He finally said enough, built his own app, marketed it independently and is <a href="http://miltraveler.com/" target="_blank">disrupting an entrenched military publishing market</a> with a 21<sup>st</sup> Century solution. An action oriented guy like him will be picked up in an instant on the outside – what are we doing to convince him to stay? Sadly, very little.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Another friend of mine is running for mayor of San Diego, America’s eighth largest city. He is in his mid-30s, and was formerly a Marine Sergeant. During his exit interview with the Corps, his commanding officer asked what it would take for him to stay in. Nathan replied, “Make me a General.” His CO laughed. Three years later, he is<a href="http://www.10news.com/news/30881187/detail.html" target="_blank"> one of the front runners</a> to lead over 1.3 million San Diegans. Nothing more need be said. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The world is changing. A friend of mine recently deployed to Qatar. Our squadron needed to speak with him for a military board. Trying SIPR, NIPR and DSN all failed. I sent him a Facebook message, and within 5 minutes, got a response. I’ve received many notes about my Small Wars Journal article from up and down the Department of Defense -- and with the exception of one, all were sent via Facebook, Twitter, Gmail or LinkedIn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Another was supposed to be sent via my US Navy email account. But since I am now at a Marine Command, I have a USMC account. The email forwarding service from my Navy account didn’t work. NMCI (Navy-Marine Corps Internet), ironically, does not talk between the Navy and Marine sides. After a year of calling I finally got it straightened out – but my “Common” Access Card will still only work on USMC machines because the security files are different from those on Navy machines. That aforementioned guy used Facebook to contact me when the NMCI email got kicked back. I responded immediately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Furthermore, why do we still use Naval Message Format in ALL CAPS? Teletype went out of style long ago. 140 character Tweets are how I get my news – and more of it. Why are we using outdated Internet Explorer webbrowsers that won’t allow many of the websites my peers use on a daily basis to appear properly? Why do six, 8mm tape players from the 1990s cost my squadron $15,000 to procure? Will these things lose wars? No, but they are indicative of a culture that hasn’t fully adapted to the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, and a culture resistant to the things shaping the rest of the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here, however, are the things that will lose wars: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">First, <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/01/taking-on-military-industrial.html" target="_blank">procurement failures</a>. I once wrote a paper comparing the Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 procurement processes. The latter was a debacle, and at the time I extolled the former. Boy was I wrong. In 2004, the JSF was promised to be delivered in 2010 at $60 million a copy. Now in 2012, we will be <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/26/the_jet_that_ate_the_pentagon?page=0,1" target="_blank">lucky to get it in 2018 for $161 million per airframe</a>. Meanwhile, I’m flying jets nearly as old as I am, with literally thousands of more hours than their initial life was planned for. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">20 year procurement timelines with hundreds of billions of dollars in increased lifetime costs (most recent estimate, $1.47 trillion) is no way to go through life when the world changes in mere months and years. Sure, it’s useful (maybe…) against China, but would you Marines in the crowd rather have A-10s and AC-130 gunships or a pristine JSF with maybe a couple weapons providing CAS? <a href="http://www.projectwhitehorse.com/pdfs/HybridWar_0108.pdf" target="_blank">What types of conflicts</a> are we more likely to get into over the next few decades?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Lets also consider the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC-X" target="_blank">Air Force tanker project</a> that has been beset by corruption, delaying a much needed improvement in the field for nearly a decade. This is indicative of a larger problem in the <a href="http://mobile.businessweek.com/magazine/trading-a-uniform-for-a-suit-09012011.html" target="_blank">revolving door</a> between newly-retired Flag Officers and the industries that keep them employed post-military. While that particular case was especially egregious, there is a palpable perception among the junior officers that senior leaders use their final years to pave the way to defense contracting gigs. This does not foster confidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It's time the Defense Department think outside the box about procurement. Where is the military Kickstarter.org for procurement, or how can we adapt a similar crowdsourced solutions-portal to our system? How do we match up requirements in the field with innovative companies using off-the-shelf solutions that take weeks rather than decades to deliver? Could we leverage crowdfunding techniques? Maybe Congress would say no…but has anybody asked? Why not? Where’s the military LinkedIn? Why do I have to contact my detailer to find out who has my dream job in Italy instead of working it directly myself through a dedicated professional, ad hoc social network? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Strategically, we are no better. After ten years of fighting two prolonged insurgencies, what do our strategists come up with? <a href="http://www.marines.mil/unit/hqmc/Pages/TheAir-SeaBattleconceptsummary.aspx#.T6DdbYKB1iM" target="_blank">Air-SeaBattle</a> – a sop to the defense firms that have helped fuel our national debt and reversion to a concept of warfare that harkens to the end of the Cold War. This is a Grand Strategy? <a href="http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2011/09/7558138" target="_blank">One that leaves out two of the services</a>? Or merely a strategy that wants to emphasize what we do well? Where is the overall integration of non-governmental organizations, grassroots movements, integration of social networks, political evolutions within states of interest? Where is the integration of new tactics for drones, like massed, autonomous swarming? How does it leverage non-military means to accomplish strategic goals? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">While it recognizes that adversaries won’t fight on our terms – they adapt to subtle, deceptive strategy that neutralizes our penchant for maneuver, technology heavy tactics -- our grand strategists' solution is more of the same: Heavy, expensive hardware! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://disruptivebookquotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/cohen.html" target="_blank">We cannot afford to see the world as we want it; we must address it as it is</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">All of this is indeed above my paygrade. And it goes higher than just the military – much of it lies in politics, which the military is Constitutionally obligated to keep away from. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">However, if my peers don’t start thinking about these things now, how will we be able to analyze the unique strategic problems we will face when we do take command? If we don’t understand the connections between economic interests, political decisions and military strategy, how can we give sound advice to our civilian leaders? How can those of us that leave to pursue civilian leadership truly grasp the dynamic, all-encompassing nature of the world around us unless we’ve immersed ourselves in the myriad of trends shaping our world?<b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Addressing the Critics</b></span><br />
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One of the things about learning is to become better from our failures – indeed, they are our greatest teachers. Before I go any further, let me address the two biggest perceived problems with my Disruptive Thinkers piece:<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">No civilians in the War College. I was wrong, flat out. However, there is a caveat. What I should have said was no “non-government” civilians . </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In fact, pointing out this clear incorrect statement goes to the heart of the problem I addressed: when we think that people from various government agencies represent a diversity of viewpoints, it highlights the broader theme of my argument. Military professionals are convinced that solutions within the government are the only way forward. Whether you are a Congressional staffer, FBI investigator or State Department diplomat, all are experts at managing government bureaucracies, and thus will bring that institutional bias into their thinking. </span><span style="font-size: small;">There is a sort of diversity among various government agencies, but only of the most minor type when you consider the world’s professions as a whole. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Where are the pure entrepreneurs, those with no affiliation, who have a passion for strategy? Where is the private high school history teacher? As my Mom pointed out, if she wanted to apply to the Naval War College with no government affiliation, she couldn’t. Why not? Military members can apply to The University of Texas Law School, or Fletcher’s Tufts. The goal is to think outside bureaucratic paradigms. My ignorance was unquestionably unprofessional, and I expect better of myself in the future. However, the dissection of this point, and claim of diversity through other government (even foreign government...) employees, only proves my point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Secondly, the Harvard Business School/Naval War College joint program. This was merely a suggestion of a joint venture, not the be all and end all of what Needs to Be Done. There are hundreds of other possibilities. For instance, Disruptive Thinkers in San Diego is teaming up with a local organization of very successful entrepreneurs to create a mutual mentorship program. We pair one innovative junior officer up with an executive and see what happens. They share each others worlds for a year with a very open script. The officer gets valuable insight into a successful innovator, and the entrepreneur sees solutions to leadership and organizational problems from effective operators. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won’t. But we’re going to try it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I recognize that many from HBS and Stanford go to work for Big Business, which is equally as resistant to change as the military at large. Still, when I wrote the piece, I had just gotten an email announcing a game-changing entrepreneurial venture from a buddy of mine at HBS, who is also a veteran. Entrepreneurship is increasingly valued at these places. They aren't all counting their hundred dollar bills while the economy collapses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">When servicemembers rightly castigate HBS I-bankers who helped bring on the Financial Meltdown, but also neglect to mention the appalling strategic procurement and military failures of the past ten years, we cease to be credible. Both organizations have people that brought catastrophe. We should want to learn from those that think differently, as well as from the mistakes of people outside our normal viewpoints. HBS, <a href="http://www.kauffman.org/" target="_blank">Kaufmann entrepreneurial foundation</a>, U of Chicago Behavioral Economics Department, whatever. Open our eyes to something new. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>What Disruption Really Means</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I don’t know everything – I know very little. I know I know very little. But I want to know more. And I’m going to ask the stupid questions and get things wrong (as many of you are referencing now…). All the while I’m learning, connecting and figuring out a better way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is the genesis of Disruptive Thinking. It is not an “us vs them” paradigm, pitting one generation against another. It is understanding the importance of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_blending" target="_blank">“conceptual blending”</a> and that military personnel may not have the best or only solutions to military problems. It’s understanding that our civilian peers, not in the government, have been shaping our world in ways we hardly even understand. How many of us have truly been affected by the economic downturn of the past four years? We’ve had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States" target="_blank">unprecedented increases in resources</a>, so how could we? We can learn from non-government civilians, as they can from us. It’s taking that entrepreneurial mindset and applying it within a rigid hierarchy to come up with innovative solutions and real institutional change. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Entrepreneurship at its very finest exemplifies collaboration. It captures the best aspects of many intelligences and diverse creativity to come up with a <a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2010/12/01/iron-sharpens-iron-the-power-of-master-mind-groups/" target="_blank">Mastermind</a> that can tackle complex problems. It is not merely a lone wolf that goes home when he doesn’t get his way. Instead, he learns from failure, accepts criticism, and still contributes. He adapts to new concepts and creates connections he never before imagined. He creates a mindset that is resilient, constantly challenged, and always on the lookout for new ideas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Battlefield entrepreneurship has been going on for centuries. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thach_Weave" target="_blank"> The Thatch Weave</a>. The Left hook into Iraq. The Psychological Deception of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_awe" target="_blank">Shock and Awe</a>. Entrepreneurship isn’t simply a business term – it’s a broad theme devoted to overcoming challenges with new techniques.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of my favorite parts of our in-person monthly Disruptive Thinkers seminars is the Member Spotlight. We give two people 5 minutes to talk about their innovative ventures. We’ve heard from a guy who created a <a href="http://www.jurybox.com/" target="_blank">Jury Selection App</a>, a man that is importing sustainable coffee from South America to make a community self-sustaining, another that created a very innovative (if impractical) <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/04/envisioning-our-world.html" target="_blank">“Swarm Transit” crowdsourced solution</a> for New York City. Will any of these things lead directly to military tactical or strategic solutions? I have no idea – but being exposed to them gives me, and many others in our organization, a bigger toolkit, and better ability to connect unanticipated dots.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Again, Lehrer: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">"The secret [to InnoCentive’s success] was outside thinking: the problem solvers on <a href="http://www.innocentive.com/" target="_blank">InnoCentive</a> were most effective when working at the margins of their fields. In other words, chemists didn’t solve chemistry problems, they solved molecular biology problems, just as molecular biologists solved chemistry problems. While these people were close enough to understand the challenges, they weren’t so close that their knowledge held them back and caused them to run into the same stumbling blocks as the corporate scientists." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>A Bright Future</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The best part about the SWJ article is seeing that innovation is alive, if somewhat hidden, in the military. Many of the responses I’ve received have been from junior officers and enlisted personnel with good ideas, yet thwarted by frustratingly conventional superiors. I simply said what nearly all my peers were thinking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The only conceptual blowback I’ve received has been from men steeped in the system of the last thirty years. Yet, many of an older generation get it. Flag Officers and the director of an Naval Postgraduate School program showed me some of their ideas aimed at fostering <a href="https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/ncoi/jlis/default.aspx" target="_blank">Junior Leader Innovation</a> – it was encouraging to see that the language they used was the same my innovative peers frequently use. Fleet Forces Command and <a href="https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/default.aspx" target="_blank">The Naval Warfare Development Center</a> have been at the heart of this movement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I look at the development of iPad integration into Close Air Support platforms as welcome disruption. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission, and save lives on the ground. I hear and see a culture of innovation at TOPGUN, a place truly run by junior officers. They experiment, change tactics when called for, and are given the authority to do so. The submarine community recently released their <a href="http://comsubfor-usn.blogspot.com/2012/01/tang-vision-for-future.html" target="_blank">TANG program </a>to elicit ideas from the deck plates, and the <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-navy-seals-fight-smarter-not-harder.html" target="_blank">SEALs continue to innovate</a> on the battlefield, unconsciously adapting lean startup principles to special missions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Disruptive Thinking is <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/02/developing-disruptive-mindset.html" target="_blank">not a monolithic idea</a>, nor is it merely a Think Tank created by a young, naïve junior officer. It is a way of going through life. Curious to its possibilities. Open to new avenues of approach. Accepting failure when no life is at risk, and then truly absorbing the lessons. Trusting subordinates. Engaging networks you’ve never met with before. Challenging closely held assumptions, and most importantly, digesting criticism to refine your understanding of the world. "We need to be willing to risk embarrassment, ask silly questions, surround ourselves with people who don’t know what we’re talking about. We need to leave behind the safety of our expertise." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />We young servicemembers also need mentors. We need wizened men and women who have years of experience, and have instituted needed change in the bureaucracy. In all the comments I've read, too few have emailed me or my peers offering guidance, professional wisdom, or perhaps, a bit of a reality check. Help us understand the system we are in better, let us learn from years of accumulated experience, while also integrating our own expertise in a changing world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">My own Disruptive Journey began with my mentor in college, a now retired Navy Captain. He took time out of his busy schedule to meet with me and a friend for a few hours each week to discuss the works of John Boyd and other innovative military personnel in depth. It was THE formative intellectual experience of my life, and the starting point of a path that yearned for knowledge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I love the military, and I want to win wars. We haven’t exactly done that in the past 10 years. My peers and I want to know why, and ensure we’re better the next time we’re called to defend America. This takes collaboration, understanding, and above all, Disruptive Thinking.</span></div>
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</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-28631388946376912742012-04-26T17:24:00.001-07:002012-04-26T17:24:56.083-07:00The Art of Wargaming: Creating Interactive, Social and Immersive Platforms<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Wargames have always been a part of military training. With new technologies come new techniques on appropriate integration of these tools. Our guest author, Benjamin Wintersteen, is an anthropologist specializing in gaming,
gamers, and the military. He currently performs research with the
<a href="http://www.trac.army.mil/" target="_blank">Training and Doctrine Command Analysis Center (TRAC)</a> out of White Sands,
New Mexico. His current project involves tactical level
human-in-the-loop representations of complex environments. </i><br />
<br />
---<br /><br /><i>Flashes of light betray movement behind the crumbling mud brick walls of the village. Sparks fly from electrical wires struggling to remain attached to pock-marked poles looming above the homes of “innocent” civilians. Another flash of light beams, this one yellow instead of static blue. Then the stone next to your head explodes in a shower of tan and brown clay. You turn as quickly as you can, adjusting your goggles to account for the second flare of your weapon. A second too late, more flashes of yellow light appear and you find yourself unable to move, a red mist covering your field of vision. Frustrated, you tear off your headset and virtual reality mask, grumbling under your breath “Who designed this piece of crap?” The illusion has been shattered; it will be a long haul to get it back...</i><br />
<br />
Always start RISK in Australia. Or so the adage goes. Much of what the public understands about warfare comes from interactive games of strategy. With the rise of gaming consoles, millions of American's have chosen to experience the chaos of infantry combat -- from the comfort of their own homes. But far from being merely outlets of entertainment, Gaming provides a valuable assessment and teaching tool. The military would do well to understand the tenants of good gaming if they desire useful wargaming outcomes. These principles apply from small, platoon level simulations to fleet-wide scenarios involving all four services. <br />
<br />Games can best be seen as models designed to present a set of problems, a limited set of tools to solve those problems, and a desired outcome to provide the player with motivation. The key to that motivation is how much the player cares about the game they are playing. In social science circles, we call this ‘immersion’, though other concepts such as suspension of disbelief, transformation, or the synthetic experience are also referenced. <br />
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Ultimately, a “Good Game” draws the player in. A player will internalize the goals of the role they inhabit, understand the tools they are expected to use, and desire to reach the “victory conditions” set for them. Wargaming, due to its very nature, should focus on this aspect of the environment and player first. It should be central to the design, purpose, execution, and conclusions of the game. If the player does not care about clicking the button, moving the little tank, or flipping the card, anything we try to do with the game is irrelevant. <br /><br />All games have three things in common. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiplA5mgWhdd7t-3JM_UiTD4wp1sc37YQVX6sBZdvSFwV7MLB5YTLN5gh0dMr8MZVpoQu2DTap9kA6U6JQ2huRtUcbW1Z4W76EDmNYWhZkExI6OndBAkrdpL5pzl3tP5InNWD1kZrRVFY-n/s1600/USAF+Red+Flag.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiplA5mgWhdd7t-3JM_UiTD4wp1sc37YQVX6sBZdvSFwV7MLB5YTLN5gh0dMr8MZVpoQu2DTap9kA6U6JQ2huRtUcbW1Z4W76EDmNYWhZkExI6OndBAkrdpL5pzl3tP5InNWD1kZrRVFY-n/s320/USAF+Red+Flag.JPG" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Now this is Immersive...</b></td></tr>
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First, they are interactive. The player does something and then something changes based on those choices.<br />
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Second, they are social. You may think Solitaire isn’t, but ask yourself how much you must learn from others just to play it.<br />
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Third, they seek to be immersive. Immersion into virtual worlds is a lot easier when accompanied by high-tech neuro-interface equipment and reactive controls. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the fast-twitch vehicle available, so we refer to more imaginative, and less declarative, means of creating alternate realities within which people function. <br />
<br />Some additional foundation is required before we go into deeper detail. <br />
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Games all deal with some level of abstraction. It is rarely possible to represent everything in reality to the finest detail. Monopoly doesn’t include the choice to build a resort or a Gold’s Gym: you can either build houses or hotels. It is assumed you have to destroy houses to place a hotel where they once stood. There is no recourse for those poor, nameless families to address the planning board or protest your petty grab for capital. <br />
<br />Next, we find a corollary of the first: games are never complete. Elements deemed less relevant or too difficult to simulate are always left out. Just like Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons only mentions bathrooms where it is pertinent to the plot. No one really cares about the fact that a fully armored orc in World of Warcraft would sink like the Lusitania in deep water. In fact, drowning sucks, and wouldn’t add a whole lot to the game.<br /> <br />Finally, it is a game, not reality. Games require mechanics. Sometimes these mechanics are nothing like real life, and they have to be that way. In the CCG Magic: The Gathering, you start with twenty “life points,” just like your opponents. As you go through the game, lightning may strike you and take three life points, or a dragon may skirt your defenses and “attack” you in some unspecified manner for five points instead. This is just a mechanic. Would lightning really do three-fifths the damage of a full-force dragon? Who knows? To be honest, who cares? What matters is that the dragon does <b>something</b>, and that something must be predictable and reasonable to the player.<br /><br />Thus we arrive at the concept of immersion. If you take these considerations in mind, immersion describes how “into” the game the player feels. In real life, we have a complex system of biological, cognitive, and social processes that convince us that what we are experiencing is real. Adrenaline pumps, our life flashes before our eyes and we look for nearby allies -- and this is just when we visit the in-laws.<br />
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Besides the SIMS, the vast majority of games don’t replicate such banal problems as explaining to your mother-in-law why you got her daughter pregnant after only five years of marriage. Games are about conflict, and most games are about the most intense conflict we can imagine: war.<br />
<br />Historically, war gaming has had two meanings. First, it means any game that involves combat, the threat of combat, or the concept of combat. Examples of each include Gears of War, Diplomacy, and Epidemic, respectively. Most war games follow this definition, especially those marketed to the general public. These games are meant to take the aspects of war and bring them home in a digestible, exciting, and ultimately disposable way.<br />
<br />The second definition, however, is the one applicable to real world scenarios. This applies to scenario-based situational decision-making in a structured environment without using live troops. The intent is to train, educate, or perform research using human beings as key elements of within decision-making and strategic thinking. To put it in another way, it’s presenting players with situations to either show them what to do, or see what they do and analyze it. <br />
<br />Understanding this second definition is where the military derives the greatest benefit. A player fully immersed in a simulation begins to think differently than one being asked questions about their job or sitting in a classroom. They perceive other players differently as well, and will take actions based on a personal, individual investment in the outcome. <br />
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This is accomplished through multiple, interrelated ways. A player must feel that all reasonable options are either available in the game, or excluded for obvious reasons. For instance, Chess does not include mobile towers or air support for the lowly pawns sent charging into battle with knights. That isn’t the point of chess. There are versions of chess that include more complexity, but even those provide a finite set of additions to the basic game, and very few players question those choices.<br />
<br />Additionally, a player must feel that the options provided actually deliver as promised. This includes consistency of rules, predictability, and the general promise to the player that an action taken will have some impact on the game. If you can jump ten meters in Prince of Persia, then you better be able to jump from rooftop to rooftop as long as they are no more than ten meters apart. If the player goes to jump and finds himself falling into an alley, broken and bloody on the sandy ground, he is not going to know that the programmers never finished with the rooftop he was heading to; he is just going to think the jump function is broken.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Will Play for Hay...</b></td></tr>
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Most importantly, the player has to care about the actions, outcomes, and rewards inherent to the system. This is easier than you think. Farmville rewards players for planting new crops by allowing them to purchase bigger buildings, better equipment, and more variety. They also encourage players to spend real world money to expedite this process. Angry Birds rewards players with only momentary feelings of satisfaction, such as a screaming green pig head. Yet both these mechanisms have created many fanatical fans. <br /><br />Military war gaming sometimes overlooks this last point, with disastrous results. Organizers task players to fill roles, and then tell them it is “just a game”. Players have no input into the next version, and organizers write off any complaints as “whining.” A game of any sort, but especially complex games that replicate irregular warfare, should get the players involved on a personal level. <br />
<br />This is where the training and research applications of war games currently fail. When players do not care about their performance, they will be disengaged and often times hostile to the creators and administrators of the program. How many check-the-box trainings have servicemembers sat through where the person explaining whatever task or process assumed that everyone in class cares because they were told to care? How can a game train people to react in a certain way or to consider certain things, like population response, when there is no intrinsic motivation for clicking on that mouse or moving that peg across the board? <br />
<br />The same goes for research and analysis on war games. If you want to study people playing a game, there are many cheaper ways to do it. People are always people, and there are many ways to study what they do and why. Unfortunately, if the game does not immerse players, you will end up studying “people who have to cope with a broken game” and not “people in a battle for the hearts and minds of the population.”<br />
<br />Currently, war games simulate a wide range of situations. These range from international diplomatic relation, to tactical-level tasks, kinetic and non-kinetic, executed by a variety of stakeholders in an irregular warfare environment. Without attention to player motivation, development, immersion, and social psychology, we are ignoring the vast field of research and market-tested principles that focus on providing an immersive mindset in players, one exploitable to researchers. <br />
<br />And that last advantage may sum up the entire point. Training and analysis both seek to exploit the players’ perceptions and knowledge to test a strategy, perform an experiment, teach a new skill, or understand decision-making in a complex environment. If we want to extract the data we need, and impart the ideas we wish to impart, we first need to prepare the subject in such a way that they are ready, and more importantly, willing to be open enough to give and take as war gaming requires. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-39917748083920169352012-04-23T23:21:00.000-07:002012-04-23T23:21:21.195-07:00Disruptive Strategic Questioning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've always been one to question authority. Not in the rebellious teenage, angst-ridden way mind you, but literally Question the Authorities. In high school, I gave a five minute speech excoriating the school board (in front of them...) for poor decision making -- which garnered a standing ovation from the packed audience. I got a reputation at Northwestern for challenging big name guest speakers with off-the-wall, difficult questions. Not because I wanted to be "that guy," but simply because I wanted to know what the answer was. <br />
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This has continued in my time with the Navy. Conferences, ready rooms, wherever, I ask tough questions, particularly of flag officers. I even had the Chief of Naval Operations walk out of a Q and A session aboard ship after a question I asked about aviation procurement startled him. The one good thing about this was that in that awkward moment when the big wig asked if anyone had any questions, my peers always knew someone did...and they wouldn't be voluntold to offer something up. <br />
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Anyway, as I <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/04/leadership-lessons-from-carrier-based.html" target="_blank">mentioned in the last post</a>, I came across a black book with leadership lessons, strategic observations, and questions on warfare I had written back in 2008. I'd like to share a few of those observation and questions to see if there are any insights from the audience. Again, all of these were written in the isolation of a deployed carrier, by a searching soul, based on direct observation. These are in no particular order: <br />
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1. An immutable principle of War is that it cannot be fought "nicely." Overwhelming death and destruction are necessary to make an enemy truly conform to your will. It cannot be fought on the cheap. There are always unintended consequences.<br />
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2. Technology has been the primary motivating factor for the evolution of tactics. It is, however, only effective when applied adaptively, and its course is nearly impossible to predict. <br />
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3. When the U.S. military trains, we always assume success and put limitations on the enemy. This is disconcerting. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A Disruptive Thinker -- In Captivity</b></td></tr>
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4. Why and how does the most heinous and destructive of all human activities occasionally produce men of revered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sims" target="_blank">honor</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale" target="_blank">integrity</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_H._Krulak" target="_blank">character</a>?<br />
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5. In the case of the U.S., and more broadly, democracies, how important is, and what impact does, a formal declaration of war by the Legislature have on the country's societal involvement and long term success?<br />
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6. How does a country and its associated leadership create an armed forces that can seamlessly fight both asymmetric and conventional conflicts? Is this even possible?<br />
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<b>7. Why is warfare not taught in the context of <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-military-needs-more-disruptive-thinkers" target="_blank">politics, economics, sociology and psychology</a> when its effective execution is dependent on all of these fields?</b><br />
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8. In Washington, it seems to take an institution behind an individual to bring change. Is this really true? -- Yes, but I dont want to believe it. (Later) Individuals, however, run institutions. So, how can you work within a given institution, retain your individualism, and then one day shape an institution through your unique viewpoint?<br />
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9. <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2011/12/fighting-like-insurgents-when-bad-guys.html" target="_blank">Millennium Challenge 2002 and General Van Ripper</a>. Red Leader quits when game is changed midstream and Blue forces "Re-gen" because tactics employed weren't "fair."<br />
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10. If you want to look at why a decision was made, don't necessarily look at its causal merits. Look at what interests advocate for it. <br />
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11. What if a political candidate really did run an <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/04/breaking-chains-of-political-groupthink.html" target="_blank">unconventional, non-politically based campaign</a>? Is this even possible?<br />
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12. Markets in the real world are <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Nassim-Nicholas-Taleb/dp/1400063515" target="_blank">imperfect and inefficient</a>. So are "price discovery mechanisms."<br />
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13. The <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/01/taking-on-military-industrial.html" target="_blank">Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex</a> is alive and well. Reference Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, L3 and the Tailhook Convention.<br />
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14. Why are the inefficiencies of industry dirty little secrets within the military? Is it because many officers <a href="http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/01/hold-that-revolving-door-four-star-general-coming-through.html" target="_blank">want cushy jobs with contractors</a> after they retire?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fooled You...</b></td></tr>
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<b>15. The civilian defense industry, even if innocently and unavoidable, has financial incentives to eventually have weapons systems outclassed by our adversaries</b>.<br />
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16. A propensity to lie betrays the trait of selfishness. Conversely, a selfless person will tell the truth.<br />
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17. The thing we need to fear most in a war with an Eastern Power (China) is not its Army, nor the numerical quantity of its forces, but the Eastern psychology and way of thinking. The use of deception and non-Western thinking will do more to disrupt our strategies and advances than overwhelming force.<br />
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<li>Look at their strategic heritage (Sun-Tzu, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching" target="_blank">The I-Ching</a>, Samuri Codes, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings" target="_blank">Book of the Five Rings</a>, etc)</li>
<li>Imperialism as not something overt, but veiled (African resource stockpiling...)</li>
<li>The long view vs. short Western attention span</li>
<li>Integration of Western methods with an Eastern flare</li>
<li>Direct confrontations (Western) vs. Feints and "retreats", exploiting ambiguity on the battlefield </li>
<li>Money and technology vs. intellect and psychology</li>
</ul>
In rereading this list, I'm pretty sure I still have the same questions and musings as I did 4 years ago.</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-66271940935879876092012-04-22T12:59:00.001-07:002012-04-22T13:18:48.739-07:00Leadership Lessons from a Carrier Based Fighter Squadron<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In February 2008, three days after graduating initial F/A-18 Super Hornet training in Lemoore, CA, I was sent overseas to join my new squadron, the VFA-41 Black Aces, in Sasebo, Japan. After spending one day in port, I boarded the USS Nimitz and spent the next four months at sea. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVmPOA5BhGaEK3MS1kyMYXwjU25k8IzNrZi99kQsT25G5MHJXthPYjjKvcxgs7HxolaX1aScBl-WMu-WibVKuU7i9txzrAlovBY5xTpGxZ4hKw0PGNb27sqk2R7ODpRHJ9-8aS-r3_bgY/s1600/Leadership.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVmPOA5BhGaEK3MS1kyMYXwjU25k8IzNrZi99kQsT25G5MHJXthPYjjKvcxgs7HxolaX1aScBl-WMu-WibVKuU7i9txzrAlovBY5xTpGxZ4hKw0PGNb27sqk2R7ODpRHJ9-8aS-r3_bgY/s320/Leadership.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Trim, Nasty, Chaser and the Shoe Admiral...Larger than Life</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To say it was a culture shock would be an understatement. As a "Nugget," the term applied to first deployment naval aviators, I was wide-eyed and uncertain. I wrote about <a href="http://conservativeorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2008/06/living-history.html" target="_blank">many of my adventures</a> in long emails home. <a href="http://conservativeorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2008/06/day-of-days.html" target="_blank">Some were harrowing</a> and unforgettable, <a href="http://conservativeorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2008/06/band-of-brothers.html" target="_blank">some humbling</a> and thought provoking. I was surrounded by giants of our profession, <a href="http://conservativeorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2011/11/trim-and-nasty-show.html" target="_blank">namely our Carrier Air Wing Commander, "Trim" Downing, and the Captain of the Nimitz, "Nasty" Manazir</a>. <br />
<br />
The best piece of advice I got upon arriving was "keep your mouth shut for the first six months." Being a quiet person by nature, this was easy. But it also helped me focus on the first part of John Boyd's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop" target="_blank">OODA Loop</a> - Observe and Orient.<br />
<br />
During those months of hardship, I kept a little black book of leadership lessons and questions about Grand Strategy that I would return to nightly. I forgot about them until recently; I found the book and started reading through them. Many of my observations are not new, and in fact, aphorisms pounded into us from the beginning of training. I've even violated them at times myself, unfortunately. But they were all learned through things I observed first hand. <br />
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Leaders would be wise to know their underlines are ALWAYS watching. Here are some of the lessons I wrote down, from both good, and especially, bad, leaders:<br />
<br />
1. There is always a person responsible for and behind the decisions of a "faceless" organization. Don't blame the esoteric "Big Navy." <br />
<br />
2. Always own up to and take responsibility for your mistakes -- especially if you are a squadron commander.<br />
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3. Keep your people well informed, and ALWAYS give them the unvarnished truth, good or bad. They can handle it.<br />
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4. Volunteer for the hard assignments and do them well.<br />
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5. Foster camaraderie and a healthy competitiveness in your charges.<br />
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6. Lead from the front.<br />
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7. Don't be afraid to challenge tradition, but have evidence to support your new course of action. <br />
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8. Only speak of things you know and are well informed about.<br />
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9. Observe and take stock of your people to know their strengths and weaknesses. Know which people need direction, and which need to discover things on their own. The latter may take longer to develop, but will be more useful and adaptable in the long run.<br />
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10. People are the most important thing. "All technology eventually becomes obsolete, but high quality personnel never do." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_H._Krulak" target="_blank">Victor Krulak</a><br />
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11. Leadership cannot be taught in a classroom. The best lessons are those experienced, especially those that end in failure.<br />
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12. If you are taking questions from your subordinates, and don't know an answer, be honest and admit you don't know. Then tell them you will find out, promptly do so, and given them the answer.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhxNF9kKOE2jcqjb4BflGf3OviOazWq90hZUQS5N_zSHtfqiRMme3wS-GXHqfvYki0b7uBut1H7CvJazKX-fXkOqcKhpLzOZpvzWgmI_tcRA-Qza6B_nM9jZCCah97i90hD58BFmGNWvR/s1600/Black+Ace+Landing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhxNF9kKOE2jcqjb4BflGf3OviOazWq90hZUQS5N_zSHtfqiRMme3wS-GXHqfvYki0b7uBut1H7CvJazKX-fXkOqcKhpLzOZpvzWgmI_tcRA-Qza6B_nM9jZCCah97i90hD58BFmGNWvR/s320/Black+Ace+Landing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>At least I didn't catch the Ace...this time.</b></td></tr>
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13. Have confidence in your subordinates and put them in challenging situations. The
only way they will grow is through situations that push them beyond what
they <i>think</i> they are capable of.<br />
<br />
14. Never do anything in the presence of subordinates that you wouldn't allow them to do also. Like, say, light a cigarette in the middle of the Ready Room...<br />
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15. Competition among different departments breeds innovation.<br />
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16. Be conspicuous when distributing praise. Make sure their peers seem them get the award.<br />
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17. Support subordinates who challenge entrenched ideology. Develop methods to ensure their ideas are considered, and then implemented if superior to the prevailing status quo.<br />
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18. It is in the nature of innovative, high achievers to challenge one another. Let them do so. <br />
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19. Don't discount or distrust the value of advocates outside your organization. <br />
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20. "<a href="http://disruptivebookquotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/never-tell-people-how-to-do-things.html" target="_blank">Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity</a>." Gen George Patton<br />
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21. A personalized, hand written note to a subordinate is one of the most powerful tools at a Leader's disposal. This requires knowing your people well -- but they will move mountains in the most challenging circumstances if they know you care. <br />
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More are in the book. Perhaps fodder for another post. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-77115911100118904902012-04-19T21:23:00.000-07:002012-04-20T07:36:33.770-07:00Disrupting the Bureaucracy: Aim High!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div>
<i><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkozloski" target="_blank">Robert Kozloski</a> is back with another idea for shaking up the DoD. Since the author works for the Department of the
Navy, this piece may appear as mere Service Parochialism. However, the
author has equally disruptive pieces pending publication on Navy/Marine
Corps issues in the <a href="http://www.usni.org/" target="_blank">United States Naval Institute</a>'s <a href="http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-04" target="_blank">Proceedings</a> and in the <a href="http://www.usnwc.edu/Publications/Naval-War-College-Review.aspx" target="_blank">Naval War College Review</a>. </i></div>
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<div>
<i>Disruptive Thinkers aims to be a proving ground and central forum for innovative military thought (off the wall is okay...). This can be on anything from Grand Strategy to tactical solutions to solving minor military irritants. If you have a suggestion for improvement within the Department of Defense, we will be happy to post it.</i></div>
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<i>----- </i></div>
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This past week the Center For Strategic and International Studies released its <a href="http://csis.org/publication/global-force-posture-under-threat-sequester" target="_blank">2012 Global Forecast</a>. Specifically, the report addressed the military’s global force posture under the threat of sequestration. Of the two dozen national security experts that CSIS polled, not one disagreed that the Defense budget could be cut further while maintaining essential military capabilities. Despite statements by current DOD leadership to the contrary, this is unquestionably true. However, bounding the tradespace is essential to understand the problem – given flat or declining defense dollars, DoD accepts excessive overhead and inefficiency at the peril of operational capabilities.<br />
<br />
In a recent Washington Post article, veteran defense correspondent Walter Pincus argued that forthcoming budget reduction efforts <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/should-defense-begin-cutting-from-the-top/2012/03/04/gIQAViKWtR_story.html" target="_blank">should target the highest levels of Department of Defense </a>bureaucracy. I could not agree with him more. Reductions in operational military capabilities should only be considered after all efforts to reduce unnecessary overhead have been exhausted. We are far from reaching that point.<br />
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Preserving as much military operational capacity as possible, while not contributing excessively to the national debt, will require bold ideas from civilian and military leaders in the DoD and in Congress. We must move beyond trimming the fat from the current structure to setting our sights high and eliminate overhead. However, the level of bold concepts DoD must consider are beyond its control, and cooperation between the Hill and Pentagon is imperative.<br />
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One such bold idea that warrants serious consideration is to reverse the portion of the National Defense Act of 1947 that created the US Air Force as a separate military department. This action was appropriate at the time in order to create the US Air Force as a distinct Service that was no longer part of the US Army. However, reversing this legislation today would reduce overhead as well as create two similar military departments – both executing Title X authority over two independent Services.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSg6vEFmJEb_OFSsssPAxJ-YJ3Vg2iiR8n4zqtnp8e46zpcXq89P1dgs7_nUfQswpkf6aZBc_MvGDopfw-c-KpFhJB3b0kpFtU9S9UwFOCBCb1r6L7sCn3Sknc1Hfxxwnnohhp1Fchy7oq/s1600/Realignment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSg6vEFmJEb_OFSsssPAxJ-YJ3Vg2iiR8n4zqtnp8e46zpcXq89P1dgs7_nUfQswpkf6aZBc_MvGDopfw-c-KpFhJB3b0kpFtU9S9UwFOCBCb1r6L7sCn3Sknc1Hfxxwnnohhp1Fchy7oq/s320/Realignment.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>There Goes Lockheed's Funding...</b></td></tr>
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Some outsiders may view the Department of the Navy (DoN), with its two independent Services, as one happy family. Let me assure you there is no shortage of tension (sometimes healthy) between the naval Services, with contentious issues being arbitrated at the DoN Secretariat level. This results in a single naval position on issues rising to the SECDEF level. This relationship also enables integration across the Services. For example, the Director of Expeditionary Programs on the OPNAV Staff is normally a Marine Major General.<br />
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Not only could savings be achieved at the Department level, this merger would provide additional opportunities for integration. For example, the Naval Air Systems Command manages fixed wing, rotary wing, unmanned aviation programs, aviation weapons and avionics, as well as standardizes tactics and airfield operations, for both naval Services. A similar organization model could be adopted for the Army and Air Force aviation programs.<br />
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Many defense experts <a href="http://www.cnas.org/drivinginthedark" target="_blank">warn against over-integration</a> because a single point of view and group think reduces the healthy competition of ideas that normally spurs innovation and provides a variety of options to deal with uncertainty. Having organizations working on similar issues in the Army and Navy Departments would still allow for this intellectual competition.<br />
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Recently, General Ron Fogelman, former Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, argued the best solution for an affordable national defense force is to <a href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120116/DEFFEAT05/301160015/Going-Back-Future" target="_blank">return to our historical militia roots</a>. Similarly, defense expert Dr. Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institute recommended decreasing the current size of ground forces and increasing the size of the National Guard <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/testimony/2012/0306_defense_budget_ohanlon.aspx" target="_blank">during his Senate testimony</a>. These concepts would align well to the two Military Department model. <br />
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The Department of the Army, with its close association with the National Guard Bureau, comprised of Air Force and Army Guardsman, would focus on major contingency operations and homeland defense missions, while the Department of the Navy would be the Department aligned to the full range of expeditionary capabilities and forward presence missions.<br />
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It is difficult to accurately capture the cost savings that would occur from this proposal, but as a general rule of thumb, eliminating 1,000 positions saves $1B. There would certainly be an up-front investment required for the transition. Previous large-scale mergers within the DoD have not realized the anticipated savings. This is largely because no control limits were put in place for the size of the merging staffs. As witnessed with the Joint Basing initiative, full staffs merged with little reduction in personnel or functions.<br />
<br />
In order to achieve savings, a 10 to 20 percent growth limit for the expanded role of Department of the Army must be put in place. Many are concerned that drastic cuts in the federal work force would only exacerbate the national unemployment problem. However, if this merger were done in a phased approach over 3-5 years and personnel reductions were achieved through normal attrition, the effect could be minimized.<br />
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Not only does restructuring the Department of the Air Force make fiscal sense, it may improve military operations as well. As a <a href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG405-1.pdf" target="_blank">2007 RAND study highlighted</a>, despite 25 years of joint reform brought on by Goldwater-Nichols, the Army and Air Force still had difficulty integrating operational capabilities during recent combat operations. This new organizational model could serve as a catalyst for true air-ground integration.<br />
<br />
Some may be concerned that this new Military Department alignment would create a bipolarity within the operational forces. However, each Service Chief would still be part of the Joint Staff and therefore have equal representation in operational issues. Joint operations will remain unaffected by this realignment.<br />
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While creating a separate Department of the Air Force may have been appropriate in 1947, it is difficult to justify its existence today given the current fiscal crisis facing the nation and the much smaller size of the total force. Ideas that appear to be too difficult to implement are frequently dismissed. Easier solutions, such as eliminating troops or enforcing double-sided printing, are often the ones considered for implementation. Our national leaders must accept the challenge and take on the hard problems to preserve our military power and develop fiscally responsible national security solutions.<br />
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<br /></div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-84261310601292237332012-04-17T23:36:00.000-07:002012-04-17T23:53:14.530-07:00Envisioning Our World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the great things about the rise of computer graphics is the way innovative people can represent the world around us. Mere explanation hardly does the conceptualization of an idea justice -- it often takes an image or a video, well presented, to truly leave an indelible mark.<br />
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I was first presented with this powerful way at looking at the world through Aaron Koblin's TED presentation (below). His remarkable analysis covers everything from flight paths and cell phones, to the "<a href="http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/" target="_blank">Wilderness Downtown</a>" and the <a href="http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/" target="_blank">Johnny Cash Project</a>. Highly recommended if you have 20 minutes free. Otherwise keep reading for more cool visualizations.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/4v4XxlfVk3o?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Next we have a short video from <a href="http://kiva.org/" target="_blank">Kiva.org</a>, a crowdsourced micro-loan website. It shows the flows of loans from across the world from lenders to recipients. It is called "Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance."<br />
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<br />
YOUrban posted a <a href="http://yourban.no/2011/02/22/immaterials-light-painting-wifi/" target="_blank">visualization of WiFi networks throughout our society</a>. In their words, "the film is a continuation of our <a href="http://www.nearfield.org/2009/10/immaterials-the-ghost-in-the-field">explorations</a> of intangible phenomena that have implications for design and effect how both products and cities are experienced." See their website for a more interactive look at the phenomenon. <br />
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<br />
More mundane things have been investigated as well. Below is a visualization of wind maps from the <a href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ndfd/" target="_blank">National Digital Forecast Database</a>. Last week, NPR <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/04/09/150285272/seeing-what-only-wind-gods-get-to-see?sc=fb&cc=fp" target="_blank">interviewed the two designers</a> of the program that makes it all happen -- for a great, real time representation of wind patterns throughout the U.S., <a href="http://hint.fm/wind/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtxOowtDM3GC0keekFU5ilnJD7cPiuQ70T6iG3W3WUmrgczSMHgLtRjDE6x-bOgPBWk_YKVGfy2r-X-0DeL4FChtnYURbvFE7vfjMQYgNyCKmKfikRgUFeto9aPs7qOK4tjvtVwfynY_a_/s1600/windmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtxOowtDM3GC0keekFU5ilnJD7cPiuQ70T6iG3W3WUmrgczSMHgLtRjDE6x-bOgPBWk_YKVGfy2r-X-0DeL4FChtnYURbvFE7vfjMQYgNyCKmKfikRgUFeto9aPs7qOK4tjvtVwfynY_a_/s400/windmap.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Blown Away</b></td></tr>
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The next few come from deriving Netflix rental data. In 2010, the New York Times put together a remarkable interactive graphic entitled "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/10/nyregion/20100110-netflix-map.html" target="_blank">A Peek into Netflix Queues</a>." The other image is one derived for the <a href="http://www.netflixprize.com/" target="_blank">2009 Netflix Prize</a>. It was one competitor's representation of how movies should be categorized.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CkolG2P8oUKzkswU__rUNKwj49JibbYVYNE_FhdNxBwmAZDah3xpJq1WGVVg-9zvoQc8ZFnG8w1qE3-oHQxUdAMVqI3mbVnDTh8PjDoQfJvXoQxrRzNTBgr1dc0AFGGmzot-dNOfZyEr/s1600/netflix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CkolG2P8oUKzkswU__rUNKwj49JibbYVYNE_FhdNxBwmAZDah3xpJq1WGVVg-9zvoQc8ZFnG8w1qE3-oHQxUdAMVqI3mbVnDTh8PjDoQfJvXoQxrRzNTBgr1dc0AFGGmzot-dNOfZyEr/s400/netflix.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Pictures in Motion</b></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwwjIgsmB5PJgXy5ZMiO3h2NoVg3GJP20TZhwAMgKyGuGEWRV-2nfG6COy93A5I8SOqBj-O6i-JNu2bTWB-o944AGY5wy4ic9GPd6952-wZt88IU5kBxGDgc-8n2e5v7chDdDEL-K1ZgAL/s1600/Netflix+Prize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwwjIgsmB5PJgXy5ZMiO3h2NoVg3GJP20TZhwAMgKyGuGEWRV-2nfG6COy93A5I8SOqBj-O6i-JNu2bTWB-o944AGY5wy4ic9GPd6952-wZt88IU5kBxGDgc-8n2e5v7chDdDEL-K1ZgAL/s400/Netflix+Prize.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Connecting Our World</b></td></tr>
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Finally, our last image comes from a member of Disruptive Thinkers, David Pearson. He and a team of his submitted an idea called "Swarm Transit" to a competition soliciting ideas for a 21st century public transit system in the Big Apple. The image below shows the 19th century grid model on the left, and a theoretical, dynamic, water-based 21st century concept on the right:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjklnKLH3zq0rzUXCR6F2MFerV1Q790T0xg7-FgxI0XnO_q83YyG-jkAyY9-WlPkNSKtHjgBEXycsfYc5oeCx4XPD3UUIYa9C_Ez1TsgLFUPrprJsbOrdLN_ITjTblEC4uDuMfs6ax39wRO/s1600/New+York+Transit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjklnKLH3zq0rzUXCR6F2MFerV1Q790T0xg7-FgxI0XnO_q83YyG-jkAyY9-WlPkNSKtHjgBEXycsfYc5oeCx4XPD3UUIYa9C_Ez1TsgLFUPrprJsbOrdLN_ITjTblEC4uDuMfs6ax39wRO/s400/New+York+Transit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads..."</b></td></tr>
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Images, like ideas, are incredibly powerful. They capture the imagination, and help us understand our world a little better so we can continue to adapt to constant change. Feel free to share more interesting visualizations you've come across!</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-67319935781717298572012-04-12T08:47:00.000-07:002012-04-12T08:47:13.144-07:00General Board 2.0: Leveraging Disruptive Thinkers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Last week, <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/">Small Wars Journal</a> published <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-military-needs-more-disruptive-thinkers">an essay</a> by one of the authors of this blog. It set off a firestorm of debate within the military and elsewhere. We've privately received many messages of support and offers to contribute to this blog. Robert Kozloski, the author of the below contribution, is one of them. </i></div>
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<i>Mr. Kozloski is an Efficiency Analyst with the Department of the Navy. He argues for the creation of a new Board of Innovative Officers to tackle our most challenging national security problems. </i></div>
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<i>If you are interested in contributing to this discussion, please do so. </i></div>
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Given the fiscal realities facing the US military services
and the rise of a new near-peer competitor, a great deal of attention has been
given recently to reviving the culture of naval innovation. LT Ben Kohlmann has
added a new aspect to the discourse by creating a fervor within the military
blogging community with his writings on the need for <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-military-needs-more-disruptive-thinkers">disruptive thinkers in the military</a>. </div>
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The naval services have a rich history of innovative
thinking. In the interwar period of 1920-1940 the <a href="http://www.usni.org/store/books/history/agents-innovationhttp:/www.usni.org/store/books/history/agents-innovation">General
Board</a> was formed to find innovative solutions to the problem of the day:
given the restrictions placed on the US navy by international treaties, how
could the navy best prepare for conflict with Japan? The General Board was
successful and developed both innovative thinkers and effective solutions to
operational problems.</div>
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Similarly, the Marine Corps faced new operational
problems at the end of the Korean War. Primarily, this challenge was in operating effectively on
the new “atomic battlefield”. To identify solutions to these emerging problems,
the Marine Corps created <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Test_Unit">Marine Corps Test
Unit-1</a>. MCTU-1 successfully created many new operational concepts that were
widely used in the Vietnam War and many are still in use today throughout the
special operations community.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrFUReLyjUK5XqRdo-j8SV12ocLkqLDQuo-si4ppSMYSBD8cMx1T7HK8Gxiu9J-aXGHtZAiFNqUEPW3AoFpeGNQPQukyJEfUzhKeOxceoMYk_8L65ZhpztViLqHHt1wRjz36k6vzcbaIj/s1600/FBI+Program.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrFUReLyjUK5XqRdo-j8SV12ocLkqLDQuo-si4ppSMYSBD8cMx1T7HK8Gxiu9J-aXGHtZAiFNqUEPW3AoFpeGNQPQukyJEfUzhKeOxceoMYk_8L65ZhpztViLqHHt1wRjz36k6vzcbaIj/s320/FBI+Program.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Not a Bad Start...</b></td></tr>
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LT Kohlmann raises the issue of supplementing standard
professional military education with the nation’s best graduate education
programs, particularly MBA programs. While the US education system is often
criticized and even considered a <a href="http://www.cfr.org/united-states/us-education-reform-national-security/p27618">national
security concern</a>, our secondary schools remain the best in the world and
the military must fully leverage this national asset. </div>
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While the US military may not be willing to effectively use
this critical asset, others are not so hesitant. In the year 2000, the <a href="http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/20/the_most_surprising_thing_i_read_yesterday">Chinese
People's Liberation Army</a> had more students in America's graduate schools
than the U.S. military.</div>
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Kohlmann is not the only one in government supporting this
line of thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2003, the Federal
Bureau of Investigations established the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Special_Advisor_Program">Special Advisor Program</a> to engage
graduate students at the top ten MBA programs in the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This program continues to expand and the
results have been used to effectively solve difficult organizational and
operational problems within the FBI.<div class="MsoNormal">
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Given the growing problems with maintaining our current
naval capacity and the emerging threats facing the military for the foreseeable
future, the US Navy should reinstate the General Board and consider the
following: </div>
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The new General Board should be attached to the <a href="https://www.nwdc.navy.mil/Pages/AboutUs.aspx">Naval Warfare Development
Command</a> in Norfolk, VA. NWDC is ideally suited because of its mission to
develop new concepts for the navy and its proximity to the full spectrum of
naval assets in the Hampton Roads area including: surface, subsurface,
aviation, special warfare, cyber, intelligence and expeditionary
operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would put the group in
close contact with the operational forces and would facilitate testing and
experimenting. The General Board could also leverage support from US Fleet
Forces Command, joint organizations and academic facilities in Hampton Roads.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
To staff the new Board, a diverse set of 20-40 Officers at
the 0-4/5 level should be selected to participate in this program as part of
the normal PME process. However, rather than using an ineffective bureaucratic
process for selection, the NWDC Commander should be given the opportunity to
select the officers for the Board as well as the academic programs students
attend.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The top civilian institutions as well as the Naval War
College and Naval Post Graduate School should be included in the educational mix.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The selection criteria should be based
on what operational problems the group will be attempting to solve during their
tour on the Board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Selectees should meet
with the NWDC Commander prior to attending school to help shape academic
activities while attending school to best prepare them for their follow-on
work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
While this new concept may seem somewhat duplicative of
other efforts currently in place, such as the <a href="http://www.usnwc.edu/About/Chief-Naval-Operations-Strategic-Studies-Group.aspx">CNO’s
Strategic Study Group</a> (SSG) at the Naval War College, the new General Board would
focus on more near term issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideally,
the efforts of the SSG, as well as inputs from other existing advisory panels, would
feed into the problem set of the General Board.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The members of the General Board should be given full
latitude and support to interact with other components of the naval research
community as well as the operational forces. To the maximum extent possible, it
should leverage various crowd sourcing and idea generation tools to harness the
“wisdom of crowds” in the problem solving process.</div>
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Many senior leaders have recently said that the military has
lost its ability to think because it has outsourced that responsibility to
contracting firms and consultants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While
the effectiveness of this approach is questionable at best, it is certainly
expensive - as are most solutions to the problems they solve. Given the fiscal realities
facing the nation, the military will need to rely more on its internal thinking
capacity. Reestablishing the General Board concept would not only develop and
harness the great minds in uniform, it also offers a more affordable solution
to the current expensive ways of doing business.</div>
</div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4595590912416369261.post-55447274141343661242012-04-09T21:47:00.001-07:002012-04-09T21:47:27.611-07:00The Disruptive Bookshelf<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Bottom Line Up Front: I'm starting a sister blog to this one. <a href="http://disruptivebookquotes.blogspot.com/">Disruptive Book Quotes</a>. Short, pithy sayings once a day that have shaped my interest in disruptive thinking. If nothing else, at least I'll have a compendium, in the Cloud, of my favorite works. <br />
<br />
About six weeks ago, I wrote about <a href="http://disruptivethinkers.blogspot.com/2012/02/developing-disruptive-mindset.html">developing a disruptive mindset</a>. One of the core tenants of such an endeavor is to be well read, on a variety of topics, especially from those you disagree with. And it is more than that. It is remembering those statements that resonated, with the hope of using them to develop your life's philosophy.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVLS0z__H24sUyWFrdZ2K0lS3X_-9FxWlaBPxKR3SHa_O74giHKGu_d6qjSMEY4lM3JNv49Uh-RDur_f-tpyO1RS0qc18cqMwQ5G1gF8104QzveDbsQjQMlTuRB-Xr8B4qN1HT-wNpsVA/s1600/bookshelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVLS0z__H24sUyWFrdZ2K0lS3X_-9FxWlaBPxKR3SHa_O74giHKGu_d6qjSMEY4lM3JNv49Uh-RDur_f-tpyO1RS0qc18cqMwQ5G1gF8104QzveDbsQjQMlTuRB-Xr8B4qN1HT-wNpsVA/s400/bookshelf.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heaven. Via <a href="http://connectere.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/bookshelf-porn/">Bookshelf Porn</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One of the things I wish I had done much earlier in my life was to create a book of quotes from works that I had read. I have a terrible memory, and troves of information are forever lost to me. Writing these nuggets down is my solution. This was even something I recommended to a 15 year-old cousin of mine as she entered high school and I gave her a list of suggested readings. <br />
<br />
This started in a little black book in 2008. It was given to me by a friend to journal about my deployment experiences, but I found it more useful as a record of knowledge gleaned from authors much smarter than I. <br />
<br />
Soon after, I got a Kindle, and I was able to create a book of my own by highlighting favorite passages in everything from science fiction and economics to Michael Lewis and Christopher Hitchens. In fact, these passages are a clear path in my intellectual development -- and nearly all have themes of innovation, discovery and courage. <br />
<br />
I find it useful to read through the entirety of this compilation occasionally and discover where I have been and where I am going. And as one of the first offshoots of Disruptive Thinkers, I thought it appropriate to start "<a href="http://disruptivebookquotes.blogspot.com/">Disruptive Book Quotes</a>."<br />
<br />
These quick bites will explore things like politics, fiction, love, war, foreign policy, innovation, negotiation, athletics and humor. They are diverse, useful, and sometimes out of context. But fun nonetheless. <br />
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I will be posting one quote each day from the hundreds I've collected. This will be an on-going project -- and one that will be presented in chronological order from when I discovered it. As I continue to read, the list will grow. Work smarter, not harder -- especially when the work is done by someone else. Easiest. Blog. Ever.<br />
<br />
I will do my best to leave commentary to a minimum, and simply focus on the author and his or her words. The beauty of this is you can then apply them as you see fit. Taken together, hopefully some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_blending">conceptual blending</a> will occur and a picture of new insights will develop. </div>Ben Kohlmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169347794851576548noreply@blogger.com3