2013 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
“and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” Isaiah 2;4
Managing the military way
The paper will demonstrate why and how civilian organizations can benefit from
utilizing methods that have been developed, tried and tested by the military for
Restrictions Based Management, planning, decision making and leadership. The paper
will;
1. Point out the similarities between a civilian organization / company and the
military that make this a viable concept.
2. Point out a number of examples (good and bad) from which one can draw
conclusions.
The paper will introduce and expose the audience to the inner working of:
3. Subjecting an entire organization to an objective in a method that is set for
success,
4. Identifying and taking advantage of opportunities by creating the capacity for
quickly adapting to changing environments and situations.
Explanation will be given to:
1. Setting objectives (what is success?),
2. Planning,
3. Prioritizing,
4. Maintaining situational awareness,
5. Identifying and utilizing power multiplying factors,
6. Building and marinating flexible structure that allows organizations to perform
complex maneuvers (i.e. survive and end up ahead of the others).
Discussion will be given to:
1. How to identify what portion of the methods (and to what degree) are adequate
for the organization
2. How to manage this type of change.
The paper will provide basic templates and examples of successful experiences.
Introduction (or why do we want to learn how to manage from the military)?
Ever since the beginning of time men have been fighting about everything and anything
under the sun. A reasonable amount of testimonials regarding battles and military
endeavors has been accumulated from ancient times up to today. It is thru these
chronicles that it was possible for people in the military profession to learn what worked,
what didn’t work and how to prefect their methods. As they have learned from their
successes and mistakes they have also learned from each other. The two major spheres of
learnings are the technical and the methodology. The flow of information brought with it
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an evolution of military methodologies in thinking, executing and educating the next
generations of solders and commanders. As war is a great endeavor, for any state, it
holds great risks and promises great rewards. Armies - tool for waging war are a complex
and expensive. The factors they deal with are; the state’s leader goal, the enemy, the
terrain and the resources at hand. They are always out to achieve the goal that was set to
them.
Armies deal in:
 breaking stalemate, changing the Equilibrium, creating favorable conditions for
leaders to capitalize on by,
o Utilizing assets (men and material) to carry out actions that will bring
forth the change.
o Creating and capitalizing on circumstances to their favor.
We want to learn from the military because of the:
1. Similarities: (just a few)
1. The need to define goals at all levels
2. Measurable Goal oriented.
3. Develop actions.
4. Operating in a continues changing environment.
5. Resource restricted.
6. Utilize people and equipment.
2. The 2000 years of proven, documented, analyzed failures to learn from (the
military methodologies have a proven 50% rate of success).
3. National level resource investment in creating and refining methodologies across
the board.
4. Simplified guidelines for complicated situation.
5. Pushing the envelope.
6. An old establishment continuously changing.
7. A learning organization.
• As in every case the conclusions are only as good as the data is.
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Some military definitions and principals
Purpose of war:
Disrupting the Equilibrium and by change, creating favorable conditions to
support higher echelon goals.
War is conducted in a restriction based environment by:
1. Terrain.
2. Enemy.
3. Resources.
4. Time.
“The military way” or the Essence of Military Thinking!
“The art of war is of vital importance”.
Structured processes (planning and decision making,).
Exercise caution not hesitance.
Risk versus gain – taking calculated risks.
Plan for the next war and remember the last war.
“If victory is long in coming, you will exhaust your strength”.
Utilizing the “spirit de core”.
Understanding the challenges.
Clear (not necessary simple) goals Deriving from upper echelon (Not
necessary realistic).
10. Multi discipline joint efforts.
11. Creating leverages for higher echelons.
12. Planning everything and take advantage of circumstances.
13. Preparations and improvisation.
14. Overall commitment to the goal.
15. Identification and Use of force multipliers –
1. Leadership as a tool.
2. Communication (meetings, technical means).
3. Technology.
16. Achieve and maintain situational awareness.
17. Competency at all levels. (G.I. Joe - CURREY, FRANCIS S)
18. Calculated risks (or not so calculated – “Market Garden”)
19. Train and educate - Training, education, and job experience gained during
operational assignments.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
The principles of war
1. Objective. support the higher echelon, be realistic
2. Concentration of effort. Take action that will make a difference.
3. Unity of command (as demanded by Ike on the eve of the invasion to Europe).
4. Cooperation between different disciplines.
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5. Complexity of planning Simplicity in exaction.
6. Economy. Plan by need.
7. Flexibility. Allow for and define leverage.
8. Initiative (Attack, Maneuver).
9. Surprise and Deception.
10. Chase. (Pharaoh, Sherman, Lee) opportunism.
11. Security and Reserve.
12. Logistics.
13. Morale.
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The Planning (and preparation) process
•
“The devil is in the details”
•
“They who have a structured thought process
sometime fail.
They who have no structured thought process
sometime succeed.”
(Brig.Gen A. Moran)
•
“No plan stand the test of battle”
(Gen. H. Guderian)
•
“In preparing for battle I have always found that
plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.
(Dwight D. Eisenhower)
For want of a nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
(Written about the battle of Bosworth 22 august 1485 where King Richard the third Lost the thrown to Henry vii father
of Henry the viii)
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The planning process
The purpose of the military planning process is to:
• Analyze the given task,
• Set task objectives.
• Create options that adhere to main restrictions time / Cost / compatibility with
defined mission.
• Choose the best option according to set criteria
• Improve on the chosen solution and turn it into a workable plan.
Flow
• Receipt of mission (defined by higher echelon)
• Mission analysis
• Cdr mission statement (guideline for planning Course Of Action - COA) and
objectives.
• COA development
• COA analysis
• COA comparison
• COA selection
• COA modification as a final plan. (tested against the principles of war)
• Orders production
The importance and benefit of developing the COA is having a broader structured view at
the problem and different angles of solution rather than acting on impulse or based on
tunnel vision that leads to the concept of “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” ("after this,
therefore because of this").
COA development guidelines
1. Analyzing the mission, (terrain) environment, enemy, other restrictions.
2. “Zero resource planning” (to answer the principles of war) as per Cdr guidelines.
Explore the fastest, the cheapest and the most simple COA
COA
1. Raw data layout.
2. Reverse engineering.
3. Breakdown to sub missions and best solution (for resources and time).
4. Put back as a full plan.
5. Identify weaknesses and resolve.
6. Identify the critical path and secure / open bottlenecks.
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COA comparison and selection process
COA 1
COA 2 COA 3
Selected & adjusted COA
Objective.
Concentration
of effort.
Unity of
command.
Cooperation.
Simplicity.
Economy.
Flexibility.
Initiative.
Surprise and
deception
Chase.
Security and
Reserve
Logistics.
Morale
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Setting Objectives
Strategic objective – a definition by the highest echelon describing the desired end
state.
The objective structure is composed of “who”, “what”, “when” & usually “in order
to”. The “who” is vague and the how is not described the to allow the lower level to
come up with a plan on it’s own.
Example:
D DAY OBJECTIVES:
“The objective of the AEF for the first 40 days is to create a lodgment that would
include the cities of Caen and Cherbourg (especially Cherbourg, for its deep-water
port). Subsequently, there would be a breakout from the lodgment to liberate
Brittany and its Atlantic ports, and to advance to a line roughly 125 miles (190 km)
to the southwest of Paris, from Le Havre through Le Mans to Tours, so that after
ninety days the Allies would control a zone bounded by the rivers Loire in the south
and Seine in the northeast’.
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Operative objectives - describe the means by which a strategic objective will be
obtained and will include;
1. The higher echelon objectives,
2. The said unit’s objective and a heads up for it’s next
objective.
3. The means and restrictions.
Example:
Objective:
“First battalion will obtain enemy stronghold 123 by attacking from east to west
along the road to A no later then 1am in order to provide suppressing fire on enemy
stronghold 456 and allow Second battalion to take enemy stronghold 456 and be
ready to serve as regiment reserve”
“Who will do what by restriction no later then time in order to what and allow who
(other than the said unit) to other unit’s mission and be ready for the next mission”.
Method
Method: a four phase movement where
a) In phase one Charley company will be positioned at point Mary
and will be ready to provide suppressing fire No later than
mm/dd/hh:mm.
a) In phase two David company will commence the assault on the
parameter of AS 123.
a) In phase three Echo company will go thru David company and
complete the movement and provide parameter security.
a) In phase four Charley Company will join the rest of the battalion
and David company will be providing suppressing fire for Second
battalion assault on AS456. the rest of the battalion will make
ready to act as regimental reserve. David Company will join as
soon as its mission is complete.
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Phase
Charley
Company
David
Company
1 From
dd/hh:mm to
dd/hh:mm
positioned at
point Mary
and will be
ready to
provide
suppressing
fire
Make ready to
assault
parameter of
AS 123
2 From
dd/hh:mm to
dd/hh:mm
Positioned at
point Mary and
will be ready to
provide
suppressing fire
ISBN : 9780974211428
3 From dd/hh:mm to
dd/hh:mm
At the entrance point to join the rest of the
battalion on AS123
AS123.
and make ready to
act as regimental
reserve
Assault
Provide close
parameter of AS suppressing fire for
David company and
123
move to position to
provide suppressing fire
for Second battalion
assault on AS456
Echo Company Behind David Behind David go thru David company
company in
company in
and complete securing
formation.
formation
AS123 and provide
parameter security.
Logistics
Point Mary
Point Mary
Point Mary
Medical
Point Mary
ready receive
casualties &
medevac.
Point Mary
ready receive
casualties &
medevac.
Point Mary ready
receive casualties &
medevac.
Command post With Charley Behind David With David Company
Company at
Company at
identifying AS456
parameter of AS
Mary
123
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4 From dd/hh:mm to
dd/hh:mm
provide suppressing
fire for Second
battalion assault on
AS456
make ready to act as
regimental reserve
Point Mary
Provide Amo reload
and provisions
Point Mary ready
receive casualties &
medevac. Replenish
supply and be ready
to act as regimental
reserve
Forming battalion
rally point and ready
to act as regimental
reserve at Mary
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2013 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
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Adaptation:
Tire management
Goal:
Minimize the effect of HME tire shortage and price hike in order to maintained
operational capacity of M4.5 tpa and hold to this year tire budget by implementing a tire
utilization plan.
Method
Create and implement a combined tire utilization plan no later then April 29 that will
include:
1. Maximizing tire life.
2. Reducing new tire inventory to free funds for as needed
purchase on top of the budget.
Mile Stones
1. Choose the vendor that will remove new tire inventory,
hold tires on consignment and provide service.
1. Conduct tire survey.
2. Set utilization benchmarks.
3. Identify external impacting factors on tire life and put in
place protocol to remove / increases them.
1. Set tire rotation and procurement plan.
2. Continues monitoring.
1
Choose the vendor that
will remove new tire
inventory, hold tires on
consignment and provide
service. No later then 4/1
2
Conduct survey
and present
findings no later
then 3/7
3
Set utilization
benchmarks no later
then 3/20
4
5
6
Identify external impacting Set tire rotation
Continues
factors on tire life and put and procurement monitoring.
in place protocol to remove plan no later then
/ increases them.
4/14.
No later then 3/30
Vendor
Quarry
management
Procurement
Quarry staff
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Managing Chaos by situational awareness
Although planning according to objectives is an effort to create a controlled, manageable
environment, the military has acknowledged that “no plan can stand the test of battle”.
To overcome the obstacle of working in un-controlled environment the military has
adopted the methodology of command and control - The understanding of Chaos and the
tools to work thru it is the essence of leading successful military operations. The
technique is obtaining and maintaining situational awareness. That essence can be
adopted and utilized by any organization.
Chaos
Small differences in initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors in numerical
computation) yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term
prediction impossible in general.[1] This happens even though these systems are
deterministic, meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial
conditions, with no random elements involved.[2] In other words, the deterministic nature
of these systems does not make them predictable.[3] This behavior is known as
deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.
Situational awareness, or SA, is the perception of environmental elements with respect
to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their
status after some variables has changed. It concerned with perception of the environment
critical to decision-makers in complex, dynamic areas from military C&C, to driving a
car.
Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening around
you to understand how information, events, and your own actions will impact
your goals and objectives, both now and in the near future. Lacking SA or
having inadequate SA has been identified as one of the primary factors in
accidents attributed to human error Thus, SA is especially important in work
domains where the information flow can be quite high and poor decisions may
lead to serious consequences.
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Obtaining and maintaining situational awareness - Observe, Orient Decide, Act OODA
•
•
•
•
•
Observe the situation— take in information about our own status, our
surroundings, and our enemy.
Orient to it— estimates, assumptions, analyses, and judgments about the
situation create a cohesive mental image. What the situation means to us.
Act. disseminating the decision, supervising to ensure proper execution, and
monitoring results through feedback,
Having acted, we have changed the situation, and so the cycle begins again.
Note - Organizations with multiple decision makers, multiple OODA loops
spin simultaneously, although not necessarily at the same speed, as
commanders exercise command and control at their own level and locale.
The OODA loop turns at different speeds at different levels, triggered by the pace of
events or by time. The more complex the system the more loops are created and run at
different speeds, some of them interacting with others.
In order to get to the orient level an additional process has been identified by the military
as a key, turning data into decision supporting information. The process involves
building a (as close to true as possible) panoramic view picture. This fact based, well
rounded balanced picture provides the decision makers the perceptions of reality and
allows him to make the best decision possible.
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Turning data into decision supporting information.
Data comes in different formats from verbal accounts to visual live streaming video feed.
The amount of available data is overwhelming as well. To be able to make knowledge
based decision there is a need to build a balanced picture. That picture should be simple
to understand by the competent commander on one hand , and be accurate and provide
the drill down opportunity on the other. The process of driving the raw data to decision
supporting information is described in the following flow charts.
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Systematically working with this method allows the decision maker the best use of his
time where he can “cut thru the chase” and deal with the core issues yet maintain the
ability to dig to the root i.e. raw data source, when he thinks it necessary.
Another major component of chaos control is prioritizing.
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Prioritizing
(Precedence, especially established by order of importance or urgency. An established
right to precedence. An authoritative rating that establishes such precedence. A preceding
or coming earlier in time. Something afforded or deserving prior attention.)
As “no plan stands the test of battle” circumstances change and so will the priorities.
Priorities determine resource allocation and are subject to validation criteria. Prioritizing
is the main ingredient in the decision phase of the OODA loop.
– Prioritizing and allocating resources.
– Criteria for priorities:
• Validity (compared to list of values).
• Impact on us.
• Life span (Time to next evolution).
• Future risk.
– When a group of unrelated targets are at the same priority it is commonly
defined as a “bottleneck”.
– The attached table demonstrates the set of values used to prioritize allocation
of resources.
Target
Resource
Commander's
plan
What supports the general plan
Location
What resource can be utilized.
Type
What resource can negotiate the target?
Size
What is the minimal effect required to negotiate this target
Time
For how long is this target valid (window of opportunity) what
resource is available?
Risk
What is the risk to the resource? For how long will the resource
be occupied by the target
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Force Multipliers:
Force multipliers refer to a set of tools that increase the efficiency of organizations
without major investment. Many organizations tend to take a life of their own and relapse
to a performance state within their comfort zone. That performance standard usually
doesn’t support the common goal. Force multiplier tools are driven and utilized by the
organization leadership.
Here are some examples:
1. Decision making process. (protocol).
2. Documentation.
3. RCA
4. Real time DSS. (some hardware and protocol like mine dispatching tools,
integrated tools, fleet management tools)
5. Proficiency (thru training) at all levels.
6. Unit cohesion.
7. Leadership.
Understanding that someone has walked this path before us and created the methodology
and tools to define objectives and achieve them in a very affective way opens up an
opportunity for organizations to better themselves and deal with changing environments.
Weather its growth or declining markets the military has been there before (chase and
organized retreat). The utilization of the same methodologies at all levels of the
organization makes for smother faster understanding and adherence of high level
decisions by the ground level “troops”. Everyone speaks the same language. It also has
the benefit of assisting the organization in building the next generation of managers. As
much as its structured and rigid as a format of doing business it allows looking at
situations from different angles that lead to innovation and out of the box solutions. It
eliminates the “we have always done it this way” tunnel vision. As we work in volatile
environments the structure helps us push further the loss of focus when pressure sets in.
Learning and training are a major part of the military discipline that has been neglected
by other organizations as not profit generating therefore not important.
The military is associated with war, forcefulness and destruction. Humanity has perfected
the art of destruction to a science. Yet with all it’s horrible consequences it has brought
great developments and achievements that the modern world benefits from.
This work was done in the spirit of “and they shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
anymore” Isaiah 2;4
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