FORT KNOX, Ky. - Critical thinking requires practice, creative thinking.
Soldiers and key leaders of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division are actively applying Operational Art and current Army Doctrine to assist in the planning of military operations. Since long before the initial invasion into Afghanistan Oct. 19, 2001, US troops have relied heavily upon the Military Decision Making Process for planning combat operations. While many people are comfortable with the status quo, change is inevitable and necessary, even more so in extended operations in a counterinsurgency environment. That's why the Brigade Commander, Col. William Ostlund, took the opportunity to engage his key leaders in a seminar that teaches Soldiers a doctrinal, albeit new, approach to tear down barriers, both physical and mental that embraces both critical and creative thinking. This is a more strategic method of planning that appears to be a true form of art, coincidentally, it is known as Art of Design or Operational Art.
Design was published in Army doctrine in March 2010. Field Manual 5-0, The Operations Process, chapter 3 is titled Design. Design has been carried forward into the August 2012 ADP 5-0 and ADRP 5-0 as "Army Design Methodology", which is complementary to the MDMP and Troop Leading Procedures. As referenced in ADP 5-0, The Army design methodology is a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to understand, visualize, and describe unfamiliar problems and approaches to solving them (emphasis included in ADP).
The doctrine was developed when Retired Col. Stefan Banach, School of Advanced Military Science graduate and 11th Director of SAMS, was directed by US Army senior leadership to write Army Design doctrine that would complement existing Army planning process. He said, "Design is a strategic thinking construct that enables leaders to conduct the necessary Intellectual Preparation of the Battlefield in a manner that informs Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield activities."
The Army Design Methodology is a strategic and very intense 10-lesson design course grounded in theory, history, philosophy, and doctrine. During the seminar, Duke Leaders learned how to apply critical and creative thinking skills to understand, visualize, and describe complex, ill-structured problems and how to develop approaches to solve them.
The Army Design Methodology Educational Program of Instruction consists of one-week of graduate level academic instruction followed by two-weeks of intense strategic planning. In the first week, Duke Leadership gathered intelligence and information on Afghanistan from all available resources, to include recent experience, and brought them into the classroom. These ideas allowed the design team to look at many past operations in Afghanistan and develop better ways of executing them with a plan to sustain the progress and momentum. The next step required the students to brainstorm their ideas using large dry-erase boards to capture the varied topics and determine who among the Design Team members, with the proper experience, was best suited to research each specific category that was identified. Depending on the size of the team, members potentially had as many as five specific categories that required in-depth research to understand the complexity of the subject matter.
Although the design work was constrained by time available for brainstorming and research, a tremendous amount of information was discovered and shared with the group. Each person on the design team became responsible to brief their research findings which were subsequently drawn out in "Mind-Maps." The Mind-Map Design Drill allowed all members of the Design Team to visualize the complex system they will encounter while deployed. The methodology allows everyone to maintain a strategic perspective while simultaneously contributing information and new ideas to overcome the tactical challenges that lay ahead. Solving the right problems has always been the goal of the Military Decision Making Process but, the planning process has proven to be insufficient as evidenced by 11 years of attrition warfare. The Army Design Methodology provides Army commanders and leaders at all levels with a complementary framework to think more critically and creatively about the complex problem situations they will confront which serves to better inform the traditional MDMP.
When asked, Col. Ostlund highlighted the priorities he has laid out to best prepare The Duke Brigade for decisive action when in the Army's available pool of forces. His priorities are best achieved by embracing ADM, effectively implementing mission command, and consistently using scenario driven multi-echelon training events to drive critical and creative thinking in an effort to harness the corporate intellect that resides in all corners of the Brigade. He embraces being a learning organization as he points to elements of the Vision he crafted with Brigade leaders, "The DUKE Brigade Combat Team is a professional combat ready (disciplined, trained, and fit) team that wins... prepared to deploy on order to conduct decisive action when and where required. We will educate and train ourselves to thrive in austere, ambiguous, and stressful conditions ..." "Bringing in six retired O6-level SAMS graduates to instruct and mentor the Brigade and battalion leadership and staffs has dramatically increased the intellectual acumen of the Brigade, which ensures the Duke Brigade is better prepared for combat", said Ostlund.
ADM continues in the brigade as research and organizational learning is ongoing to support a pending deployment in FY 2013. The Duke Design Teams will continue to conduct Design related activities and will resume focused Design work in November 2012 during three two-week Design Work Shops where the brigade leadership will develop a Design Concept that they will carry into the Army's Leader Training Program at the Joint Readiness Training Center, prior to entering the Army's available pool of forces. As long as there are complex problems to solve, there will be a requirement to identify the right problem(s) and to develop the right solutions to solve them; the ADM will dramatically enhance those efforts and will assist in achieving desired end conditions.
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