21st Century Small Unit Leaders

"Globalization and the information age have created an environment in which small unit leaders have and will continue to have operational and strategic importance. Ultimately, the demands of Irregular Warfare battlefield and the hybrid forms of warfare that will evolve from it, require small unit leaders within the General Purpose Forces to be more culturally aware; intellectually adaptable; seasoned in their decision-making requiring fundamental changes in the way they are educated, trained and gain experience. This paper will first address how individuals make decisions and those elements most critical in developing sound decision makers by comparing and contrasting analytical and intuitive decision-making. Second, it will address the strengths and weaknesses in current training and educational paradigms for developing intuitive and adaptive small unit decision makers via an analysis of the Systems Approach to Training. Third will be a proposal for the expansion or inclusion of a number of new educational initiatives necessary for developing small unit leader intuition and adaptability in IW. These will include recommendations for expanded history, culture and language training and the inclusion of critical thinking skills, human profiling techniques and methods for assessing problems. Following this will be recommendations on how best to instruct and inculcate critical thinking and decision-making skills in small unit leaders by adopting the more Socratic methods of instruction found in Outcomes Based Training and Education (OBTE) and Adaptive Leaders Methodology (ALM) as well as the experiential based learning that immersive training environments provide. This paper will conclude with specific recommendations for the joint force."--Abstract

Globalization and the information age have created an environment in which small unit leaders have operational and strategic importance. The demands of the Irregular Warfare require small unit leaders within the General Purpose Forces to be more culturally aware; intellectually adaptable; seasoned in their decision-making requiring fundamental changes in the way they are educated, trained, and gain experience. This book will first address how individuals make decisions by comparing and contrasting analytical and intuitive decision-making. Second, it will address the strengths and weaknesses in current training and educational paradigms via an analysis of the Systems Approach to Training. Third will be a proposal for the inclusion of new initiatives for developing small unit leader intuition and adaptability in IW. Following this, there are recommendations for inculcating critical thinking and decision-making skills in small unit leaders by adopting methods of instruction found in Outcomes Based Training and Education and Adaptive Leaders Methodology as well as the experiential based learning that immersive training environments provide.

What does it take to get the job done? How do you get the men in your unit to do what you say? To follow you into battle and shoot to kill? How you build the confidence that spurs men on to do their job, to stand by their leader and each other? Praise for Small Unit Leadership “Identifies in very specific terms what company grade officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) must do to ensure winning in land battle.”—Marine Corps Gazette “Colonel Malone tackles the elusive topic of leadership with a real-world, pragmatic approach. This is not a book of intellectual theorization, but of specific techniques for leading soldiers on and off the battlefield.”—U.S.N.I. Proceedings “The author condenses volumes of psychological studies into a readable and exciting book on practical military leadership.”—ARMOR “Colonel Malone not only provides handy guides on what should be done and how it should be done . . . he also aids the reader in how to know that desired results are being achieved.”—Leatherneck

For the past decade, the U.S. Marine Corps and its sister services have been engaged in what has been termed "hybrid warfare," which ranges from active combat to civilian support. Hybrid warfare typically occurs in environments where all modes of war are employed, such as conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, disruptive technologies, and criminality to destabilize an existing order. In August 2010, the National Research Council established the Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders to produce Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders. This report examines the operational environment, existing abilities, and gap to include data, technology, skill sets, training, and measures of effectiveness for small unit leaders in conducting enhanced company operations (ECOs) in hybrid engagement, complex environments. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also determines how to understand the decision making calculus and indicators of adversaries. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders recommends operational and technical approaches for improving the decision making abilities of small unit leaders, including any acquisition and experimentation efforts that can be undertaken by the Marine Corps and/or by other stakeholders aimed specifically at improving the decision making of small unit leaders. This report recommends ways to ease the burden on small unit leaders and to better prepare the small unit leader for success. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also indentifies a responsible organization to ensure that training and education programs are properly developed, staffed, operated, evaluated, and expanded.

The Strategic Studies Institute's XXI Annual Strategy Conference, held at Carlisle Barracks from April 6-8, 2010, addressed the topic of the meaning of war. While it did not seek to produce a definitive answer to questions about the nature and definition of war, it did highlight the crucial questions and their implications, including issues such as whether the cause of war is shifting, whether all forms of organized, politically focused violence constitute war, and the distinction between passive and active war. In the report which follows, Steven Metz and Philip Cuccia of SSI have summarized the presentations and debates at the conference and placed them in their wider intellectual and strategic context,

By using a research-driven model, discussing compelling cases from leading companies, and presenting seven actionable ideas to make progress, the book blends scholarly research and actionable strategies to empower readers to decide what issues to focus on and in what direction to lead.