Improving The Decision Making Abilities Of Small Unit Leaders

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.

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"This report describes a multi-tiered process for generating a set of high payoff tasks that can be cost effectively represented in virtual environments. The tasks were used to guide the development of small unit (squad/team) dismounted Infantry training scenarios which were evaluated at the Dismounted Battlespace Battlelab (DBBL) Land Warrior Test Bed. Scenarios were based on five major tasks, Assault, Move Tactically, Enter Building and Clear a Room, Reconnoiter Area, and React to Contact. Soldiers, working as teams or part of a squad, executed all task-based scenarios through the use of individual combatant simulators. Soldiers indicated that simulations improved their real-world performance on similar tasks. Overall, the simulators were seen as effective for small unit training, e.g., team coordination, communication, decision making. the scenarios which provided the most training value integrated soldiers with computer generated forces to provide live force-on-force capability. The research showed the potential training value of dismounted infantry simulation technologies for soldier and small unit training, particularly cognitive-based activities. Subsequent research will focus on the use of this technology to enhance the decision-making skills of soldiers and small unit leaders."--Stinet.

"Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) create unique cognitive demands for small unit leaders, particularly platoon leaders. Years of experience are typically needed to master these demands. However, most platoon leaders tend to have limited experience in Army operations generally, and MOUT operations specifically. A cognitive task analysis, based on in depth interviews with subject matter experts (n=7), was conducted to expose the cognitive aspects of expertise existing within one important MOUT task, building clearing operations. From the perspective of platoon leaders, the cognitive demands of this task were defined within the context of decision requirement tables. Decision requirements detail critical decisions and judgments, the reasons why they can be difficult to make, cues and factors that influence decision making, and rules and strategies employed in the decision making process. The findings of the cognitive task analysis guided the development of training recommendations, particularly the need for a scenario based MOUT training program aimed at improving platoon leader expertise through practice in decision making."--Stinet.

Forty years ago the Naval Studies Board was created at the request of then Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. As stated in his request to the National Academy of Sciences, he thought it important for the Navy to have an outside resource to which it could turn "for independent and outside counsel on any area of its responsibilities involving the interplay of scientific and technical matters with other national issues." Admiral Zumwalt, together with Under Secretary of the Navy Honorable David S. Potter and President of the National Academy of Sciences Dr. Philip Handler, recognized the importance of not only continuing but also focusing and strengthening the relationship that had existed between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of the Navy since the Academy's creation in 1863. To commemorate this special anniversary, Naval Studies Board 40th Anniversary provides an overview of the history, mission, and accomplishments of the Board. In the coming years, the Naval Studies Board will continue to serve as a source of independent, long-range, scientific and technical planning advice for the nation's naval forces. It will also work to ensure that the relationships between the operational, science, engineering, and technical communities remain as strong and productive as ever to ensure that progress continues in areas most critical to meeting future naval forces' needs.

"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

Clinical leadership and teamwork improve the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare delivery. Due to this, a growing number of healthcare systems are requiring their clinicians to participate in formal leadership training programs, but instructors face the challenge of how to successfully develop and measure these programs. Preparing Physicians to Lead in the 21st Century provides innovative insights into improving healthcare delivery and the impact of formal leadership training on the personal and professional life of medical professionals. It examines the form, function, and design of clinical leadership programs and their relationships to value-based decision making and creating a successful organized learning climate. Highlighting topics such as program assessment, cohort relationships, and clinical leadership standards, this book is designed for educators, instructional designers, medical professionals, researchers, and academicians.

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-Identify your critical decisions. Focus on those that matter most to your company's performance. --

"This report describes the work on a Science and Technology Objective (STO) entitled Virtual Environments for Dismounted Soldier Simulation, Training and Mission Rehearsal. The four-year (Fiscal Year FY 99-FY 02) STO effort was proposed to address a range of U.S. Army future operational capabilities described in U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Pamphlet 525-66 (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 1997). The STO activities and goals were focused on overcoming critical technological challenges that prevented effective Infantry Soldier simulation. The U. S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) led a team of both government and industry developers in examining simulation capabilities for industry. The other government partners vent the U.S. Army Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate (ARL-HRED) and Computational and information Sciences Directorate (ARL-ClSD). Each of the major players had a particular area of interest but all worked together to explore concepts and systems and to recommend directions for further work on training, concept development, and mission rehearsal."--DTIC.