Preparation in Mind and Practice: QMN030
Martial Mental Models: The Quartermaster, Wednesday, 5 June
(Today’s report is a 4 minute read)
BLUF: What Green Berets learn in SFQC teaches them to evaluate situations using frameworks to make sure they’ve thought through everything. This includes models, different modes of thinking, and a unique approach to planning. We’re sharing them with you via The Quartermaster.
Chris here. The role of leadership in Army Special Operations is as much ethics as it is strategy. Throughout the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) and our careers, Green Berets develop frameworks for considering the implications of a choice: strategically, legally, and ethically.
Many people make these choices about right or wrong based on “gut feeling” (myself included). What Green Berets learn in SFQC teaches them to evaluate situations using frameworks to make sure they’ve thought through everything. Things get harder first, and only then can you use your gut. There are plenty of frameworks available to the end user - from the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) to SWOT Analysis to one of my personal favorites, the CARVER Matrix.
The simplest mental model I’ve found useful – to the point of becoming instinctive – is enumerated in the Special Forces values stuck to the cafeteria wall at Camp Mackall: ‘Consider the Second- and Third-order effects!'
"The focus of any planning process should be to quickly develop a flexible, tactically sound, and fully integrated and synchronized plan that increases the likelihood of mission success with the fewest casualties possible. However, any operation may “outrun” the initial plan. The most detailed estimates cannot anticipate every possible branch or sequel, enemy action, unexpected opportunities ... Fleeting opportunities or unexpected enemy actions may require a quick decision to implement a new or modified plan.” – FM 101-5, Staff Organization and Operations
A good example is this case on an insurgent situation in Iraq – an acknowledgement of how even a young lieutenant, no Ivy League MBA in sight – has to make an ethical decision based on a strategically sound and legal framework. You might be tempted to make one call when you first read it, and change your mind as you keep reflecting.
Military men often earn a reputation for deterministic thinking; Step A, then Step B, in that order. While we can save the high-strung veteran heuristics for another day, systematic thinking is the right way to start your day, and then probabilistic thinking can take over once ’the first bullet flies’ come nightfall. Each Green Beret writes his team’s own plans (which is uncommon throughout the military): each is responsible both for its success and for its inevitable failure.
Green Berets expect it to fail.
Failure mode for a Green Beret plan is always creative, always ambiguous, and typically done from a laptop slammed on the hood of a HMMWV. That’s the whole point of planning for a Green Beret: to understand what should happen in order to have a framework upon which could happen, and then be prepared for what inevitably will happen.
Colophon: The Quartermaster - this newsletter - is our way of helping you enjoy the peace dividend and evangelize martial mental models that have been developed in the crucible of war. While BJM and KSA would never hard-sell this newsletter to you, I will: forward this email to one friend today and tell them to sign up. (CPP)
AGE, ABILITY & ACHIEVEMENT: It’s Never Too Late to Start a Brilliant Career (7 min) “These findings validate what previous cognitive research has revealed: Each of us has two types of intelligence, known as fluid and crystallized. Fluid intelligence is our capacity to reason and solve novel problems, independent of knowledge from the past, and it peaks earlier in life. Crystallized intelligence is the ability to use skills, knowledge and experience; it shows rising levels of performance well into middle age and beyond. According to Georgia Tech psychology professor Phillip Ackerman, the best way for older adults to compensate for declines in youthful “fluid” intelligence is to select jobs and goals that optimize their “crystallized” knowledge and skills.” (BJM)
A SITUATIONAL AWARENESS WIN OR LOSS? Google Maps Slowly Rolling Out Augmented Reality Navigation (2 min) “In a move seemingly designed to frustrate those of us who do not walk down the street staring at our phones and utterly oblivious to our surroundings, Google has started to roll out an augmented reality feature to their mobile Maps application. According to the Wall Street Journal's David Pierce, the feature, which was announced at its developer conference last May, utilizes your phone's camera and GPS to layer directional arrows and instructions onto your screen while analyzing your surroundings using decades worth of Google Street photos. According to Pierce, the overall effect of the app "was as if Maps had drawn my directions onto the real world, though nobody else could see them." (KSA)
Remarks Complete. Nothing Follows.
KS Anthony (KSA), Chris Papasadero (CPP) & Brady Moore (BJM)