Building on my previous thoughts on operational design, I would advance that military design be considered a practice, not a linear process.19 In other words, military designers should continuously assess and reassess the problem through what may be five key elements of problem-solving. Narratives and visual models are important because they provoke creative thinking, help us think through problems, and reveal hidden meaning in information and facts. The best examples of these conceptual and doctrinal examples are the 2009 Army Capstone Concept and the 2012 edition of ADP 3-0, Operations. The only question that remains is should we rename JP 5-0 as Problem Solving & Planning. We become reliant on a few preferred responses to a given type of situation. Now that we have a basic understanding of what operational design means in the JP, we should examine the six main shortfalls that limit the utility of the chapter on this concept. Operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from ineffective or failed internal processes, people, systems, or external events that can disrupt the flow of business operations. We must be capable of operating in jungles, mountains, deserts, and cities. We also unknowingly limit our range of action by our tendency to act in accordance with known and recognizable patterns. Government & Nonprofit. A string of tactical victories does not guarantee success at the operational or strategic level. Mar 2021 - Present2 years. [d] Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas War. Maneuver leaders must understand operational art, joint operations, and multinational operations because wars are wonwith the close cooperation of joint services and multinational alliesat the operational and strategic levels. Systems also exhibit emergent behavior that is different from its individual parts. Commanders use the operations process to drive the conceptual and detailed planning necessary to understand their operational environment (OE); visualize and describe the operations end state and operational approach; make and articulate decisions; and direct, lead, and assess operations. Winston Churchill. No two operational environments are the same, and. Assessmentis a continuous activity that supports decision making by ascertaining progress of the operation for the purpose of developing and refining plans and for making operations more effective. It would foster creative and practical solutions (for example, incorporation of military deception). What Is Operational Risk Management? Force Reconnaissance Marine with Command Element, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, sets security perimeter on starboard bridge wing during visit, board, search, and seizure exercise aboard amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown, South China Sea, September 6, 2020 (U.S. Navy/Taylor DiMartino), The premier professional military and academic publishing house, Force Reconnaissance Marine with Command Element, Beyond the Bauhaus: Cultural Modernity in Breslau, 191833, Thinking Effects: Effects-Based Methodology for Joint Operations, The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West. In the United States, military vocabulary is standardized by the Department of Defence. Just $10 for RUSH processing & handling. . This includes integrating numerous processes and activities such as information collection and targeting within the headquarters and with higher, subordinate, supporting, and supported units. Management is an operational process initially best dissected by analyzing the management functions. To seize, retain, and exploit the initiative against a wide array of adaptive and determined enemies, maneuver leaders must effectively employ a potent combination of joint and multi-national assets as part of a combined arms, air-ground team. Mexicos Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels, Council on Foreign Relations, February 26, 2021, available at . Our thinking becomes clumsy and leads us to simplistic and unsophisticated conclusions about complex and nuanced problems.3, Another common planning trap is what Dietrich Dorner calls repair service mentality. Among the services, the Army may have the toughest challenge meeting essential transformational objectives. According to Joint Publication 3-0, Joint Operations, operational art is the cognitive approach by commanders and staffssupported by their skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgmentto develop strategies, campaigns, and operations to organize and employ military forces by integrating ends, ways, and means. In other words, operational art is the employment of military forces to attain strategic goals through the design, organization, and conduct of campaigns and major operations. Chief Operating Officer at Lexington Institute 1d Report this post Report Report . However, ADM is not a panacea for all problems, and it will not eliminate errors in military decision making. Shortfall 2. Framing is selecting, organizing, and interpreting information in order to establish the context of an operational environment and the problem (see Figure 2). If we accept that the six shortfalls are valid, then it is clear we need to redesign and republish JP 5-0s chapter 4. Read my latest from Forbes - Leidos Approach To Army's Athena Recon Aircraft Stresses Integration Skills, Networking Experience, Analytic Objectivity . Army forces, as part of a joint team, conduct unified land operations to shape operational environments, prevent conflict, consolidate gains, and contribute to winning the Nation's wars. 1. In the joint community, action officers are often told to analyze and propose solutions to myriad wicked problems. Nonetheless, commanders and staffs must find ways to understand complex problems, avoid methodism, and find creative operational approaches to solving them. In many joint and unified commands, those individuals make up a sizable portion of typical joint planning groups, operational planning teams, and other boards, bureaus, cells, centers, and working groups. He has operated in the CENTCOM and PACOM AORs, and has served at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. The beginning of chapter 4 outlines operational art and the elements that commanders and staff wield in its application. A systems approach to thinking gives planners a framework for synthesizing and organizing complex and confusing information. Unimaginative and poor quality thinking will produce poor results regardless of the planning process used. Result. Highly contextualized and endlessly variable, operational art requires broad vision; a clear understanding of the operational environment, strategic goals, and tactical capabilities; the ability to anticipate future events; a nuanced understanding of the relationship of means to ends; clear communication to articulate a sequence of complex events; and effective joint and multinational cooperation. THAAD was developed after the experience of Iraq's Scud missile attacks during . At the joint level, military planners encounter challenges that are complex, diffuse, and opaque. ), is Professor of Operational Studies and Planning at the Joint Special Operations University. These decisions include assigning tasks; prioritizing, allocating, and organizing forces and resources; and selecting the critical times and places to act. We must avoid isolating the variables of a problem from their context. The Armys framework for organizing and putting command and control into action is the operations processthe major command and control activities performed during operations: planning, preparing, executing, and continuously assessing the operation. Marc is a distinguished military professional with Security Clearance, who is now looking to transition into industry, and is currently studying a BA (Hons) in Business Management and Economics, due to finish in Summer 2024. Overview (2.0 hours) Total course runtime without assessment. An operational view-1 (OV-1) is a high-level operational concept graphic. Operational art relies on the knowledge, experience, and creativity of the commander and staff to understand the current state of the OE and how to integrate capabilities to achieve victory (Department of the Army, 2015). Joint Publication (JP) 5-0, Joint Planning, is the metronome for conceiving and planning joint operations. A public sector development professional with a solution-oriented approach to modern development and experience. An operational approach translates a force's strategic priorities and capabilities into a framework for more detailed planning, such as elaborating a specific course of action. No two operational environments are the same, and each consists of multiple interrelated variables and sub-variables. The Lightning Press is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business DOD-approved vendor and federally registered to includethe SAM,WAWF,FBO, and FEDPAY. All rights reserved. It outlines key objectives necessary to achieve our mission through the strategic alignment of Ends, Ways, and Means. Often, they are problems that reside in and among human societies and the networks of the human domain. Gurnoor is an MBA graduate from the Schulich School of Business and a veteran of the Indian Army having over five years of comprehensive experience in a multitude of critical areas, including Operations, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Learning & Development, and Administration. The COG process assumes that defeating an armed adversary is the central obstacle to achieving the desired endstate. the type operation the level of command the composition of forces involved the weapons and equipment expected to be encountered 1. Such an addition would inform and motivate planners as they move forward to creatively solve the daunting challenges that exist in the joint military domain. Operational design does not incorporate stratagems and deception as one of its components. Repair service is simply muddling through situations. The operational approach to management is based largely on the following fundamental beliefs that: 1. Over time, we become less sensitive to features of new situations that appear anomalous, even experiencing occasional setbacks; nonetheless, we continue to apply the tried and true. They can then develop solutions, drawing on the 13 elements of operational design, to form an operational concept or operational approach.3. We have difficulty understanding the interconnectedness of complex systems so we cut them up or reduce them to individual pieces for analytical convenience. As noted when discussing the previous shortfall, joint force commanders expect planners to be doctoral-level problem-solvers. Most relevant While JP 5-0 informs curricula at our intermediate-level education and advanced military studies institutions, it also crucially serves to inform and educate those who have not had the opportunity to receive intermediate-level education or advanced military studies. Operational design does not educate joint problem-solvers on creative thinking and cognition. This was initially proposed by Edward. Copyright 2023 Norman M. Wade, The Lightning Press The intent is that they lead the enemy to take actions that favor our own ends. Throughout the operations process, making and communicating decisions faster than the enemy can react produces a tempo with which the enemy cannot compete. The role of a senior NC in this cycle is . Operational Capability (glossary) operational capability The ability of a system to perform in the intended operational environment, particularly with respect to meeting the requirements of its stakeholders. Whereas JPP applies procedural rigor to the planning process, operational design gives joint planners a more flexible tool to initially conceive prospective solutions for complex operational problems.1 Per JP 5-0, operational design provides a framework for coordinating the operations and activities of the joint force within space and time to achieve strategic objectives. Since the introduction of JP 5-0, successive editionsup to and including the December 2020 editionhave continued to refine and improve the operational design concept. 19 Andrew Buster Crabb, Joint Operational Design, Re-Imagined . Finally, because military design would be open-ended and flexible, it would enable joint planners to reason through both operational and nonoperational problems. 4. Result. What training can I implement into my unit so that subordinates will develop a better understanding of the operational art? Executionis the act of putting a plan into action by applying combat power to accomplish the mission and adjusting operations based on changes in the situation. An operational approach is an approach that is essentially borrowed from Bridgeman's work and attempts to combine the knowledge of management that's related to functions of management. Moreover, we must be prepared to operate with our fellow services and in the company of our allies and indigenous forces. Blending intuitive and analytical thinking helps commanders avoid methodism and the repair service mentality that often results from ordinary Army planning.8, Critical thinking is using reflective judgment about what to believe and what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions or arguments.9 Critical thinking is about asking and answering critical questions to find and appreciate the differences that make each situation unique. by LTC Clayton Newell, Military Review, September 1990, The Costs and Risks of AirSea, Battle by BG (Ret) Huba Wass De Czege, Operational Art's Beginnings, by Bruce Menning, Military Review, Sep/Oct 1997, Developing Operational Leadership for the Future, by Dennis D'Angelo, Insights on Joint Operations: The Art and Science, by GEN (Ret) Gary Luck, Joint Operations and the Vicksburg Campaign, by MAJ John Tindall, Joint Operations and the Campaign of Santiago, by LCDR Michael Fox, USN, Educating and Training for Theater Warfare, by COL L.D. An adaptable, agile, dynamic programme manager, Rob brings a breadth of experience across governance, strategy & policy, contingency planning and leadership. Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil, understand the strategic direction and guidance, understand the strategic environment (for example, policies, diplomacy, and politics) and the related contested environments, understand the operational environment and relevant contested environments, define the problemthat is, create shared understanding and plan for uncertainty, identify assumptions needed to continue planning (for example, strategic and operational assumptions), develop options (for example, the operational approach), identify decisions and decision points (external to the organization). 8Everett C. Dolman, Pure Strategy: Power and Principle in the Space and Information Age (NY: Frank Cass, 2005), 94-95, 114-15; Wayne W. Grigsby et al., Integrated Planning: The Operations Process, Design, and the Military Decision Making Process, Military Review (January-February 2011), 31; Jamshid Gharajedaghi, Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture (NY: Elsevier, 2006), 9, 15-16; SAMS, The Art of Design, 52-54; Jervis, 6, 12-13; Meadows, 5-6. JP 5-0 devotes limited discussion to how joint force commanders and planners develop an operational approach, implying that commanders and planners can tap into the elements of operational design to conceive one. In 2006, when JP 5-0 first added operational design to the planning publication, it was a huge step forward for joint doctrine. How should the operational commander apply tactical resources to accomplish that sequence of actions? Back Submit. Planning guidance, including an operational approach. Unfortunately, we are asking our planners to think individually and facilitate thinking at the group level without first educating them on the traits of individual and group cognition. JFQ. Grenada 1983: Small Island, Big Lessons by Sharon Tosi Lacey, Military History, July 2013. On War, The U.S. Army and Marine Corps face operational environments that include a range of problems and missions that are extraordinarily complex. Holder, Military Review, Jan-Feb 1997 (scroll to page 112 in PDF), Training for the Operational Level, by LTC L.D. Operational art is the cognitive approach used by commanders and staffssupported by their skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgmentto develop strategies, campaigns, and operations to organize and employ military forces by integrating ends, ways, means, and risks.10 If operational art is the synthesis expressed in warfares application, then the guideposts that structure such thinking are the elements of operational design. National Defense University - Successfully delivered one of the largest Workday implementations in Canada from start to finish as the Security Lead and assisting to other aspects of the project such as solution architecture, target operating model and training as a key contributor. This makes us vulnerable to unforeseen events that we attribute to chance.2, One of the most common traps planners fall into is what Carl von Clausewitz called methodism. Shortfall 6. In other words, maneuver leaders must understand how to employ the operational art in the context of joint and multinational operations. The operations process is a set of measures that give a unit commander an opportunity to guide and coordinate the tasks that are essential to achieve specific results. SMARTbooks can be used as quick reference guides during operations, as study guides at education and professional development courses, and as lesson plans and checklists in support of training. The purpose of the Army Operating Concept Team Teach is to provide uniformed and civilian leaders across the Army and it's Joint, Interorganizational and multinational partners with an understanding of the Army's vision of future conflict as described in the U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World. Military design would provide context on the background of design, educating readers on the nature of complex problems and how people reason to resolve them. Unfortunately, the 13 elements of operational design contain no references to stratagems, deception operations, operational artifices, or military ruses. A simplified, open-ended problem-solving practice would harness the creative and cognitive abilities of our planners. Design movements, sometimes called the applied arts, arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to infuse artistic expression and creativity into the dull industrial goods of the era.4 The idea of creative processes preceding scientific engineering rapidly spread across many artistic and industrial communities. It would inspire and fire the creative energies of joint force commanders and planners. The operational approach is an essential activity in the Army Design Methodology because it is a significant bridge to mission accomplishment. The Unconventional Approach to Arctic Security: Increasing Domain Awareness through the US Army Special Operations Forces' Indigenous Approach Published Oct. 3, 2022 By MAJ W. Barrett Martin, USA; MAJ Michael K. Tovo, USA; & MAJ Devin Kirkwood, USA Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, Air University Press -- Photo Details / Download Hi-Res Abstract Although the latest version of JP 5-0 (December 2020) has many laudable updates and improvements, the section of chapter 4 (on operational design) that addresses conceiving and expressing our operational ideas falls short in important ways. We already have the JPPdo we really need another lengthy, linear, and iterative process? Recognized as a whole of government doctrinal reference standard by military, national security and government professionals around the world, SMARTbooks comprise a comprehensive professional library designed forall levels of Service. The first approach lays the groundwork for the commander's planning guidance to the staff and other partners by visualizing how the joint force's operations will change existing conditions into desirable conditionsthe way the commander sees the OE at the end of operations to achieve national objectives. In the United States, military vocabulary is standardized by the Department of Defence. Sep 2008 - Oct 20102 years 2 months. A narrative is a story created to give meaning to things and events.