Human Terrain Team study

To the SWJ Community,

With funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, we are examining Human Terrain Teams through ten key performance variables identified in literature as strongly correlated with effective small cross-functional groups. Specifically we are studying the Human Terrain Teams deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010 to determine which variables best explain team performance. Our goal is to generate findings that will enable improved performance for the teams in the future, and more generally that will allow the national security system to employ small, high performance cross-functional teams faster in the future. Toward that end we are doing a series of case studies, two of which are completed: one on High Value Targeting Teams in Iraq, ‘Secret Weapon: High Value Target Team as an Organizational Innovation’, and one on JIATF-South, ‘Joint Interagency Task Force-South: The Best, Least Understood Interagency Success.

We would appreciate contacts from former and current members of the Human Terrain System, the Human Terrain Teams, and Human Terrain Analysis Teams, as well as commanders who worked with the teams. If you are willing to support our research and talk with us, we would honor whatever preferences you might have concerning attribution of your insights. You could remain complete anonymous, have your background but not your name identified, or receive full attribution. Every person we interview will have an opportunity to correct material attributed to them and to comment on the draft study to make sure their insights are accurately represented.

Please contact us if you would be willing to share your insights, and we would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Kind regards,

Dr. Christopher J. Lamb, Distinguished Research Fellow
lambc@ndu.edu
Dr. James Douglas Orton, Project Leader (Adjunct Fellow)
james.orton@ndu.edu
Theodore T. Pikulsky, MA, Research Associate (Contract researcher)
theodore.pikulsky@ndu.edu
Michael Davies, MA, Research Associate (Contract researcher)
michael.davies@ndu.edu
Organizational Performance Team
Institute for National Strategic Studies
National Defense University
Phone: 202-685-3992