Decision Making and Planning

[Martin]

nichols,

I haven't read much on OODA except Boyd's lectures and Howe's and Hammond's books. Do you have a source where I can read up on recognitional decision making? The intent of the article is to foster a proactive planning process, so maybe I'm missing something when I only briefly mentioned what I think you're saying. There are a lot of ideas skipped over, for example you may want to plan for future circumstances that the adversary will bring about, or you could bring up perspectives, deception, or paradigmatic evolution. It's really quite adaptable.

Recognitional decision making does sound very similar to what is expressed in Siddle's and Howe's books. Basically, with experience, you will see the enemy's position and perceive his possible tactics upon which you can retrieve from memory your own aggressive tactics to take the initiative. Is that what you meant?

Good point on commander's intent. I think the top-down approach and briefness caused the miss. I wanted an introduction to the concept, and it's the first time I write this kind of thing. Actually, the follow-on to commander's intent would be to consider how to design multi level plans and strategic maneuverability. I think it can fairly easily be adapted already as it is written today. The thought crossed my mind, but I didn't want to break anything expensive since most of the case studies I would have to use would either be imaginary (and thus not as credible) or real, active and looking to the future. I have studied history and could provide cursory overviews from a multitude of wars, but not the kind of in depth analysis that would prove it really useful. And that is a somewhat bigger project than two days... MUCH bigger risk of stepping on my crank.

Still, I will consider how to bring in commander's intent and heavier emphasis on proactive decision making. It may take a week due to school studies, etc.

bismarck17: Got it on the good advice of experienced people.

Thanks a lot for the responses! Keep 'em comin'...