Quote Originally Posted by Hacksaw View Post
Grasshopper you have learned the deep/dirty secret.... I have yet to participate in or see the outcome of a design process that I didn't reach the same conclusion...

Of course this is not a popular opinion at the Intellectual Center of the Army... More than a few advocates have described in excrutiating detail that design goes beyond and yet not as far as MA... "Deep understanding of the situation"... what a crock of BS...

If a planner wasn't seeking as deep an understanding of the situation as he possibly could... in the time allotted... to better understand the mission and range of possible solutions, they were negligent...Period...

that said, if the nature of our organizational culture has reached a point in which MA had become a finger drill and Design is needed to pull it back into a thinking man's (gender non-specific) business - fine... I guess, but...

We are experimenting with this idea of design in time constrained environments.... huh... if design is a process of exploration to develop a deep understanding of the situation (as opposed to mission)... it is by its nature time intensive - so before we have even codified the process we are distorting it beyond recognition
There's a whole lot of wisdom in that post. After studying wicked problems, casual loop diagrams, scientific method, engineering method, and countless others, I returned to the initial conclusion that IF you get the facts and assumptions right, then IPB and MA give you the answers.

All too often, facts and assumptions are hand-waved or ignored b/c they are not politically correct.

For instance, try this one in your MA process:

Fact-
1. Afghans are highly xenophobic and do not want foreigners in their land.

That won't make the boss happy, but by understanding, you can work it into your influence plan and have amazing results. I learned this one by dealing with Sunnis in Iraq. Their jaws dropped to the floor when I opened a very hostile engagement with this statement,

"I realize that y'all are in a civil war right now and the Shia gov't is attacking you and witholding funds so you are frustated and siding with AQI. I'm not taking a side. I'm here to help y'all mediate your differences. If you attack me, then I will crush you. I will bring the full weight of the American arsenal down on your village. If you cooperate, then I will pressure the Shias as well and we will try to make a better future for both of your children."

It helped me to broker past the perceptions and get on with negotiations. You can't ignore the elephant in the room. If I was in Afghan right now, I'd be drinking chai and listening to war stories about how they used to fight the Russians.

Mike