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Framing the problem identifies obstacles impeding progress toward the commander’s desired end state. Framing activities help leaders frame a problem including reviewing the environmental frame, identifying problems and mapping out their relationships, and using a narrative and graphics to capture the problem frame (Department of the Army, 2015). The purpose of problem framing is to determine which obstacles are impeding the end state.
Using the Army Design Methodology Process to Frame Problems
Soldiers attending the Sergeants Major Academy (SGM-A) use practical exercises in a small group setting to help develop graphics and narratives depicting framing a problem to prepare for future positions as senior enlisted advisors. In addition to practical exercises, Soldiers attending the SGM-A receive instructions on ADM concepts such as operational art and systems thinking to help reinforce framing problems and framing activities. As the senior enlisted advisor within a financial management organization, the Financial Management SGM is responsible for coordinating and providing fiscal assets to commanders. A significant part of financial management operations revolves around managing budgetary resources within the OE, often involving data analytics (Department of the Army, 2014). A Financial Management SGM can facilitate framing the problem in an organization using regression models and predictive analysis when reviewing data.
Army Design Methodology: Framing the Operational Environment
American leaders took into consideration the future state of the NVA and acted to prevent it. According to Builder et al. (1999), Americans in Vietnam considered themselves superior to the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and did little to understand the situation in depth. Americans believed that the most challenging part of the war was finding the enemy to destroy them.
Broken and Unreadable: Our Unbearable Aversion to Doctrine - Modern War Institute - United States Military Academy West Point
Broken and Unreadable: Our Unbearable Aversion to Doctrine - Modern War Institute.
Posted: Thu, 18 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Army Design Methodology: Enhancing Decision-Making in a Complex World
According to the Department of the Army (2020), “the SGM is key in the training and operations planning process, leveraging their experience and vast technical and tactical knowledge to advise the staff” (p. 2-5). With so much influence and knowledge, SGMs can facilitate framing the problem in organizations. Operations SGMs and Financial Management SGMs have the platform to facilitate the ADM process in organizations.
When an operational approach applies changes to parts of the system, this may produce a behavior or outcome that is favorable or unfavorable. For this reason, critical thinking and systems thinking are essential when planning an operational approach to have a good outcome. Planners use the elements of operational art, the understanding gained from the OE, and problem frames, to formulate a possible operational approach. An example that illustrates these activities happened in the battle between Ukraine and Russia. Davydenko et al. (2022) reported that Ukraine’s military identified Russia’s COG and applied an indirect approach by targeting its logistics hub as a decisive point to weaken its COG. Ukraine’s military devised lines of operations against all supporting elements of Russia’s combat troops to diminish their capabilities, by seizing key terrains and continuous refinement of their operational approach to keep their advantage against Russia.
These activities help ensure that the operational approach is feasible for further detailed planning development. Reviewing the environmental and problem frames before developing an operational approach is critical in ensuring that the data collected is still applicable and current. For instance, staff must review whether conditions in the OE are still the same whenever operations start, to ensure that desired effects are still achievable.
Inputs from disparate individuals vis-à-vis agencies are sought and deliberated upon, to ‘arrive’ at the most optimum decision outcome. More precisely, the military decision-making process relies on analyses, inputs and recommendations from various staff echelons, made under the overarching objective of assisting and lending clarity to the commander’s intent. The commander and staff normally work in a group/collective environment to plan, synchronise and control/ guide various small and large scale operations. The assumption underpinning the entire process is that inputs from all agencies/ individuals/are unbiased and attuned to ensure the meeting of command objectives in the best possible way. While such a rubric of decision-making model seems, and in most junctures, is, ‘fool-proof,’ with oversight mechanisms at every level, it is not without its underlying vulnerabilities and ‘pressure points’. The paper attempts to uncover a few such psychological pressure points and vulnerabilities which currently prevail in the decision making paradigm.
Historically, commanders (CDRs) and staff manage complex situations within an operational environment (OE) that continuously changes. Army design methodology (ADM) provides an approach to dealing with unfamiliar and complex problems. “ADM is a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to understand, visualize, and describe problems and approaches to solving them” (Department of the Army [DA], 2019, p. 2-16). An example of a complex situation that needs a solution is Ellyatt’s (2022) report on Russian forces invading Ukraine to demilitarize the country. The situation is extraordinarily complex and requires unique solutions to alleviate the suffering of Ukrainian citizens and help keep their sovereignty.
Army Design Methodology: Framing the Operational Environment
These ideas allowed the design team to look at many past operations in Afghanistan and develop better ways of executing them with a plan to sustain the progress and momentum. Depending on the size of the team, members potentially had as many as five specific categories that required in-depth research to understand the complexity of the subject matter. Tactical and policy-level decision-making in the armed forces and larger government institutions adheres to a collaborative paradigm.
A systems perspective identifies relationships between groups, networks, governments, multinational corporations, etc., and how they may alter the OE (Department of the Army, 2015). The Army Design Methodology is a strategic and very intense 10-lesson design course grounded in theory, history, philosophy, and doctrine. During the seminar, Duke Leaders learned how to apply critical and creative thinking skills to understand, visualize, and describe complex, ill-structured problems and how to develop approaches to solve them. Design has been carried forward into the August 2012 ADP 5-0 and ADRP 5-0 as "Army Design Methodology", which is complementary to the MDMP and Troop Leading Procedures. As referenced in ADP 5-0, The Army design methodology is a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to understand, visualize, and describe unfamiliar problems and approaches to solving them (emphasis included in ADP).
Today’s military strategists and operational planners must be able to visualize the environment in all of its complexity to understand the competing actors and interests required in a shaping strategy. This ability to visualize actors and trends in time and space is known as operational art, further d... Tools and techniques of the ADM process include brainstorming, researching, mind mapping, meta-questioning, questioning assumptions, and four ways of seeing (Department of the Army, 2015). Brainstorming is a type of collaboration that generates keywords and initial ideas for further research and analysis. The analysis of ideas occurs when the planning team acquires more breadth and depth on the situation.
“A decisive point is a geographic place, specific key event, critical factor, or function that, when acted upon, allows CDRs to gain a marked advantage over an adversary or contribute materially to achieving success” (JCS, 2020, p. IV-32). An example of a decisive point is Ukraine’s successful disruption of the Russian military’s logistics which caused the Russians to abandon their vehicles due to a lack of fuel supplies (Davydenko et al., 2022). The analysis used in identifying a COG with its critical requirements and vulnerabilities, which also helps determine a decisive point, indicates systems thinking. Collaboration and dialogue occur between more than two people or organizations and build a mutual understanding of the OE, resulting in a unity of effort.
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