- Supply The Why: Difficult Conversations Season 4 Episode 3 Policing, Leadership and the Future
- Project Sapient Podcast E13: Leader or Boss?
- Embedding Our Values: Never a Better Time Than Now
- Difficult Conversations by Supply The Why Season 3 Episode 3 Warriors, Guardians or Are They One and The Same?
- Wellness for Warriors - Two amazing human beings who have been through so much, and go above and Beyond
- When One of us is Murdered: The Darkness A Project Sapient Podcast
- Project Sapient Podcast: Sheepdogs. HybridWolves. Crybabies | A Predator Hunting Predators
- "Supply The Why" Great Podcast Episode on Police Reform, Use of Force, Training and Development Discussed by a Great Panel
- Police Leadership: On Humility and the Dangers of Hubris
- Be You: Humility, Strength of Character and Swallowing Our Ego and Being Authentic Is Crucial To Sound Leadership
- Been Away From My Blog For a While...Time to Get Back At It!
- Supply The Why Doing Great Work Be Sure to Check Out This Episode
- Introduction to Scenario Learning: Guest Post Series with Michael Barr
- Auftragstaktik in One Simple Diagram by Chet Richards
- "Leaders Are Teachers": Great Insights on Leadership and Developing Your People from The Mentorship Forum
- Great Review Over at the The Mentorship Forum of My Favorite Resource on Developing Adaptability "Raising The Bar"
- Rethinking the Traditional Teacher-Student Relationship in Conflicts
- Command and Control During a Disaster: Podcast
- The Evolving Warfighter Sits Down with Don Vandergriff and Talks Mission Command
- Developing and Preparing Cops for the Adaptive Challenges of The Street: Instructors Roundtable Podcast Episode
- Unreflective Speed of Action...Do You Think Its Time Policing Reflects on the Tactical Influence of Time?
- Break It Down Show Podcast: Don Vandergriff - Mission Command, Trusting Your People, To Win
- I See You...Back Up! On The Call to Win in Crisis and in the Aftermath to Win in Life
- Technological Negation of Human Sexual Dimorphism: A Guest Post by Franklin C. Annis, EdD
- Guest Post Home Security Guide from Bank Rate
- Commonwealth Police Legacy Program of Instruction: Sound Decision Making for Cops
- Outstanding In Your Face and Much Needed Book Policing and It's Leaders Can Learn From
- THE TRUTH BEHIND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN FATAL POLICE SHOOTINGS: Great Research Every Cop and Every Citizen Should Read.
- Thought on Discipline: A Great Podcast Series from All Marine Radio, Every Police Leader Should Listen To
- Gary Klein – Cognitive Psychologist, Studies Decision Making in Crisis on The Break It Down Show..Outstanding Episode
- Tactical Decision Making Facilitation Guide Maj McBreen: The Lessons Transfer to Police Instruction as Well
- 4th Generation Warfare Interview and Yes There Are Lessons for Policing
- Keys to Training Excellence: Evidence Based Research Policing Can Use
- Adopting Mission Command: Developing Leaders for a Superior Command Culture by Don Vandergriff
- Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude: Book Review
- PODCAST: Tactical Decision Games with Bruce Gudmundsson and Don Vandergriff
- Podcast: Human Factors and Officer-Involved Shootings
- Donald Robertson - Stoicism and Thinking Like a Roman Emperor
- Dr John Sullivan and MAJ John Spencer - The Complexity of Modern Urban War
- Great Podcast: The Courageous Police Leader – Combating Cowards, Chaos, and Lies
- Recommended Reading: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Another Approach to Tactics Guest Post by Bert DuVernay
- LYNCH & KENNEY: react to clips of LtGen Van Riper’s “On Discipline” interview on All Marine Radio
- Outstanding Interview: ON DISCIPLINE: LtGen Paul K. Van Riper, USMC (ret)
- The Learning Insurgency: It’s an Evolution, not a Revolution By Donald E. Vandergriff
- On Policing a Free Society Episode 3: Toxic Bosses
- On Policing a Free Society Episode 2: Repairing Dysfunction in Police Organizations
- On Policing a Free Society Podcast: Episode 1 Dysfunctional Organizations and Their Impact On Response
- On Policing a Free Society with Fred Leland A New Podcast Coming in 2019
- Making Police Training Stick...and Learning How to Learn
- A New Conception of War: John Boyd The U.S. Marines and Maneuver Warfare
- Utilizing The Case Method: Some articles by Bruce Gudmundsson to Help Shed Some Light on How Too
- Use of Force Policy: Dispelling the Myths by Lexipol
- How to Make a Small Unit Decision Forcing Cases by Bruce Gudmundsson
- Facilitating Learning a Hybrid Of Methods to Effective Police Officer Development
- Why The OODA Loop Is Forever By Dan Grazier
- 15 Tips to Remember when Promoting a Growth Mindset in the Classroom: A Guest Post from USA Test Prep
- New Edition of Boyd’s Discourse on Winning and Losing by Grant Hammond
- My Book Review: On Tactics by B. A. Friedman
- Of Garbage Cans and Paradox: Reflexively Reviewing Design, Mission Command, and the Gray Zone:
- On Tactics: An Interview with B.A. Friedman
- Podcast Part 2 from Professional Military Education: John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1
- Podcast from Professional Military Education: John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1
- Walk,Sacrafice, Work ...Always Hungry Never Satified! What it Takes to Fight Complacency
- The Ten Deadly Errors, Plus...Failure to Learn, Failure to Anticipate and Failure to Adapt
- Turning Tragedy into Victory...We Must Start APPLYING LESSONS LEARNED
- Police Responses Demands Constant and Repeated Action...Throughout the Tactical Encounter
- All Police Actions Take Place in an Atmosphere of Uncertainty
- Adapt or Die: The Call for Police Reform...Is It Reasonable or Necessary?
- Force Science Assesses Proposed “Necessary” Deadly Force Standard
- Special Tactics Online Course Intro
- LESC is Honored to be Part of Special Tactics New Online Training Academy and Full-Featured, Professional Networking Site
- Leading Discussions and Facilitating Better Training Outcomes
- Police Leaders Mentoring and Coaching Their People: the Cornerstone to Top Performance in Crises
- Research: Adaptive Skill as the Conditio Sine Qua Non of Expertise
- Developing Adaptive Expertise: A Synthesis of Literature and Implications for Training
- How the Germans Defined Auftragstaktik: What Mission Command is - AND - is Not by Don Vandergriff
- Avioding Hostilities is the Goal But Sometimes to Gain The Advantage Reasonable Force Must Be Used
- Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations
- The Protector Ethic: Morality, Virtue, and Ethics in the Martial Way
- Police Ethos:The Warrior and Guardian Mindset Are They Not One In the Same?
- Neighborhood Watch is Homeland Security at the Most Local Level
- Developing Police Sergeants: Getting the Outcomes and Measures of Effectiveness Right
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 3: Disrupting an Adversary Using Soft and Hard Tactics
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 2: Don't Just Be a Reactor..Be a Shaper Too!
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 1
- Smart Tactics Takes Thinking Police Leaders...Leading Thinking Cops
- Wrestling With Delayed and Immediate Entry, Solo and Team Tactics...Are We Really Expecting All to Go as Rehersed?
- Guardian Joe: How Less Force Helps The Warrior
- Making It Safer: A Study of Law Enforement Fatalities Between 2010-2016
- Professional Reading and Development: It Doesn’t Give All the Answers, But It Lights What Is Often a Uncertain Path Ahead
- What Are The Force Multipliers That Allow Police Organizations to Operate at Rapid OODA Loop Tempos?
- Why Frontline Employees Should Make All Decisions:Lessons Police Can Learn From The Corporate Rebels
- What was Boyd Thinking and...What Can Policing Learn From It?
- Proper Mindset, Situational Awareness, Skill Proficiency and Physical Fitness: Force Multipliers of Great Value to Police
- Recognizing The Signs and Signals That Lead To Violent Acts At Our Schools and Making Collaborative Efforts to Prevent Them
- Adaptive Leader Program: Developing Thinking Leaders Who Lead Thinking Officers
- What Are Mission-Type Orders and How Do They Influence a More Effective Crisis Response?
- Tactics Are They More High Diddle, Diddle Straight Up the Middle the Devil Be Damned or Maneuver and Boyd Cycling an Adversary?
- There Are No School Solutions, Formulas or Recipes to School Shootings, so How Can We Develop Better Courses of Action?
- Great Break It Down Show Focus on School Shootings
- Developing Critically Needed Leadership: A Podcast on Mission Command Building Trust and Cohesion
- Powerful Facilitation: Two Critical Approaches
- Powerful Facilitation: Three Critical Competencies
- STARTING AND GROWING A NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
- Adaptive Action: Leveraging Uncertainty In Your Organization a Book Review
- The Case Method In Developing Police: "Cold Calling" Will Have to Be Unambiguous
- The Biggest Obstacle to Tactical Progress… and How to Beat It
- Pete’s Combat Wish List Pt 2: Mental Models, Mistakes, Reflection and Learning on the Fly
- Pete’s Wish List for Combat Warriors. Perhaps Some Lessons for Poliicng as Well?
- What Affect Does the Human Dimension and Human Bias Have on Policing?
- What virtues are the most essential for a warrior to live by in order to prepare for, protect against and prevent violence?
- Exploring Criminal Justice Careers Check Out the Community for Accredited Online Schools
- A Great Break It Down Show Podcast on Interview and Interrogation: A Candid Straight Up Discussion
- Experiential Learning a Big Part of The New Recruit Officer Course In Massachusetts: Looks Promising!
- Run Out and Buy: Anatomy of a Warrior: The 7 Virtues All Warriors Must Live by to Successfully Protect and Serve
- Devising Solutions to Complex Police Problems: How Can We Get Better?
- Podcast with the Break It Down Show A Candid Discussion on Policing a Free Society, Mission Command and More
- Understanding Problems Range in Complexity and Designing Police Operations
- When it comes to Police Training, When is Good Enough, Not Good Enough?
- On The Job Training and Deliberately Framing Experience
- Police Officer Discretion…and Focusing Our Efforts on Better Outcomes
- Strength of Character: The Foundation of Working Together and Getting Things Done
- A free chapter from our new book now available on Amazon
- A Major Problem We Must Confront as Police Trainers and Students: How To Improve Performance?
- MISSION COMMAND THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY An Anthology
- Conflict and Crisis are Full of Friction: The Force That Makes the Apparently Easy so Difficult
- PODCAST: Don Vandergriff on Military Personnel Reform: The Ideas Discussed Can (SHOULD) be Adapted to Policing As Well!
- Fire Nobody! by Dave Smith
- Teaching United States Marine Instructors New Tricks: Developing Adaptability Through Experiential Learning
- The Why was born out of pain
- Inspiring People to Lifelong Learning & Impacting Their Ability to Make Sound Decisions
- We Can't Just Use the Same Mental Recipes Over and Over Again: In Police Training We Must Challenge The Prevailing Mindset
- Reflection Leads to Deeper Learning...Put Each Day Up For Review
- We Must Train and Educate Within an Uncertain Environment to Prepare to Adapt
- Defining Policing 's Training & Education Challenge...Some Ideas On Achieving High Levels of Professionalism
- Defensive Tactics for Today's Law Enforcement
- Uploading John Boyd: The Legend Delivering His Opus is Online...and is as Relevant as Ever
- Make Many Mistakes and Learn
- Is Your Purpose in Life Based on Self Awareness and Strength of Character or Are You Just Following the Crowd?
- An Officer’s Principal Weapon is His Mind: Professional Development In Policing
- Outstanding Manual: Law Enforcement Close Quarter Battle: Urban Tactics for Individuals, Teams and Tactical Units
- The Art of Police Training is the Ability to Move Officers Through the Fog and Complexity of Human Interaction
- Brian Willis Interviews Yours Truly on Teaching Adaptive Leadership
- The Police Leader's True Work: Train Them, Trust Them, Let Them Do Their Job
- Sir William Slim on His Leadership Motto: No Details, No Paper, And No Regrets
- The Grid: Is There Better Ways to Approach Police Interactions?
- Teaching Officers How to Think verses Telling Them What To Think
- Develop a Philosophy and Understanding of Crime Fighting and Problem Solving That Considers Complexities of Policing
- Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission Book Review
- Thinking Leaders, Leading Thinking People is the Adaptive Leaders Focus
- Take Policing From a Training Culture to a Learning Culture
- Are You Serving Those You Lead?
- Vehicle Stops Strategies and Tactics: Being Safe and Effective Is About Options, Not Best Practices
- Teaching Adaptability and Making Marines More Effective Trainers
- Break It Down Show Podcast: Better Understanding Policing and Why it Matters
- The Last 100 Yards Series: High Diddle, Diddle Straight Up the Middle or Maneuver: How Are Your Tactics, Officer?
- Police officers I beg you to please run out and buy this book! What a great tactical resource!
- Second Episode in This Podcast Series with Complete Emergency Managment: Leadership in Public Safety
- Podcast: I sit down with George Whitney of Complete EM and discuss: Active Shooters and After Actions
- Sir Robert Peels, Nine Key Principles of Policing: Fair and Impartial Policing Defined Back In 1829!
- Herman Goldstein, Fundamental Objectives of Policing: Are They Relevant Today? I Say Yes!
- Shaping and Adapting: Using the Environment (The Last Hundred Yards) To Unlock the Power of Colonel John Boyd’s OODA Loop
- Informative Fair and Impartial Podcast: Do the legal rules for using deadly force, still make sense?
- Crisis Intervention Teams & Police Interactions with People with Mental Illness: Evolving Tactics That Make a Difference
- How Does The Last Hundred Yards, Enhance Tactical Responses to Crises?
- Complacency and False Sense of Urgency: Why We Fail to Take Advantage of The Last Hundred Yards?
- The Last Hundred Yards: Operate On Blind Luck or Win Consistently?
- My Good Friend Coach Kevin Kearns talks with 5th & 6th graders about Vision
- Keeping The Peace in a Free Society Let Us Not Forget Why We Do What We Do
- How Do We Better Assess and Grade Decision Making and Adaptability in Those We Train?
- Types of Cases
- Report: Deadly Calls And Fatal Encounters
- Developing Individuals with the Ability to Work Together Solving Real World Problems
- Five-Year Study of Police Officer Deaths: RoboCops or Guardians?
- The role of humility in the Socratic method by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- Keeping the Peace
- Experiential Learning Defined
- How We Learn Versus How We Think We Learn
- Reducing Violence is About Not Grabbing a Gun
- Boston PD & Boston Red Sox: Full Scale Complex Operating Environment Training Exercise
- Scouts in Contact Tactical Vignettes for Cavalry Leaders A Book of Tactical Decison Exercises for Cavalry Leaders
- What is the Mission and Intent of Policing a Free Society?
- Sound of Silence A Tribute to Policing and All Those Who Serve The Homeland
- Problem-Oriented Policing: Where Social Work Meets Law Enforcement
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Altering Public Expectations
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Rethinking Widely Held Assumptions Regarding Police Fuction
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Our Failure to Concern Ourselves...
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society
- Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last
- 8 Tips to Keep Your Home Wireless Network Secure From Hackers: a guest post from Wichly Cazeau
- John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Part 3
- Engaging The Community and Making Meaningful and Lasting Change
- The Pre-Class Preparation Pyramid By Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- We All Lose When it's Us Verses Them!
- Facilatating The Adaptive Leader Program at The Army ROTC Leadership Conference at Harvard University
- A Break It Down Show Pod Cast: Paying Criminal Not to Commit Crimes or is There Something More to The Story?
- Harvard ROTC Leadership Conference
- A Discourse on Policing a Free Society
- We Made the Mandatory Reading for the US Army MPs
- Patterns of Conflict Pt 2
- Hand in Hand Project, a new initiative promoting dialogue and interaction between local police officers and young people
- How May We…Rebuild the Bridge Between The People and The Police?
- Why Adaptability Trumps Hierarchy?
- Military Reform Through Education: From The Straus Military Reform Project, Something We In Policing Can Learn From
- In Building Trust, Actions…Speak Louder Than Words!
- Somewhere Along the Way
- Taking It Personally
- The Facts of the Case By Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- J.J. DID TIE BUCKLE Traits I live By
- On Fitness: Learn from my weakness, my mistakes, and my bad habits
- Don’t Do It Alone: Developing a Shared Sense of Destiny Requires We’re all on the Same Sheet of Music
- Recommended Reading List From The California Association of Tactical Officers
- Values For A New Millennium: A Book That Will Help Bridge the Gap Between People and The Police
- Teaching Adaptability…and Firearms Training
- Simon Sinek: Why Reciprocity Improves Mentor Mentee Relationships
- Felix Nader Discusses The Value of Workplace Violence Prevention
- Breaking Down Police Work and How To Win at Low Cost: Part 2 Podcast Break It Down Show
- Boyd: Adapting Isn't Good Enough
- Simon Sinek on the responsibility that leaders have to create environments where people are more productive,and inspired
- The Hunting Story - the meaning of human equality
- Ethical Warriors with Jack Hoban
- Emotional Intelligence: Re-Thinking Police Community Relations by Mark Bond
- Approaching LE with the 'What's important now?' perspective
- Staying in control when a suspect is aggressive
- 10 Overlooked Truths About Taking Action
- Warriors vs. Praetorian Guard – Which Mindset Fits You Best? By Mike Ox
- ITOA News: Articles By John Farnam, Patrick Van Horne, Jeff Chudwin, Don Vandergriff, Yours Truly and More
- The importance of mindset in policing with Chip Huth
- A Discussion on Police Work and How to Win At Low Cost, Connecting The People and Police Gap
- Be Passionate, Back Up and Empower Your People, and You Will Get The Culture Right
- Why Are Shared Visions So Important?
- Technical Skill as a Component of Creativity by Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- I Am Spartacus…No I Am Spartacus: Is Your Police Organization United?
- The Demand For Autodidacts – The Self-Taught in an Age of Shrinking Budgets by Patrick Van Horne
- It’s How You Say What You Saw by Patrick Van Horne
- The Path of Don Vandergriff: A Discussion On Leadership, Learning organizations and Adaptability
- The Newhall Incident: Failure, Adaptation and Success…Or Lost Opportunity? Published in the latest ITOA News
- NYPD’s New Strategy for Dealing with Stressful Interactions, Absurd or Realistic?
- The Mind Can Be Convinced But The Heart Must Be Won
- Imagine a Police Culture Where People Wake Up Every Day Inspired to Go to Work
- Open Letter to President's Task Force on Policing by Louis Hayes
- The Blame Game: Who @#$%ed This Up?
- Breaking Down the Stranglehold of Formality
- Boyd and Beyond: From Marine Corps University to FBI National Academy Boyd' Ideas are Expanding
- From The Art of Manliness: John Boyd’s Roll Call: Do You Want to Be Someone or Do Something?
- Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
- The Case Method Increasing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Marine Education by Captain Paul Tremblay Jr USMC
- Simon Sinek: If You Don't Understand People, You Don't Understand...
- Using Official Histories as Quarries for Case Materials By Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- Left of Bang By Patrick Van Horne and Jason Riley
- The Most Dangerous Weapon in Law Enforcement by Brian Willis
- Sizing Up Situations Is A Skill, We Need To Develop
- Change the Culture If I could Only Change One Thing by Don Vandergriff
- The Five Learning Disciplines
- Using Complete Stories in Decision Forcing Cases by Dr. Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- Newhall Shooting: A Tactical Analysis
- Tactical Decision Games, Obscure Information and Generating New Ways to Thrive in the Climate of Chaos and Uncertainty
- Calling on Cops in Class: An Anecdote for Developing Character, Confidence and Sound Tactical Decision Makers
- Solving Tactical Dilemmas with Indirect Experience (Education & Training) and White Castle Cases
- Ugly Police Force: Misunderstandings of Law & Human Factors by Lou Hayes
- Design and Facilitate, Decision Making Exercises Using The Sandwich Metaphor
- Strategic Rifleman: Key to More Moral Warfare by H. John Poole
- Developing Teamwork, Leadership Skills and Decision Makers with Case Study's "Washington's Crossing"
- FBI Report: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States
- The Art of Manliness Discusses...The Tao of Boyd: How to Master the OODA Loop
- Courage: The Backbone of Leadership by Gus Lee
- A Police Officers thoughts on the “Militarization” of our police forces.
- Cops With War Toys: Militarizing police is the worst way to fight crime.
- “Just the facts Ma’am”
- Re-Imagine the Way We Lead!
- A Milestone in Boydian Theory at the Tactical Level
- CASE STUDY: Ferguson Missouri shooting incident and aftermath by Louis Hayes
- What is Leadership?
- Use of Force Investigations: a Manual for Law Enforcement
- Do You Know How to Get Fullfillment?
- How Great Leaders Inspire Action
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
- Adaptive Leadership Handbook, Reviewed [by Mark Safranski, a.k.a. "zen"]
- Have We Not Learned Anything From History? Don Vandergriff's Book Review on American Spartan
- How Do We Inspire Action?
- Book Review: Rubicon: The Poetry of War
- Book Review: American Spartan
- Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for WWII
- What are the Basics? Developing for Mission Command by Donald E. Vandergriff
- IN COMMAND AND OUT OF CONTROL
- Adaptive Leadership By Charles “Sid” Heal and John R. Engbeck
- Why good leaders make you feel safe
- Guardians vs. Warriors: What it Takes to Win at Low Cost
- After Action Review on The Christopher Dorner Incident
- Adaptive Leader Program
- Crisis Meta-Leadership Lessons From the Boston Marathon Bombings Response: The Ingenuity of Swarm Intelligence
- Outstanding piece! The Myth of Mission Command by Don Vandergriff
- Cops or Soldiers?
- Situational Assessments: Being Mindful of What’s Important Now!
- Convinced or Committed?
- Discipline: The Lost Art of Leadership
- How Do We Develop Adaptability?
- Improve the Work…Develop the People
- Incident Strategy and Tactics: The Baby Diaper Analogy
- Adaptive Leaders …Develop Strength of Character
- How About Some Empathy, Please?
- Get Into the Sandbox, Think and Play and Let’s Inspire… Adaptability
- Stoning The Gatekeepers: Is It Not Time Society Attempts To Better Understand Police Use of Force?
- First-Line Supervisors Do The Most Important Training
- Why Tactical Decision Games? Because They Challenge The Status Quo & Emphasize Tactical Options In Developing Courses of Action.
- Why Does Understanding The OODA Loop Matter to Cops?
- How Do You Develop Strength of Character and Adaptive Leaders?
- Adaptive Leadership Handbook: Innovative Ways to Teach and Develop Your People
- Don’t Fear Failure; Instead Make Failure Your Classroom
- In Forging Adaptability…Distinguish Technical Problems from Adaptive Challenges
- The Doctor in SWAT School (and What His Performance Says About Police Culture)
- Designing Law Enforcement: Adaptive Strategies for the Complex Environment by John A. Bertetto
- Guest Post: Toward a Police Ethos: Defining Our Values as a Call to Action by John Bertetto
- Adaptability is Key in Handling Crisis Situations…Be In Command and Out Of Control
- For Meaningful Lasting Results, Get Into the Weeds…and Identify Root Causes
- Want to get better and be safer? Debrief!
- How to Forge Adaptability in Police Leaders and Culture
- Adaptive Leadership is Purposeful Learning in Real Time
- Book Review: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and The World
- Growing Leaders Who Practice Mission Command and Win the Peace, Lt. Col. Douglas A. Pryer, U.S. Army
- Achieving Greatness by Giving Control and Creating Leaders
- Choosing Adaptability by Gary Gagliardi and The Science of Strategy Institute
- The Review of Boyd & Beyond 2013…..
- Have You Thought About Why You Choose To Lead?
- Incident Command: the big picture by Louis Hayes
- Understanding the OODA Loop by Derek Stephens
- The Cops Amaze Me by Bob Lonsberry
- I Am An Optimist. It Does Not Seem Too Much Use Being Anything Else!
- Mike Rayburn Asks...What Makes A Good Street Cop?
- Fighting the good fight with moral clarity by Lt. Dan Marcou
- Are Gated Communities Really Secure?
- Top 25 Criminal Justice Blogs We made the list at # 3
- Incident Command: the team cohesion aspect of the SitRep
- Book Review: Always Picked Last: Conquering the Bullies: A Guide To Finding Your Way in Life…
- To Continuously Improve We Must Set Boundaries and Expectations
- Elite Performance...Takes WORK? Say it ain't so!
- Create Your Fantasy Island Organizational Culture by Tracey Richardson
- Have You Stopped a Car Today? Improving Patrols Tactical Effectiveness with Vehicle Stops
- Incident Command: Communicating the Situation and Location By Louis Hayes
- Incident Command: a problem-solving approach By Louis Hayes
- SWAT Cop Says American Neighborhoods Are 'Battlefields,' Claims Cops Face Same Dangers As Soldiers In Afghanistan
- Overmilitarization: Why Law Enforcement Needs to Scale Down Its Use of Military Hardware and Tactics By Evan Bernick
- John Boyd’s Art of War Why our greatest military theorist only made colonel. By William S. Lind
- Police militarization and rise of the warrior journalist by Lance Eldridge
- Strategic Studies Institute: Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico Authored by Dr. Robert J. Bunker, Mr. John P. Sullivan
- To Strengthen And Preserve Cohesion Your Values...Equal Their Values
- Another Must Read Book From Don Vandergriff: "The Path To Victory" Revised Kindle Version with a new foreword
- Safe Streets, Overruled By Heather McDonald of the City Journal
- Must Read Book On Leader Development, Updated Kindle Addition: Don Vandergriff's, Raising The Bar:
- Brian Willis Offers Great Info on Defeating...The Enemy Of Innovation
- Police militarization and the Ethical Warrior By Jack E. Hoban & Bruce J. Gourlie
- “A Way” To Develop a Toxic Leader: How We as Leaders Create Our Own Monsters
- The Guy Behind the Guy, Behind the Guy: A Case for Taking our Roles More Seriously
- Flatenning the Decision Cycle in Tactical Units
- Tactical Supervision: Coaches and Chessplayers: Guest Post By Louis Hayes
- To effectively function in the initial, chaotic stages of a crisis, develop adaptive leaders
- FEAR VS COURAGE: IT'S YOUR CHOICE By Danny Cox
- Skid Row Terrorist
- Col John Boyd: Question and Answer Video
- Great Piece on Adaptability by Brian Willis: The Dinosaur versus The Cockroach Training Model
- The Psychotic Militarization of Law Enforcement
- The Missing Piece of NIMS: Teaching Incident Commanders How to Function in the Edge of Chaos by Police Chief, Cynthia Renaud
- The Human Problem? by Frank Borelli an Officer.com article
- From Police One 3 techniques for controlling your brain with Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
- Great Article From Police One with Val Van Brocklin: How to create 'fierce followers' in law enforcement
- Deadly Force: Have We Lost Our Senses? Guest Post by Louis Hayes
- Tactical Philosophy 101 A Guest Post by Louis Hayes
- Leadership in Unconventional Crises
- Unconventional Crises, Unconventional Responses: Reforming Leadership in the Age of Catastrophic Crises and “Hyper complexity”
- JOHN BOYD WAS A PATRIOT, A MORAL LEADER, AND A BONAFIDE VISIONARY. AND YES, HE WAS A MAVERICK.
- Force Science Research Study: The Influence of Officer Positioning on Movement During a Threatening Traffic Stop Scenario
- Guest Post: Adaptive Decision-Making by Sid Heal
- “More Better,” Ideals, and To Be or To Do: Guest Post by Scott Shipman
- Learning Like an Expert: A Guest Post by Marshall Wallace
- What Represents a High Level of Professionalism?
- This Memorial Day Remember: The Path of The Warrior
- School Security: Sharing and Enhancing Best Practices
- Guest Post by Michael G. Moore: Boyd's Snowmobile ...or what made Alexander “The Great”
- Coffee Pots and Baseball Bats: Household Items Offer Protection
- Learning to Adapt With A Professional Reading Program
- Boyd and Beyond 2013
- Guest Post by Tyana Daley: Developing Law Enforcement Leaders and Nurturing Smart Thinkers
- Somewhere Between Born and Made: Where Good Leaders Come From
- Is Today Your Day?
- Guest Post by John Demand: “You look for the bomb…we look for the bomber”
- What Do OODA Loop’s Mean to the Street Cop, Wanting To Become “World Class” Tacticians?
- The Psychology of a Boston Marathon Terrorist: 10 Questions for a Retired Marine
- Watching Boston “Work Together” Made Me Proud to Be a Police Officer
- What Makes a "World Class" Tactically Proficient Peacekeeper?
- Tactical Decision Games to Increase Speed and Maturity of Problem Solving: The Lessons Learned
- The Path to Better Execution in Seeing, Understanding and Solving Complex Problems is a Learning Organization
- A Systemic Concept for Operational Design: a Robust Tool Law Enforcement Should Use in Preparing for Chaotic Crisis
- How shift debriefings can improve officer safety Published at P1
- Boyd and Beyond Boston 2013: Balancing Pursuasion and Force in The Moral, Mental and Physical Dimensions of Conflict
- Don Vandergriff, Discusses: Misinterpretation and Confusion: What is Mission Command?
- Huddling-Up To Acheive Successful Law Enforcement Outcomes
- Building Cohesive Law Enforcement Agencies That Can Decide In Crisis Situations
- Mistakes ultimately ended ex-LA cop's rampage
- Red Teaming The Workplace Violence Shooter and The "MR. Uncomfortable Factor"
- Top 30 Criminal Justice Blogs of 2012 : LESC is Number 5!
- Showing Up Is Overrated. Necessary But Not Nearly Sufficient. Can Taking An "Interest" In What You Do Enhance Performance?
- Handling Dynamic Encounters...Go Get Him, Or Set Him Up To Get Him...With An Adaptable Response
- Shift Debriefings: How Can We Be More Deliberate, More Disciplined, and More Thorough in our Approach to Learning?
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 6: Provoke Your Adversary’s Reaction
- Does Mass Violence Unfold Randomly and Chaotic or is There Hidden Order We Can Leverage in Our Prevention Efforts?
- Police One Column: 13 questions to answer in 2013: What has 2012 taught you about officer safety and effectiveness?
- Take Small Steps, Towards, Lifelong Learning In 2013
- Positive Adaptive Leadership...Tools and Tips and Critical Questions To Explore in 2013 Inspired by Many Of Those I Follow
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 5: Sheath Your Sword
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 4: Score A Small Victory Along The Way
- In Mastering Tactics Shouldn’t We Be Blending Policy and Procedures with People and Ideas?
- Ready, Aim, Ready?
- IMPLEMENTATION (OODA LOOP OR BOYD’S CYCLE) by Sid Heal
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 3: Engage Your Adversary From Many Directions
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 2: Lure The Tiger Out Of The Mountain
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 1: Catch Your Adversary Sleeping
- The Art of War: Sun Tzu Strategy Card Deck…Simple, Yet, Great Tool for Developing Strategic and Tactical Mindset
- "Certain men…come to be accepted guardians and transmitters, instructors, of established doctrines...
- On Vision
- Book Review: The Rite of Return: Coming Back From Duty Induced PTSD
- Restoring the Wounded Spirit
- Deciding Under Pressure…and Fast: You Need to Understand the Concept of “Coup d’oeil”
- How Do Adaptive Leaders Think?
- Capt Evan Bradley on Boyd, Adaptability and Understanding the Bigger Picture in Conflict
- Captain Lindsay Rodman On Boyd and Taking Ownership of What You Do!
- William McNulty-Team Rubicon: Boyd, Applied to Disaster Response
- Heroes Behind the Badge
- Chet Richards On Boyd...Is Your Orientation, Matched to Reality?
- Col GI Wilson on Boyd, Bureaucracy, Insight, Imagination, Intent and Implementation
- What hath Boyd wrought? With Remarks
- John Boyd, Conceptual Spiral, and the meaning of life
- Boyd and Beyond 2012, Quantico, VA — a quickie recap by Scott Shipman
- Finished Gung Ho! The Corps Most Progressive Tradition
- Dangerous Minds – The Relationship between Beliefs, Behaviors, and Tactics
- Guest Post: Super Cops - Can we create them??? “Yes you can!”
- "The importance of a proper command system...
- "Leaders gain confidence and become more tactically and technically proficient...
- Help staff practice thinking on their feet to prepare for emergencies
- More On, Gung Ho! Out of Seeming Defeat May Have Sprung Great Potential
- Latest P1 Column: The anatomy of victory (part two): Victory at minimal cost
- Chapter 1 Review of "Gung Ho! The Corps' Most Progressive Tradition
- The anatomy of victory (part one): What does it take to win?
- Proper Police Action Requires...What?
- P1 Column: Patterns of behavior, officer safety, and 'the rule of opposites'
- Be agile and win:
- Why Boyd is Agile
- Destruction & Creation: Are You Locked on One Way of Thinking or Are You Adaptable, Approaching Tactical Dilemmas?
- Book Review: Deadly Force: Firearms and American Law Enforcement, from the Wild West to the Streets of Today
- The power of a handshake!
- Winning at Low Cost: No better friend, no better role model, no better diplomat and, no worse enemy
- "The most efficient way to get the behavior you're looking for is to find positive deviants and...
- Book Review: Police Instructor: Deliver Dynamic Presentations, Create Engaging Slides & Increase Active Learning
- "Organizations by their very nature involves a series of balances...
- "Of every 100 men you send to fight, 10 shouldn't even be there. Eighty are...
- Column at Police One: Mental toughness and the power to adapt
- Mental Attitude Can Be Negative or Positive
- The Anatomy of Victory: What Does It Take For Policing To “Win"at Low Cost?
- "They can't understand why their parent organizations didn't better prepare them...
- Counter-Ambush Tactics: Thinking Tactically and Doing What You Know How To Do On The Street
- Train To Make a Difference! A Decrease in Officer Fatalities in 1st Quarter of 2012
- "They prefer to achieve their results by...
- Part 2: Train the brain: Using decision making critiques to leverage lessons learned: Published at Police One
- "Wild animals are taken by scouting, by nets, by lying in wait, by stalking...
- "If one has never personally experience war...
- Chet Richards On: Boyd's Really Real OODA Loop
- Destruction and Creation
- A Video Biography of COL John Boyd
- Book Review: Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
- Book Review: Thinking Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman
- Train the brain: Using tactical decision games in training Published at POLICE ONE
- OODA Loops: The Explorer Mentality...And Recognizing Patterns of Behavior
- OODA Loop & Human Reaction Time
- The Leaders Ultimate Reward: 'I saw Someone Grow today, and I Helped'
- Where Have All the Warriors Gone? A Spot On Article, Every Cop Should Read
- Should Street Cops, Break Routines...and Think?
- Broken Windows...A Powerful Strategy, When Applied Robustly
- Lessons from SWAT the Street Cop Can Use on The Three Speeds of Operations
- Law enforcement interaction with the dangerously mentally ill
- Tip: Have an 'exit' strategy on vehicle stops
- What Those We Train Say About Us
- Mastering Tactics with Decision Making Exercises and Critiques
- The OODA loop, reaction time, and decision making
- Leaders share the faith...and promote heretics
- COL John Boyd: Building Snowmobiles and a Fine-tuned Situational Awareness
- Mindset and Winning is About Much More than Words, Isn't It?
- Interacting Tactfully and Tactically: Is This a Strategy, Law Enforcement Can Use?
- Emotion verses Strategy: Which Helps You Gain the Position of Advantage?
- "It Never Happens Here" So WHY Do We Train?
- Think 'FAST': A mnemonic to help keep you safe, by John Demand
- PoliceOne.Com Published: Are you prepared to adapt and win on the street?
- Understanding and Developing Adaptive Leadership During Pre-commissioning
- Book Review: If I Knew Then 2: Warrior Reflections
- A VISION AND THE MISSION FOR: THE FUTURE LAW ENFORCEMENT LEARNING ORGANIZATION
- Police Leaders as Educators and Trainers...Inspiring Cops to More Effective and Safe Policing
- You've Got To Have an Ace in the Hole. Are You Prepared to Adapt and Win on the Street?
- What has 2011 Taught You About Officer Safety and Effectiveness?
- Police One, column 'Staying Oriented' article #1: 'Red Teaming' the cop killer
- Mental Toughness and The Competitive Nature of Conflict
- Police Militarization, Professionalism, and the Balance of Persuasion and Force
- Mental Toughness and...The Power to Adapt
- Mental Toughness: Optimistic Enthusiasm as a Form of Realism
- Preparing for Crisis with Tactical Decision Games, After Action Reviews and Critical Question Mapping
- Great Recap of Boyd and Beyond 2011 By Scott Shipman
- Global Warrior Averting WWIII, John Poole's Latest Strategic and Tactical Insights to Protecting the Homeland
- Brain plasticity: A whole new idea for cops
- Boyd & Beyond is on for 14 & 15 October at Quantico.
- "SWARMING TACTICS" Published in the California Association of Tactical Officers official publication CATO NEWS
- Documentary: Massacre at Virginia Tech
- Book Review: TEMPO Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative Driven Decision Making by Venkatesh Rao
- Fine Art, Fine Tuning Situation Awareness and Training Cops to See
- 15 Meters/11Seconds By C Flaherty and AR Green
- Too Focused? You Might Miss Something Important
- Dangerous Body Language: Digging Beyond What You See!
- Swarming & The Future of Conflict by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt
- Swarming Tactics by Sid Heal
- More On Swarming Tactics...An Option For Law Enforcement
- Dangerous Body Language: Detecting Deception and Danger
- Cops Line of Duty Deaths Rising in 2011 "APPLYING"Lessons Learned
- Cops, Security, Citizens Need to Be Aware: Does the Climate & Environment Shift in the Wake of bin Laden's Death?
- Progress, Interrupt and Neutralize (P.I.N.) Swarming Techniques For The Tactician
- Should We Be Thinking Like the Bad Guys?
- Meet Officers Lewis and Clark-Exploring Situational Awareness
- Dangerous Body Language,The Boyd Cycle and Winning on the Street
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! The Nose, Mouth and Lips
- The 10% of Mindset
- The 3 P's in Extreme Close Quarters Training: Pre-Assault Indicators, Precognitive Programming and Proximity
- Tactical IQ: Using "SURPRISE" to Set the Tempo of Confrontation.
- Tactical IQ: "FRICTION" Why is the Simplest Thing, So Difficult?
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! Darting Eyes
- Operation Bold Strike: Follow Me Training Support Package
- Follow Me!!! Creating and Nurturing Tactical Decision Makers With Combat Tested Methodologies
- Training the Whole Circle: Blending Boyd's Cycle and Cooper's Color Codes
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! "Gaze Avoidance"
- From OODA to AAADA ― A cycle for surviving violent police encounters
- Dangerous Body Language: A Thousand Words...None Spoken! The Thousand Yard Stare
- Baltimore Police Sergeants Training Using Adaptive Leadership Methodology with Don Vandergriff's AAR
- Achieving Outcomes on the Street with Integrity, Building Loyalty and Mutual Trust
- Intersecting Ideas from Cross Disciplines...and Taking Boyd's Theories Beyond
- Tactical IQ: Developing "Fingertip Feel" Shaping and Reshaping Dynamic Encounters To Gain the Advantage
- Reducing Law Enforcement Misfortunes...What About the Street Officer?
- Can technology suck your brain dry?
- Organizational Culture: Is Yours Congruent with What You Do?
- Fighting Complacency Reminder: Nothing We Do is Routine, NOTHING!!!
- Street Level Red Teaming: The Cop Killer
- Street Level Red Teaming: Assessing The Situation From the Adversarial Point of View
- Take A.I.M. and Prepare To Win Dynamic Encounters
- Don't Charge Police for Mistakes
- What is a Threat?
- Benefits of Conditioning Our Decision Making...The Boyd Cycle
- Superior Situational Awareness and Decision Making...Attributes And Skills of Full Spectrum Officers
- Earning "The Right to Lead" With Character and Courage
- JUSTIFIED: Are You Serious? The Balancing Act of Persuasion, and Reasonable Force
- Adaptive Leader Methodology: An Alternative for Better Outcomes
- When Do We Teach the Basics?
- Evolving Threats Small Arms and Small Unit Swarming Tactics as Tools of Terror...Are We Up To the Challenge?
- Positive Leadership: Invest in People Building a Culture of Innovation
- Harnessing The Street Cops Wisdom: Taking Whole of Conflict...And Effective Full Spectrum Responses
- Beyond Active Response: An Operational Concept for Police Counterterrorism Response
- The Badge: Much More Than a Piece of Medal
- Wellbeing Check to Knife Attack: Anticipation-The Double Edged Sword and its Affect on Winning and Losing, Up Close and Personal
- Tactical IQ: Fast Transients Maneuvers and Manipulating the Tempo of Conflict
- Leadership By Wandering Around!
- Defeat into Victory: Battling a Tough Climate with Faith, Perseverance and Lessons Learned
- Evolving Threats and the Fourth Generation Warfare Problem Here at Home
- We were ready, they weren't...40 + Years after Newhall, Are We Applying Lessons Learned?
- When Violence Prevention Fails, Planning Must Enhance Strategy
- After Action Review: Is It a Tool Used to Learn and Become More Effective or a Tool Used to Punish?
- Maintaining Mental Calmness and Not Losing Our Cool
- Evolution of Strategy and Tactics to Ongoing Deadly Action "Active Shootings" and Operational Art
- Tactical IQ: Interaction, Insight and Imagination, and Initiative...The Building Blocks of Police Operational Art
- Coffee and Conversation: Is "Officer Friendly" a Factor to Consider in Engagements with Our Adversary?
- "Sharpening Our Orientation" and Reducing Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
- Coffee and Conversation: Police Make Mistakes But Seldom Admit Them! What's Reasonable?
- The Tactical Decision Maker: The Devil's Definitely in the Details
- "Self Awareness" The Forgotten Attribute of Decision Making
- Coffee and Conversation: Issues that Affect Law Enforcement and Security: Walking our Talk to Officer Safety
- Coffee and Conversation: Issues that Affect Law Enforcement and Security: The Inevitable Failure of Suburbia?
- Officer Created Jeopardy: Reduce it with a Strategic and Tactical Mind
- Law Enforcement and the Utility of Force...Why Cops Can't Shoot Like the Lone Ranger?
- Tactics: Applying Methods to Madness
- Dealing with Conflict, Violence and Crises: by Fred Leland
Police Responses Demands Constant and Repeated Action...Throughout the Tactical Encounter
Submitted by Fred on Fri, 08/03/2018 - 4:21pm.
I listened to a great podcast this morning on John Boyd and Maneuver Warfare which lead me to a great article by the guest Major Ian Brown titled Opening the Loop in which he explains the importance of being able to open up the OODA Loop when according with an adversary. This is a very important concept to understand and be able to apply in policing as well.
Police all too often get stuck on go "high diddle, diddle straight up the middle" in their efforts responding to crisis. There are times quite often many times police must make transitions and adapt, to win on the street in crisis situations. These responses demands constant and repeated action. An action that supports the goal of winning must be influenced by a proper decision. Such decisions are formed by constructing “mental concepts of observed reality,” and changing these concepts when reality is perceived to change. Boyd argued that these mental concepts were derived in two ways: general-to-specific (deductive) and specific-to-general (inductive).
Underlying Boyd’s discussion in “Destruction and Creation” is the fundamental assumption that all human activity is shaped by the goal of ensuring survival on one’s own terms. Survival demands constant and repeated action. An action that supports the goal of survival must be influenced by a proper decision. Such decisions are formed by constructing “mental concepts of observed reality,” and changing these concepts when reality is perceived to change.
The essence of deduction is destructive, as it smashes one or more larger “domains” into smaller constituent elements. Induction is constructive: it finds the commonality among a multitude of free-floating elements and builds them into a new domain or concept. This is especially important in uncertain circumstances, where as a police officer looking at things based on a certain perspective. Lets use erratic operation of a motor vehicle as an example:
A police officer observes a motor vehicle being driven erratically in the town and attempted to pull the car over. Instead the operator, later fails to stop and drove off. and was pursued by the officer. At this moment the officer mindset instantly changes from routine, to unknow car stop. He thinks, But why is he not stopping? The officer does not know and now must use his experience (both direct and indirect experience), training, deductive and inductive reasoning to make some tactical judgments bases on uncertainties now unfolding. He knows most (high ninety percentile) motor vehicle stops go as planned. The actions of the drive of this vehicle has him breaking this fact down into WHY is he fleeing? Could it be he realizes he screwed up and just wants to get away with a minor violation? Could it be he has a bad or extensive driving record? Could it be he is operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Could it be he is a wanted criminal or someone who just committed a criminal act that the officer is unaware of?
As the officer asks these question he may get some of the answers but not all of them so based on what he knows and what he does not know, he must now through induction make some judgments. Its important to understand that these judgments entail risk, some known and some not unknown. What's known in this example is he attempted to stop a vehicle that is now fleeing. He does not know why. He knows speeds are increasing and depending on the time of day he knows what the traffic and pedestrian conditions are (heavy, medium, or low flow). He knows the direction of travel but does no know where the fleeing vehicle is trying to flee too. He knows the resources available to help him pursue the fleeing vehicle but he does not know immediately if they are available and if they are available how far away they are or how long till they are in the immediate area to assist. The officer also knows how he wants this pursuit to end but he does not if what he wants is actually how it will end.
In micro seconds this officer must now, in the context of this situation (not some other pursuit in the past) think about what course of action will he now take. He must adapt to the changing conditions. This could mean based on his perception of the patterns listed above (all going through his mind) using inductive and deductive reasoning in real time in rapidly changing and uncertain conditions that he; call off the pursuit because he believes based on what knows that the seriousness of the violation he attempted to stop the vehicle for does not outweigh the risk to other innocent people; he could decide continue the pursuit because his perception is that the reckless driving of the operator is indeed putting the public at serious risk; he could scale back the pursuit and monitor because he believes the vehicle must be stopped because either the driving behavior or something else he learns as the situation unfolds has him believing something more sinister is going on but traffic is heavy (for example) and their is a great risk to the public, but so to does the risk remain high if he allows the subject to continue.
Its very important to keep in mind that all these options and more may ebb and flow throughout an officers mind as he attempts to make the most effective decision. This is because the circumstances unfolding are not in a neat linear step by step technical structure. In the aftermath of the incident it might feel that way because now we know everything and can analyze much more effectively. But the officer does not have that luxury. Instead this type of incident is an ill structured, nonlinear and adaptive problem with no definitive way they form and no definitive solution. Both the officer and the fleeing subject are walking, talking, thinking, adapting and deciding, in real time with every move requiring a counter move. It takes highly trained and developed police officers willing to take calculated risks (which is much different than being rash) to solve them. Risk is always involved in stopping dangerous interactions. We must never lose sight of this fact.
This also why police training and education must require scenario based, experiential learning teaching police how to think and do versus telling them what to think and do. We are not going to have adaptable cops if all we do is teach them school solutions. They must know how to frame and solve problems in an adaptable way. Why sense-making, adaptability, problem solving, meta-cognition (emotional intelligence) and attention control should be the core-competencies we develop in our police. Adaptive challenges require much more than developing and falling back on policy and procedure, checklists, SOPs etc. They do require thinking leaders, leading thinking police officers.
Here, Col. John Boyd argued, was the potential for a dangerous divergence. This self-satisfaction tended to block out any “alternative ideas and interactions” that might “expand, complete, or modify the concept.” The mental block created by this inward refinement meant that a “mismatch” was created between “new observations and the anticipated concept description of these observations.”
Using these patterns in the example above, the officer could thereby change his perception of reality. The officer, would then verify the internal consistency of this new perception and the degree to which it matched reality. Satisfied that his new concept was internally consistent and matched what he was seeing, the observer would then focus inward to refine further the concept and match it with reality. This is where an officer must use his sense-making ability and adapt accordingly. Again its important to keep in mind this is based on his orientation (what he believes is going on), which may be accurate or perhaps not. Here, Col. John Boyd argued, was the potential for a dangerous divergence. This self-satisfaction tended to block out any “alternative ideas and interactions” that might “expand, complete, or modify the concept.” The mental block created by this inward refinement meant that a “mismatch” was created between “new observations and the anticipated concept description of these observations.” This again is happening in micro-seconds and is based on the officers intuitive ability to decide under pressure in real time, and not with the luxury of 20/20 hindsight and explicit decision making. Obviously a discrepancy between “actual” reality and “perceived” reality could be detrimental to making the decisions and taking the necessary actions to ensure effective and safe actions.
The other important note we should never forget is that while the officer is making his own observations, orientation decision and actions, in an effort to protect and serve his or her community, so too is the adversary, observing, orienting, deciding and acting in his efforts to escape. He could have just as easily stopped when he first observed the officer wanted him to pull over, or any time thereafter he began his quest to evade. Wouldn't be wonderful if life were just that simple?
Writing this in a way to make this understandable to people is not easy. Police officers will get it because they understand the unpredictability of adaptive challenges but I also want the people the police serve to understand how difficult the decision making process can be for cops dealing with an unpredictable and non-cooperative person, be it a vehicle pursuit or any other dangerous interaction they may have to deal with. The pen picture of a scenario written like this example always seems perfect. But I have been writing this for going on 4 hours. The officer is making these decisions in micro-seconds or minutes depending on the circumstances. Policing is a tough job when dealing with adaptive challenges and the police need the publics support even when they end tragically. The other important note we should never forget is that while the officer is making his own observations, orientation decision and actions, in an effort to protect and serve his or her community, so too is the adversary, observing, orienting, deciding and acting in his efforts to escape. He could have just as easily stopped when he first observed the officer wanted him to pull over. Wouldn't be wonderful if life were just that simple?
Stay Oriented!
Fred
- Fred's blog
- Login to post comments