Start with the end in mind.” “Know your enemy.” “No plan survives first contact.” We’ve all heard the adages yet struggle to live by them when tackling problems as complex as global conflict and instability. I have engineers, so I’ll try to stabilize country X through infrastructure projects. I have XYZ resources and authorities, so that’s how I’ll tackle this mission. Once I know my commander’s guidance and the plan produced by MDMP, I must stay the course. All of these familiar soundbites run counter to the truisms above. They start with tasks instead of purpose or ends. They focus on one’s own assets and agenda but ignore those of the harder-to-know adversary. And they resist the imperative to adapt. In matters of war and peace, such myopia, ignorance of the unknown, and intractability are more than inadequate…they are deadly. Yet the antidote to these pitfalls is not better intelligence, flashy analytic software, or a new and improved planning methodology as it sometimes called for. It is something deceptively simpler: a mindset shift.
