Planner’s Handbook for Operational Design

Planner's Handbook for

Operational Design

Version 1.0 Joint Staff, J-7 Joint and Coalition Warfighting Suffolk, Virginia 7 October 2011

DEPUTY DIRECTOR, J-7, JOINT STAFF JOINT AND COALITION WARFIGHTING

116 LAKE VIEW PARKWAY SUFFOLK, VA 23435-2697

MESSAGE TO JOINT WARFIGHTERS

Military operations, particularly those involving combat, have always been tough. However, today's operational environment challenges us even more with increasingly complex and interconnected geopolitical circumstances, the blurring of the lines between combatants and civilians, rapid technology change, and adaptive adversaries who possess a wider range of capabilities and an ideological "home-field" advantage. Strategic and operational-level problems that cannot be solved with military ways and means alone are the norm rather than the exception.

In his October 2009 Vision for a Joint Approach to Operational Design, General James Mattis observed that standard planning processes have served us well to this point. However, he wrote that commanders and staffs generally tend to use these processes somewhat mechanically, with a focus on procedure and details that often obscure the importance of the underlying creative process. The complex nature of current and projected challenges requires that critical thinking, creativity, foresight, and adaptability--rather than strict reliance on methodical steps--must become routine.

To support and improve detailed planning, Army and Marine Corps design-related initiatives have been exploring methods that use critical and creative thinking to understand and describe ill-defined problems and visualize broad approaches to solve them. The joint community has been considering the potential beneficial effect of this effort on joint doctrine, training, and professional military education, and is codifying key design-related ideas in JP 3-0, Joint Operations, and JP 5-0, Joint Operation Planning.

Although not authoritative, this handbook describes design ideas in the context of joint doctrine's current operational design and joint operation planning process. These ideas should stimulate the joint community's thinking to help refine operational design and improve joint doctrine, education, and training. Your perspectives are important to us, and I encourage you to engage in this examination. We welcome your specific critique of the ideas presented in this handbook, and ask that you share your own value-added ideas for incorporation in emerging joint doctrine.

FREDERICK S. RUDESHEIM Major General, U.S. Army Deputy Director, J-7, Joint Staff, Joint and Coalition Warfighting

PREFACE

1. Scope

This handbook describes operational design and its interaction with joint operation planning. It is based partly on joint doctrine contained in JP 5-0, Joint Operation Planning, and JP 2-01.3, Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment, but it provides more details on operational design than currently exist in these publications. The handbook also highlights "best practices" derived from Service, joint, and multinational operations and joint exercises. In particular, this handbook increases the depth of discussion on operational design by incorporating new design-related ideas developed and refined in Service and joint academic institutions during the past three years.

2. Purpose

This handbook has two primary purposes:

a. The first is to provide useful details to commanders and planners on joint operational design and its interaction with the joint operation planning process.

b. The second is to stimulate thinking about the best ways to incorporate new, design-related ideas into emerging joint doctrine, training, and education. This handbook provides a platform the joint community can use to examine and debate design issues and establish a common frame of reference for collaboration on assimilating value-added ideas.

3. Development

This handbook fulfills a commitment to develop this product as stated in the USJFCOM Commander's 6 Oct 09 memorandum, Vision for a Joint Approach to Operational Design and the Joint Warfighting Center's 20 Sep 10 Pamphlet 10, Design in Military Operations. The USJFCOM Joint Doctrine Division developed this handbook based on a variety of sources, including the following:

a. Design-related work primarily by the Army and Marine Corps and reflected in a variety of non-doctrinal papers and doctrine products;

b. The exploration of design in the classroom by the Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS) at the Joint Forces Staff College and the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) at Fort Leavenworth;

c. An extensive array of articles in professional journals reflecting the ideas of practitioners across the joint community;

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Preface

d. Discussions during the CAPSTONE and PINNACLE senior executive education programs as well as observations during joint operations and training exercises.

4. Application

This handbook is aimed at joint force planners, Service/functional component planners, and others involved in planning. The handbook is not approved doctrine, but it is consistent with current joint doctrine. It is a non-authoritative product that can assist commanders and staffs to design, plan, and execute joint operations. Users should consider the potential benefits and risks of using this information in actual operations.

5. Contact Information

We encourage comments and suggestions on this important topic. The Deputy Director, J-7, Joint Staff, Joint and Coalition Warfighting points of contact are LTC Jim DiCrocco, 757-203-6243, james.dicrocco@hr.js.mil; and Mr. Rick Rowlett, 757-2036167 (DSN 668), ricky.rowlett.ctr@hr.js.mil.

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Planner's Handbook for Operational Design

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I OVERVIEW

? Introduction ............................................................................................................... I-1 ? Executive Summary .................................................................................................. I-3 ? Conclusion ................................................................................................................ I-7

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF OPERATIONAL DESIGN

? Introduction ..............................................................................................................II-1 ? Critical and Creative Thinking ................................................................................II-2 ? Systems Theory .......................................................................................................II-4 ? The Nature of Problems ...........................................................................................II-7 ? Relevant Constructs from Military Theory ..............................................................II-9 ? Combining the Theories ........................................................................................II-11

CHAPTER III INTRODUCTION TO OPERATIONAL ART AND OPERATIONAL DESIGN

? Introduction ............................................................................................................ III-1 ? Operational Art ...................................................................................................... III-1 ? Operational Design ................................................................................................ III-3 ? The Role of the Commander .................................................................................. III-8 ? Depicting the Methodology ................................................................................. III-10

CHAPTER IV DEPICTING THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

? Introduction ............................................................................................................ IV-1 ? Depicting the Operational Environment ................................................................ IV-2

CHAPTER V UNDERSTANDING THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE PROBLEM

? Introduction ............................................................................................................. V-1 ? Critical Thinking ..................................................................................................... V-2 ? Establishing a Baseline ........................................................................................... V-4 ? The End State .......................................................................................................... V-5 ? Conditions and the Desired System ........................................................................ V-7 ? Understanding the Problem .................................................................................... V-9 ? The Environmental Forces at Work ...................................................................... V-13

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