Reforming Pentagon Decisionmaking

Abstract

A major surprise in the Department of Defense 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) Report to Congress is the prominence it gives to decision making reform. Pentagon leaders thought that improvements to the decision making process prior to the QDR would facilitate hard choices on new military capabilities. Yet by the end of the QDR, they concluded that additional decision making reforms were one of two fundamental strategic imperatives for the Department. In this article, the authors recommend a Decision Support Cell to improve Pentagon decision making. Before explaining how the cell would work, they identify prerequisites for good decision making and the problems and conditions that currently diminish the quality of that undertaking at the Pentagon. The Decision Support Cell would be a dedicated staff located within the Secretary's office with a mission to enforce a degree of discipline and collaboration in strategic decision support for the Secretary and his closest advisors. It should do three things. First, it should help the Secretary focus the decision support process on his own strategic agenda, making sure that he receives integrated products in support of this agenda and that the process provides necessary feedback and direction. Second, it should improve the quality of the decision support routinely provided by the contingency planning and resource allocation systems, making sure underlying assumptions are clear and that all viable alternatives are rigorously examined. Third, it should help senior leaders refine their intuitive decision making with exercises that enlarge their experience base. The Decision Support Cell should be charged with ensuring the collaboration among Pentagon bureaucracies necessary to put core senior leader issues in a strategic choice framework. In doing so, the cell would not usurp the functions of other staff elements but rather undertake integrating activities that currently are either left to the Secretary or are not done at a

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA518756

Entities

People

  • Christopher Jon Lamb
  • Irving Lachow

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Cells
  • Command And Control
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • Emerging Technology
  • Information Exchange
  • Information Operations
  • Judgment
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Organizational Structure
  • Simulations
  • Universities
  • War
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.