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<a href="http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette">www.mca-marines.org/gazette</a> 37 M a r i n e C o r p s G a z e t t e • M a y 2 0 0 9 dation for a cooperative and socially dynamic training environment to de- velop creative decisionmakers. Where Are We Now? A quick look at the current training focus will demonstrate a shortfall that exists in training Marines to be creative decisionmakers. Each entry-level insti- tution (boot camp, Officer Candidates School (OCS), and The Basic School (TBS)) doesn’t employ effective deci- sionmaking methods. Boot camp and OCS primarily focus on indoctrinating recruits and candidates into the Marine Corps. While indoctrination is an im- portant concept, little of maneuver war- fare doctrine has found its way into the training fundamentals of the Marine Corps’ entry-level training institutions. Maneuver warfare demands decentral- ized decisionmaking, initiative, and boldness, yet boot camp and OCS seem to emphasize rote memorization and instant obedience to orders in a highly centralized environment. It is difficult to comprehend how close order drill, a staple of first-generation warfare, is an effective indoctrination tool for the Ma- rine Corps, which increasingly is find- ing itself engaged with a fourth- generation enemy. Even TBS, which prides itself on producing decisive lieu- tenants and warrant officers, does little more than teach new officers to accept making decisions in an ambiguous set- ting. Instead of being rewarded for ef- fective solutions to tactical problems, students are encouraged to apply tech- niques learned in a class, whether or not they are appropriate for the situation. Staff members are advised to discour- age “out of the box” solutions to tacti- cal problems. Both situations dis- courage innovation in favor of the “safe” and predictable solution to tacti- cal problems. The focus of training in the Oper- ating Forces does little more to encour- age creativity. The Marine Corps’ obsession with synchronizing fires as the pinnacle of training does little to emphasize creativity. At no point in this type of training does innovation factor into a unit’s success. This type of training gets bogged down in the sec- ond-generation warfare concept of syn- chronization and doesn’t properly address decisionmaking and creativity. One example of where decisionmak- ing and creativity connect is Exercise MOJAVE VIPER, which does incorpo- rate long-accepted methods for training a maneuver warfare force like using force-on-force exercises and detailed de- briefs. These both help develop creative decisionmakers, but units traditionally execute MOJAVE VIPER immediately before deploying to Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. However, the timing for this type of training is a case of “too lit- tle too late.” One possible explanation for this training shortfall (from the training institutions and Operating Forces units) is that there is a prevailing misunderstanding of what creativity is and how it enables maneuver warfare. Creativity and Decisionmaking Training should be rooted in deci- sionmaking with creativity as a con- stant thread throughout. The fluid nature of war makes this imperative. Decisionmaking skills alone might not properly address a tactical situation be- cause there is always the potential for making a decision that is completely inappropriate to the situation. Addi- tionally, a predictable action, either through initiative or reaction to the enemy, can have detrimental effects. In his book, Creativity: In Education and Learning, Arthur J. Cropley argues that: Genuine creativity requires a further element over and above mere novelty: a product or response must be relevant to the issue at stake and must offer some kind of genuine solution, i.e. it must be effective.1 From that position it is clear to see that trainers must move beyond merely de- veloping decisionmakers and also work to develop Marines who can orient on a problem that ultimately produces an effective decision. Too often in train- ing, decisionmaking is neglected in favor of the “right” answer. This is what Cropley describes as convergent think- ing: Convergent thinking is oriented to- wards deriving the single best answer to a question. It is effective in a situa- tion where a ready-made answer exists and needs simply to be recalled from stored information, or where the an- swer can be worked out from what is already known by conventional and logical search, recognition, and deci- sion making strategies. . . . but it focuses on recognizing the familiar, reapplying set techniques and preserv- ing the already known and thus does not preserve novelty.2 Trainers should aim to develop di- vergent thinkers who would lead to more creativity. Cropley defines diver- gent thinking as: Divergent thinking, by contrast, in- volves processes like shifting perspec- tive, transforming or producing multiple answers from the available information and thus favors the pro- duction of novelty.3 With Cropley’s explanation it is clear that the result of training should be the development of divergent thinkers as opposed to convergent thinkers be- cause a divergent thinker is more likely to develop a creative and appropriate response to a tactical problem where a convergent thinker will likely produce a predictable response. Marine Corps doctrine provides a good starting point to examine how training can be structured to develop creative decisionmakers within the ma- neuver warfare philosophy. Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1–3 (MCDP 1–3), Tactics, describes the Boyd cycle or what is commonly re- ferred to as the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop. MCDP 1–3 further explains that the better one can orient on a situation, generally the better his decision will be. The primary goal of training should be to improve a Marine’s abilities to orient on a given situation. A divergent thinker is capable of looking at a problem from multiple perspectives and arriving at multiple solutions. These characteristics of divergent thinking, in essence, describe how a Marine orients in the context of the Boyd cycle. If a Marine observes a fixed stimulus then the recognition of patterns and poten-
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www.mca-marines.org/gazette