The Provision of Multidomain Integration Change Programme Decision Advantage Pilot

The requirement is for a team of Suitably Qualified Experienced Personnel (SQEP) to deliver and validate a cognitive training package focused on developing decision advantage within the Land, Air, Sea, Cyber, and Space domains that will

a. teach better decision-making in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) multidomain environments;

b. enhance decision-making in multidomain environments without relying on the repetition characterising the military decision-making model and annual exercise cycle (predictable and forecast scenarios);

c. enhance metacognition of decision-making and awareness of decision-making ability amongst our personnel relative to an international database of security professionals; and

d. achieve better understanding of decision-making as a core military skill essential to achieving decision advantage in multidomain environments and decisive advantage in response to operational complexity.

DELIVERABLES

SME’s from each of the five domains will be asked to partner with the External Assistance and the MDICP CB&M team for 1-1.5 days to develop bespoke MDI scenarios centred on their respective domain. Resulting in the development of scenarios to create decision points requiring ‘least worst’ decisions characterised by uncertainty. Thereafter, it is proposed that Defence Academy personnel, plus ISTAR and MAB personnel will receive:

e. ten theory-based micro-lectures (5 mins each) on decision-making. These are designed to educate personnel on decision-making and factors affecting decision-making performance beyond the self-evident and well-understood performance decrement arising from stress and fatigue;

f. five micro-lectures (8 mins each) to highlight individual factors affecting decision-making and a battery of self-reflection measures for enduring use to improve both decision-making and decision-making awareness (these include, but are not limited to, need for maximisation, need for closure, violation of sacred values);

g. bespoke and immersive scenarios (three for each domain of Air, Land, Sea, Cyber and Space) using the LUCIFER™ methodology (Least-Worst Uncertainty for Emergency Responders);

h. an online rapid scenario testing system to be run ‘in house’ (with lecture/demonstration) for enduring use to create bespoke scenarios to improve decision-making (which can subsequently be deployed at unit- and team-level to create MDI scenarios and improve decision-making); and

i. five in-depth multi-phase immersive scenarios (one each for Land, Sea, Air, Cyber and Space, with each including PAG and allies), created alongside SMEs within each domain to illustrate the pathway to an MDI mindset.

The training package will be delivered non-consecutively (subject to the Defence Academy, ISTAR and MAB timetable): One group will receive the education and training prior to completing the scenarios, the other group will receive the education and training after having completed the scenarios. This will enable a comparison of the training effect between groups and facilitate proof of concept.