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The Strike Report - November 2011
“Tactical superiority in a gunfight at the outset is the person who can accelerate the quickest mentally and stay ahead of the game throughout - accelerating in the tactical loop." ~ Strike International
TACTICAL INDECISION The Kiss of Death.....
In the real world where the madness of some men causes chaos on the streets, the spillage of blood and a total disregard for humanity, our police officers enter the fray on our behalf as the first line of defense. I heard a quote that dealt with one's decisional response to adversity that states, "You can either take action, or you can hang back and hope for a miracle. Miracles are great but very unreliable and unpredictable. However, by doing nothing it can allow situational elements developing around you to devour you." Pretty well said, wouldn't you say? In truth, taking any action is better than none at all.
What Leads to Critical Tactical Indecision?
To be sure, I'll tell you it isn't just one thing! It is a combination of factors that leaves you shaking your head. We have all seen it. Tactical indecision is brought about by the following:
We all know that in an all out conflict, there is chaos, uncertainty, physical and mental frictions, that impede, distort, and have wrought havoc on our decision making process. Stressors are dumping and unloading on you like the Millennium Falcon jumping to light speed in Star Wars! Remember, our decision processing ability is directly impacted by time and distance. Closer distances in conflicts will compress your reactionary time while also narrowing down that option window as far as selecting and initiating the right course of action. When you combine these correlative factors with the ones listed above then it becomes a fertile breeding ground for classic indecision (second guessing) or worse...not having the ability to do anything at all because the individual is experiencing total meltdown.
Law enforcement officers are often required to use rapid decision-making processes in their profession with much of it based on both experience and intuition. When we talk about experience, Chris Kolenda has probably stated it best, "Experience is valuable only if it is imbued with meaning from which one can draw salient conclusions." To which I must add, "It is from these salient conclusions where a person has learned something of value and been able to utilize them effectively in acquiring and completing a successful resolution to other causes." It has been said we learn more wisdom from failure than we do success. The key operative word in that proverb in "LEARN."
Tactical indecision can get people hurt. It can collapse and fold a team in its mission or worse, lead to panic. For a team leader it is the kiss of death because indecision also means a breakdown of trust and it is mutual trust that is one of the fundamentals of keeping a team glued together. Indecision does not lead to success.
This indecision can be a physical one as well as mental. In other words the officer may know or choose the right course of action (mental stage) but fails or hesitates to initiate it (the physical portion) and this can be just as critical. Sometimes the action needed to be taken requires the sum total of courage in one's warrior heart. It isn't easy and because of the failures listed above...some never get there.
Learning How to Overcome Indecision
For the individual, they can start by attacking the things listed above but it is only a part of it. For instructors, commanders, and team leaders who are building programs or developing mission plans, they need to consider the following:
A gentleman by the name of Don Vandergriff, wrote a book titled "Raising the Bar, Creating and Nurturing Adaptability in the Changing Face of War." I know, I know, it is one of those intellectual book titles that makes your head spin like Linda Blair's character in the Exorcist. But the man has done a lot of research and he came up with a model plan called Adaptive Leader Methodology (ALM). ALM was designed to help individuals develop rapid decisions. It has now been adopted by the US Army and taught at the US Military Academy at West Point in the leadership program.
The type of adapting Vandergriff talks about directly correlates to US Law Enforcement performance as well. His point is this: he is talking about helping people synthesize multiple courses of action faster (adapting) in a given situation, then picking one - an appropriate one, and acting on it. Guess what he advocates as the best learning conduit for it? TRAINING AND PRACTICE! Not just any training but the type that is reality based. They are the types of scenarios that can change quickly forcing the individual to keep their mind in the game. In fact, he calls it Tactical Decision Games (TDG's). He likes to emphasize this point, that the TDG scenarios are designed to make people adapt to change and to conclude with a definitive and appropriate course of action. Isn't this what we want as police professionals, as well? Vandergriff states, "The TDG's are about developing individual initiative driven frontline leaders who can make decisions that can meet the mission needs of the agency." Isn't that also a primary goal of law enforcement agencies?
Like all things concerning training and practice, the skills portion of it will eventually become perishable if it isn't reinforced, if it isn't ingrained into the program on a consistent basis, if individuals and teams cannot practice together.
Remember, indecision equates with failure. It means the possibility of people being injured or killed, or the complete failure of a mission. It is the kiss of death! As professionals, as warriors, this is unacceptable. We should always be striving for personal and team excellence, and the successful completion of missions.
By:
Jack C. Perritt Executive Director Strike International
Resources: Fred Leland - Law Enforcement and Security Consulting Christopher Kolenda - Leadership - the Warrior's Art Don Vandergriff Strike International Dallas Police Department Dr. Arshan, University of Baltimore
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