This is Week Two in the Warfighting Book Club, relating the Marine Corps doctrinal publication Warfighting to business agility.

This was a great, meaty section. I left a lot of possible topics and questions off the list because we only had so much time to discuss.

Warfighting Week Two Leader’s Notes and Questions

[Page numbers and quotes are taken from Warfighting, MCDP 1, 2019 Edition]

• Sections:  War as an act of policy – Means in War – The Spectrum of Conflict – Levels of War – Initiative and Response – Styles of Warfare – Combat Power – Speed and Focus – Surprise and Boldness – Centers of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities – Creating and Exploiting Opportunity – Conclusion
• Questions:
  • Let’s start with the von Clausewitz quote at the beginning (“The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.”).  How often do we reach back to the “purposes” we are trying to achieve to make sure we’re aligning our craft–our “means”–with those purposes?
  • How do politics, policy, and war map into our corporate world?
    • “Commanders must recognize that since military action must serve policy, these restrictions on military action may be perfectly correct.  At the same time, military leaders have a responsibility to advise the political leadership when the limitations imposed on military action jeopardize the military’s ability to accomplish an assigned mission.” (2-4)
  • This book talks about “the enemy” a lot.  What is “the enemy” when we are talking about our development projects?
    • When trying to understand “the enemy”, think about what we are exerting energy against. Hopefully it is not internal departments; instead it should be something external like competitors, market forces, inertia, entropy, …
  • Would someone summarize the difference between “attrition warfare” and “maneuver warfare”?
  • What would an “attrition warfare” style of development look like?
  • What would a “maneuver warfare” style of development look like?
  • What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of those styles of development?
  • Let’s talk about “Levels of War” and apply that to our work. 
    • “The lowest level is the tactical level.  Tactics refers to the concepts and method used to accomplish a particular mission…”  What are the tactics used in your discipline/craft?
    • “The highest level is the strategic level.  Activities at the strategic level focus directly on policy objectives.”  What does “strategic” mean to you?
      • [This is a great place to expand and discuss if time permits.]
      • Is “strategy” something we need to concern ourselves with?
    • What is your focus?  Does your job have you focused on strategy, operations, or tactics?  Where are you most useful?
    • Where are most of the discussions you have?  Strategic?  Tactical?
  • Let’s dig in on “Speed and Focus” for a minute.  Speed is rapidity of action; focus is convergence of effects in time and space on some objective.  What level of speed and focus do you see in your work?
  • Do most people have a “theory of [projects / development / work]” that structures their approach?  Or just experiences and assumptions?
    • DO YOU?
    • What is your “Theory of [software, product, graphic, etc] Development”?
    • Have you ever tried to articulate it?  [FWIW, I haven’t.  But it might be useful.]