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Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders (2012) / Chapter Skim
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4 Recommendations
Pages 82-88

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From page 82...
... The committee realizes that some of its recommendations are beyond the purview of the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command (CG, MCCDC) .1 However, the committee anticipates that all of these recommendations will be helpful to the CG, MCCDC, in terms of implementing or advocating changes in these four major areas: selection, training, support, and sustainment.
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From page 83...
... 4.2 TRAINING The Corps has successfully employed a range of technologies to help train small unit leaders. For example, immersive training technology helps small unit leaders develop their decision making skills.
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From page 84...
... The current lessons learned program is a memorandum-style submission process that can take up to a year to become available to others, and its products typically require in-depth reading. Rapid changes in hybrid warfare call for a much more responsive, time-sensitive way to contribute and convey small unit insights, and these insights also need to be available in a medium that matches how Marines share such information.
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From page 85...
... • Expand current efforts in cultural and language training to include computer-based courses and on-demand reachback for small unit leaders. 4.3 SUPPORT Marine small unit leaders will need staffing, field assistance, and technology support to meet the increasing responsibilities of ECO in hybrid engagements and complex environments.
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From page 86...
... Electronic platforms that support the generation of these products, as well as allowing a free, unmoderated exchange of knowledge about current experience, could help Marines make better decisions for their diverse missions by providing for a free and candid exchange of experiences and new ideas.5 In summary, a variety of high-level staff planning functions normally found at the battalion level and above may very well be supplied -- in limited form -- to the company and below, by means of appropriate investment in technology and human-centered engineering. RECOMMENDATION 5: Provide technical and engineering solutions to support the small unit leader through well-tailored human-centric products for supplementing limited manpower in order to improve connectivity, information integration, and aids to decision making.
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From page 87...
... Therefore, it may be possible to acquire considerable data about the state of the leader on the battlefield and to make adjustments accordingly to maintain a high level of decision making performance. RECOMMENDATION 6: Consider ways to engage experienced junior enlisted leaders so that they can continue in a leadership role and the Marine Corps can benefit from their leadership expertise.
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From page 88...
... • In the midterm, develop and implement the following: -- Team training and leadership training, applying the principles of resilience engineering as described in Chapter 3 of this report, in order to build small units and small unit leaders that are more resilient; -- Deployable training simulators that can be used in-theater and that can be modified by Marines, not programmers, to adapt to their current situation; and -- Training and mission-rehearsal systems, visualization aids, and TDAs for nonkinetic operations that build on current applied research in the DOD's program in Human Social Cultural Behavior. • In the far term, explore the future potential for the following: -- Physiological identification of stress and fatigue levels, the use of biomarkers, and real-time physiological monitoring for "state" assessment to determine the possible effect of factors that might contribute to poor judgment; -- Research on state assessment and trait identification to explore the potential to identify and select good candidates for the small unit leader in hybrid warfare situations; and -- Innovative training techniques such as intelligent tutoring and adaptive learning.
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Key Terms

  • marine corps
  • hybrid warfare
  • information integration
  • unit leader
  • team training

  • junior enlisted
  • hybrid engagements
  • squad leaders
  • training techniques
  • nonkinetic operations

  • learned program
  • immersive training
  • experienced junior
  • corps tend
  • supplementing limited

  • current lessons
  • leadership training
  • tactical ground
  • staff planning
  • enlisted lead

  • predeployment training
  • hybrid environment
  • appropriate investment
  • unmanned ground
  • significant change

  • cardiac interval
  • routinely evolve
  • state assessment
  • undertaken consistently
  • battalion level


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