Essay On Military Decision Making

In the military, there are very few decisions that involve groupthink – which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you frame the answer and the overall impact of that decision. However, last summer our organization was presented with a unique situation. The Army built a new set of barracks next to the flight line, where my unit worked on a typical day. Currently, the Soldiers resided in older barracks closer to the headquarters but these barracks were quite a distance from the flight line. The new barracks are next to the flight line and are modern with all the amenities of a modern structure, high-speed wireless internet, key code access, and many other things items that made the daily life of Soldiers more manageable, although, …show more content…
I explained the decision making process, the inquiry process, and we all agreed that meeting followed the inquiry process but what was surprising to me was how they saw my role. After some small conversation about the roles, I said I was the facilitator for that the meeting and explained what that meant to the process during the meeting and they laughed a little. I do think it was the right process but based on some respected feedback the big improvement I would make is in my role as facilitator. I initially played the part well but as the meeting went on -- the more I fell back into my commander role and began owning the process and trying to drive the decision. I thought about that input and it was correct. I did not want to move, it would have been a pain, it would have pulled Soldiers off their jobs, and maintenance would suffer. I, unintentionally through my own personal biases, influenced the meeting. The good news is they said that even though that might have been the case – the decision was the right one. I was lucky here, in the future, I will be more cognizant of my cognitive biases and not let them affect how we conduct business or influence the decisions I