Project White Horse Forum

This is the first post in some time and is intended as a start for the next steps in investigation on decision making in severe crisis. In his 2011 book TEMPO; Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative -Driven Decision Making, Venkatesh Rao provides a process of moving emergent thinking, exploration, sense-making and resultant new models […]

Boundary Condition #3 (1) Christmas night 1776: As General Washington kneels to pray, the candle of life for an emerging ideal flickers, a river, a bitter cold march, a battle and the fate of a nation await.  Even in victory, much defeat is still to  come with yet another horrible winter at Valley Forge to […]

Boundary Condition #1 (1) The idea of Intersectional ideas – those resulting from combining concepts from multiple fields or areas of specialization gained through education and experience – has been previously introduced with it’s own PWH section. This is the first of several year ending posts intended to set the stage for intersectional discussions for […]

If one is to discuss leadership, what it requires to “decide and act” in severe crisis, the journey  should start here. A real love for the hard battle, knowing it offers the opportunity to be at your best when the best is required. Competiveness: John R Wooden  More reading about Coach Wooden and his “pyramid of […]

 Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness The military, facing a complex and intractable mixture of “wicked problems” on the battlefield, has responded with a doctrinal revolution in the production and practice of operational theory.  But most police agencies don’t incorporate the “operational level of maneuver” into their planning and concept of operations.  […]

Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness Why would our societal orientation in complex, dynamic, fast moving situations be good when our educational system trains people only to think through simplified, linear, sequential problems? Strategic thinkers need to be able to see “the big picture” and handle uncertainty, or they cannot be said to be strategic thinkers. […]

Culture:  The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next. In our case groups of people who defy being victims, those who realize survival is an ongoing team process, an ongoing learning […]

I’m very pleased to announce that Project White Horse 084640 Edition #8 – A Culture of Preparedness and Intersectional Ideas  – is now on line. The last two editions have provided perspective on “resilient communities” and leadership required. In Edition #8 we shift from providing “perspective” to creating actionable understanding and answers. The first part […]

Invest in preparedness, not prediction…I will never get to know the unknown since, by definition, it is unknown. However, I can always guess how it might affect me, and I should base my decisions around that.”     The Black Swan, Nassem Nicholas Taleb   In  2001, the Defense Science Board investigated what they termed  “a revolution in […]

Forty years ago, 3 March 1969, the first TOPGUN class  began “graduate level” fighter pilot education and training at Naval Air Station Miramar at the Fighter Weapons School. They were there because eagles screamed. They were there because fighter pilots will not accept failure. In 1966 North Vietnamese fighter pilots (flying MiG 17 Frescos and MiG […]