Capt. McRaven's tips for Network-Centric Operations: Modern Advocacy Tips from the USAF

Military colleges were formed long ago to protect the knowledge that was gained from life and death struggles. Military history and its thinking are valuable repositories of human experience and the strategy and tactics of conflict. No one should pass thru our time here without at least reading the Sun Tzu as a timeless mirror into human nature and struggle.

Today, we should also look to the cutting edge of military wisdom to see what it offers advocacy efforts and campaigns. The hard part is to tease out the lessons learned and to see how such principles can or should be applied to planning network-centric advocacy campaigns in a purely nonviolent political context.

Food for thought... "basic properties of relative superiority are that it is achieved at the pivotal moment in an engagement and that relative superiority must be sustained because it is difficult to regain."

There is something interesting to think about. A small campaign (1 staff) working on bill to protect 1000 acres from development and roads (bigger force) should "stay engaged". The key advantage is knowing when to launch a campaign and how long to remain. When the advantage is "lost" it is better to disengage to return at a future point of the small teams choosing.

McRaven's Tips
special operations into the same three phases as McRaven– planning (simple), preparation (security and repetition), and execution (surprise, speed, and purpose). For each phase (planning, preparation, and execution), I (Captain Greg Gagnon) applied the concept of network-centric warfare to the principles of special operations to form the hybrid of those theories – network-centric special operations."

Campaign planning from LCV, MidWest Academy and now USAF. Political campaigns also consist of planning, preparation and execution. Campaigns ranging from saving the National Parks or banning off shore oil drilling to protecting your favorite wetland run down these same steps.

Planning
Using the network, collaborative planning can speed the process and improve the quality of the product. While the A-team is still responsible for their own operational plan, they can be assigned information gatherers to scour the network for relevant intelligence, operational material, and access to subject matter experts. Furthermore, when a special operations entity is tasked with a mission, it is possible to use the mission support center to pre-gather standard operational material so that with each mission comes an electronic mission folder of relevant information. Innovation was McRaven’s third element of simplicity in planning. The ability to create innovative operational approaches should increase as the number of additional minds are added to the collaborative planning process

Our campaigns can do that. We see what innovation is coming in network-centric campaigns from the Bush in 30 Seconds to the Dean Space suggestions. Moving planning out from the strictly professional staff to our network of supporters will enable us to plan more innovative campaigns. We see innovation from the network in the Bush in 30 Seconds campaign, Dean and Clark campaigns.

Preparation
While we can't maintain security like the military "decree and orders" we can leverage strong social ties and loyalty to keep the campaign information secure. (This is a key payoff of investments in strong social ties) in the military context special operations introduce new security needs that should be addressed during the execution phase of the operation. The shared situational awareness created by sharing the common operating information must be protected, both in and amongst the operators.

Definitely, true in the network-centric campaigns. Which environmental disaster is the network going to respond to this month? Arctic Refuge, a new cancer cluster, floods, forest fires, oil platform, shark attacks. How are the campaigns going to run once launched, what are key talking points, websites and which bills are going to be moved?

How can campaign teams share talent? Can activists that have successfully orchestrated the events be recruited into other campaign teams? Are there debriefings to glean lessons learned? Are the tools, content and people shared from campaign to campaign?

Execution (surprise, speed, and purpose).
The whole point of building and enabling a network-centric advocacy movement is to create campaigns to offset the impacts of organizational drag (branding, governance, destructive competitive forces) while working closely with the organizations to augment their work.

The article is thought provoking and easy to tease out for advocacy context.
Network-Centric Special Operations-Exploring New Operational Paradigms