An Introduction to Decision Games
A Guidebook for Marines (Part 1 of 7)
America’s Marines expect to be sent to any part of the world to do just about anything in any sort of situation. In fulfilling these missions, we will be called upon to cooperate with a wide variety of partners, oppose a wide variety of enemies, and deal with a wide variety of people who, being neither well-proven friend nor implacable foe, defy those categories. Such actions, moreover, will often require that we employ familiar tools in unfamiliar ways and, at the same time, quickly make sense of novel devices, custom-tailored techniques, and unanticipated ways of thinking.
To prepare for this challenge, Marines must do a great deal of learning.
Some of this involves the cultivation of an understanding of ‘persistent phenomena’, things, such as the ethos of the Marine Corps and the fundamental nature of war, that stay the same no matter where in the world we find ourselves. Much of what Marines on active service need to know, however, is inherently dynamic, necessarily short-lived, and rarely reduced to writing. Because of this, one of the best ways that Marines can prepare themselves for the challenges of a necessarily uncertain future is to practice the art of quickly making sense of a wide variety of specific situations, devising solutions to the problems that arise from such scenarios, and communicating those solutions to all concerned.
Decision games provide Marines with a powerful, engaging, and low-cost means of practicing this sort of learning before we land on a foreign shore. In other words, while they cannot replicate the emotional, physical, or interpersonal stress inherent in the practice of maneuver warfare in an expeditionary environment, decision games can help us prepare our minds for service in ‘every clime and place’.
‘In war, leaders of all ranks will frequently face problems to solve, problems of strategy, tactics, movement, and sup ply. In nearly all cases, these problems must be solved rapidly. The opportunity for action is fleeting. If orders are late, the favorable moment will have passed before they can be executed. Problems must often be solved under enemy fire, while suffering the pain of failure or the exaltation of success, or under the weight of great weariness.’
Captain Paul Simon L’Instruction des officiers, l’éducation des troupes et la puissance nationale [The Instruction of Leaders, the Education of Troops, and National Power], (Paris: H. Charles-Lavauzelle, 1907),pages 17-18 (Hathi)‘How often in the late war did carefully prepared plans, worked out by the staff and complete to the minutest detail, fail because an unforeseen center of enemy resistance was encountered or an unexpected movement of the enemy took place? The over-elaborated plan was thrown out of gear by the delay caused in dealing with the unforeseen.’
Basil Henry Liddell Hart ‘The Soldier’s Pillar of Fire by Night’ Journal of the Royal United Services Institution (November, 1921) page 618 (Hathi)
For Further Reading
I’ve found decisions games to be helpful in every day life as well. The modern world is fast, messy, dynamic and full of unknown unknowns. You've given all of us in the DFC tribe, a whole set of tools that work across all kinds of life-platforms. Highly recommend. For most folks, they maybe won’t ever be a Marine, but they’ll be a more flexible and curious person and that in turn will influence their own little corner of the world in positive ways.