Strategic Red Team Consulting - Introduction to Business Wargaming

© Strategic Red Team Consulting All Rights Reserved

An introduction to ……

Strategic Wargaming for Business “Execution excellence through disciplined rehearsal”


Recently showcased at

Deloitte’s 50 Best Managed Companies

© Strategic Red Team Consulting All Rights Reserved 3

If you are in an adversarial and

competitive business

environment, how do you

evaluate the various courses

of action open to you?

How do you know whether

your strategy is truly

comprehensive, integrated,

adaptive and networked?


How do you test your plans

before you execute them?

How do you test your decision

support structures?

How do you put your plan

under realistic stress before

execution?


How do you establish, align and

integrate your corporate authorities,

responsibilities and accountabilities?

Are they aligned with the actual

decisions that need to be made?

Who plays the role of your

adversary, your competition, or

your clients?

Who is your BAD GUY?


How is the feedback

presented to your executive

leadership prior to

execution?

What separates a great plan

from a self-fulfilling prophecy,

or…..

a self-licking ice-cream cone?


How are your requirements for

Disciplined Testing, Refinement,

Rehearsal & Execution different

than those of the military?

Short Answer: they’re not.


In business, as in battle,

INTELLIGENCE, STRATEGY,

PLANNING, DECISION MAKING and

EXECUTION, are HUMAN ACTIVITIES

and the truest test of those things can

only be accomplished with human

beings in the loop.

Tracing a Gantt Chart or

doing the Six Sigma street

dance is a poor substitute.


The best way to rehearse is

if the players that are testing

the plan are the very people

that will eventually have to

make critical decisions in the

execution of the plan.

….and do it in a way that ensures your decision support SIMULATION

……. promotes decision support STIMULATION


Simply, we wargamed

every course of action

before committing to a

preferred strategy or

plan.


We rehearsed by wargaming

any and all commanders that

had to make decisions in the

execution, or synchronization

of that plan.


We rehearsed by

wargaming the actions

of a realistic adversary in

a realistic operational

environment.


We wargamed in a cooperative

leadership and learning

environment that believed that

sweat and tears in a wargame

were preferable to blood and

tears on the battlefield.


So, what’s the equivalent

of blood, sweat and tears

on your corporate

battlefield?


Wargame Hindsight

becomes

Business Foresight


Wargames are real-time, action-

reaction, role-playing workshops that

pit your key real-life decision makers

and managers (Blue Team) …

….against real-time competitive

adversaries (Red Team)….

…and disciplined by an executive

level White team.


• Step 1: Leadership Engagement & Planning

• Step 2: Wargame Design

• Step 3: Wargame Preparation & Stage Setting

• Step 4: Conducting the Wargame

• Step 5: After Action Review

• Step 6: Disseminating the Results and Taking Action

The most important element of Wargaming is not the tool used, but the people who participate.


Wargaming is a methodological discipline to test your plans that is also

designed to promote:

• risk mitigation,

• innovation,

• mechanisms of discovery for

leadership,

• mechanisms of voice for your

teams

• real-time organizational

learning for all.


The aim of wargaming is to

ensure continuous improvement

in your ability to compete and win

on your corporate battlefield.

The most important element of

Wargaming is not the tool used, but

the people who participate.


Wargaming is a conscious attempt to

visualize the flow of business operations,

given joint strengths, weaknesses,

dispositions, capabilities and possible

courses of actions available to business

actors in a given business sector and

environment.

……and it’s the best way of

getting into your competitor’s

head, their decision cycle, their

OODA loop.


Wargaming is a disciplined role playing

activity where key actors react to

critical events using an action /

reaction / counteraction method of

friendly and competitor interaction.

Each step in the execution of the

plan or strategy is examined in the

following detail:

• Action

• Reaction

• Counteraction

• Observations

• Record

• Review

• Learning


Your corporate leadership, strategy, plan and business environment are the

foundations to preparing, designing and executing your Wargame.

Vision

Mission

Analysis

Constraints

Restraints

Assumptions

If there’s a problem with any

of these, the wargame will

show it.


Every event is tested against a competitive reality.

Action

Reaction

Counteraction

Observations

Record

Review

Learning

Action

Reaction

Counteraction

Observations

Record

Review

Learning

Action

Reaction

Counteraction

Observations

Record

Review

Learning

Action

Reaction

Counteraction

Observations

Record

Review

Learning


After Action Reviews (AARs) are a LEADERSHIP responsibility and are

conducted by your corporate leadership, facilitated by the White Team Lead and

supported by the Blue and Red Leads.

• They are inclusive but

disciplined.

• Must be constructive and

detailed.

• Egos are left at the door.

• Lever innovation by posing

“what if” questions.


• Scale?

• Scope?

• Focus?

• Method?

Wargaming is a HUMAN activity – the SIMULATION must provide STIMULATION


There are 3 fundamental types of Wargames:

• The Course of Action (COA) Wargame

• The Rehearsal Wargame

• The Red Team Exercise

26


• These are a series of two of more

sequential and comparable wargames

involving the same conditions, actors

and weighting criteria to determine

the most viable options available in

terms of risk, execution, pay off, etc.

• This is a decision support tool for

senior executives to recommend a

distinct plan of action to corporate

leadership.

• Red & Blue players are normally drawn from the extant pool of

executives normally involved in your company’s strategic and

operational planning process.


Rehearsal Wargaming

• A Rehearsal Wargame is a

comprehensive exercise to test a

single accepted plan prior to its

execution.

• The BLUE TEAM involves all senior

executives who must make

decisions and manage activities in

the execution of that plan and

confined to their accepted decision

support roles.

• The RED TEAM is drawn from corporate leadership team or

subject matter experts.


RED TEAMING

• A Red Team Exercise is similar to a

rehearsal Wargame with the exception

that none of the Red Team players are

drawn from company’s decision support

stakeholders.

• Each RED TEAM player is an outside

subject matter expert that is not a

company stakeholder and is only given a

reasonable amount of information that a

normal competitor would have.

• The RED TEAM’s role is not merely to test the plan as adversarial players

but rather to put it under extreme competitive stress.


• Evaluating courses of action to recommend a

distinct plan of action to corporate leadership;

• Levering rehearsals as a comprehensive

exercise under conditions of extreme

competitive stress to test critical plans prior

to execution;

• Reinforcing Unity of Thought, Purpose and

Action throughout your corporate team

through action/reaction/counter-reaction role

playing;

• Visualizing of the flow of business operations,

given joint strengths, weaknesses,

dispositions, capabilities and possible courses

of actions available to business actors in a

given business sector and environment.

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WARGAME

HINDSIGHT becomes

BUSINESS

FORESIGHT


Dancers rehearse

Actors rehearse

Militaries rehearse

Shouldn’t You?


Date post:	19-Oct-2014
Category:	Business
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