The United States Marines Corps Doctrinal Publication (MCDP) contains battlefield tested agility and maneuverability. It is the core of their spirit and doctrine and contain many pearls that also apply to contemporary life and work. Snippets from the MCDP on Warfighting and Tactics have been adapted to agile and lean product development and gather in this category.
Kudos to Donald Reinertsen who referred to the rich information in the MCDP during a talk, as well as to the original authors and editors of the MCDP for their comprehensive work. Thank you.
One important source of [[uncertainty]] is a property known as nonlinearity. ”’Nonlinearity describes systems in which causes and effects are disproportionate.”’ Minor incidents or actions can have decisive effects. Major effort can have no effect whatsoever. Outcomes of endeavors can hinge on the actions of a few individuals. Issues can be decided by [[chance|chances]] and incidents so minute as to figure in histories simply as anecdotes.
An attribute of life is uncertainty. All actions in life take place in an atmosphere of increasing uncertainty, or the “fog of life.”
Uncertainty pervades life in the form of unknowns about the what to create, about the environment, and even about your organization.
Centuries of battlefield-tested agility, leanliness, and maneuverability. How agile can you be?
It is essential that our philosophy of command support the way we
fightwork.First and foremost, in order to generate the tempo of operations we desire and to best cope with the [[uncertainty]], disorder, and fluidity of
combatwork, command and control must be decentralized.Adapted from United States Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1, Warfighting.
Wonderful paradox, “decentralized command and control”.