What should a strategist know? A competency-based education program for strategic thinkers and doers
In my role as an Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Purdue University, I partnered with two colleagues with solid experience in military strategy research and education to propose a new methodology for training strategic thinkers and doers. David Benson, a former Professor of Strategy at the Air University School fo Advanced Strategic Studies, and Kira Graves, Assistant G-2 at the Training and Doctrine Command, US Army, and I revised the requirements for strategic education, proposing a new set of principles and competencies that should inform future strategy curricula.
Our vision was published in the peer-reviewed Military Strategy Magazine, a widely read publication dedicated to military strategic research and education. The paper “What should a strategist know and do, and why?” starts with a realist theory of military strategy from which we derive a set of competencies and a matrix for their use in the strategic process. The article describes how competencies work when they intersect with the strategic process. A strategic thinking matrix identifies negotiation and systems thinking as the most important competencies.
The competencies are
- Analytic thinking (discriminant definitory skills)
- Systems thinking
- Tradeoff optimization
- Effects-of-effects iterative planning
- Indirect thinking
- Strategic Foresight
- Strategic Empathy
- Ethical balancing of interests
The program of education described in the paper are also embedded in a web-based war game engine, Global Contest, which trains and tests these competencies in action. Stand by for more information.
