Feral Jundi

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Leadership: Lecture Series–The Art Of Critical Decision Making, By Professor Michael Roberto

     After the Bay of Pigs failure, President Kennedy and his advisors reflected on their mistakes and created a new process for group discussion and decision making to prevent future groupthink and promote diverse perspectives. Here, Professor Roberto introduces the concept of developing a decision-making process. -From the Lecture ‘Deciding How To Decide’

     This is a great lecture series that a friend of mine hooked me up with, and I highly recommend it. It was engaging and thought provoking, and there were so many cool ideas to take away from this if you are looking for leadership guidance. As I listened to it, there were many Jundism concepts that kept popping up in various forms and examples.

     The particular lecture that I will highlight in this post is the ‘deciding how to decide’ portion.  I took notice, because this method of decision making was born out of the highest levels of leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion failure.  The Bay of Pigs invasion was an embarrassing mistake that resulted from poor decision making at the top.  Or what the professor referred to as ‘group think’ (being surrounded by ‘yes men’ and folks unwilling to question the group or leadership out of fear of being wrong or just assuming everyone else is right)

     The Cuban Missile Crisis was an extreme test of wills, and required the best possible strategy that would prevent the US and the Soviet Union wiping each other out with nuclear weapons. President Kennedy devised a system of decision making that would produce the best product or solution possible, that was not a victim of group think.  He used a system of subgroups that would develop solutions independently, then those groups would exchange their solutions with the other groups and critique.

    A second set of devils advocates or eyes would also review the solutions, and further nitpick the possible solutions until the best idea was standing. So this solution was hammered out of truly honest debate, and any influences that would cause people to not speak up was eliminated.  I thought it was an ingenious way of problem solving, and especially during crisis. (be sure to listen to the series to get the specifics on how to set up this system) The situation with North Korea bombing South Korea, and the US and China reaction to it is a prime example of modern day critical decision making with high stakes involved.  How President Obama decides, will really be based more on deciding how to decide first, so that the solution he gets is strategically sound and not at all influenced by group think.

    Military leaders and CEO’s can learn from this as well.  Leaders should strive hard to have honest debate about strategy and it takes listening to your people, and being open to ideas to get there.  It also requires breaking down those walls that limit honest debate, and really being aware of group think and it’s dangers. Check out the series to learn more, and let me know what you think. Also check out Professor Roberto’s blog if you want to follow his ideas or contact him. –Matt

THE ART OF CRITICAL DECISION MAKING

Genre: Audio or video CourseLength: Twenty-four, thirty-minute lecturesTeacher: Prof. Michael Roberto, Bryant UniversityPublisher: The Teaching Company

By Tom Alderman

July 23, 2009

Following the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, President Kennedy asked former President Eisenhower to the White House to seek the old soldier’s counsel. The new president wanted to know what he could learn from the whole sorry mess. Instead of the expected military hoo-hah, Ike wanted to know how the decision was made to go ahead with the Cuban invasion? How did the president gather advice from his advisors? Not a surprising question considering the five-star general led a contentious military coalition during World War II, not because of his martial skills, but because of his extraordinary leadership abilities which included understanding the core ingredient in all critical decision making: whether you’re launching a D-Day invasion, a career, a product or service, HOW you decide is more important than WHAT you decide. The process you use determines a successful outcome and if that process is not clear and effective, you’re going down.

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Friday, January 1, 2010

Al Qaeda: The Gitmo ‘Catch And Release’ Program

Filed under: Al Qaeda,Cuba,Yemen — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 10:05 AM

Overall, 14 percent of the more than 530 detainees transferred out of Guantanamo are confirmed or suspected to have been involved in terrorist activities since their release. 

*****

    This is as ridiculous as what we are doing with these Somali pirates when we catch them, which is release them. So what do you know! Piracy and terrorism is a kick as means of crime or waging war in today’s world.

   To me, this is a prime example of non-state actors, utilizing their strategic advantage of ignoring or abusing the borders and laws of states, in order to achieve their goals. It works very well.

  The question I have, is how do you defeat non-state actors?  Terrorists, pirates, organized crime, and drug cartels are all non-state actors…so how do you defeat them?

    I have some ideas based on how societies and countries have dealt with these issues in the past, but I guarantee the ‘state’ really doesn’t want to hear it. Here is a hint. Laws like Article 1, Section 8 in the U.S. Constitution are in there for a reason. –Matt

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Former Gitmo detainees help al-Qaida grow in Yemen

By MIKE MELIA and SARAH EL DEEB

Dec 31, 2009

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – As a prisoner at Guantanamo, Said Ali al-Shihri said he wanted freedom so he could go home to Saudi Arabia and work at his family’s furniture store.

Instead, al-Shihri, who was released in 2007 under the Bush administration, is now deputy leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a group that has claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attempted bomb attack on a Detroit-bound airliner.

His potential involvement in the terrorist plot has raised new opposition to releasing Guantanamo Bay inmates, complicating President Barack Obama’s pledge to close the military prison in Cuba. It also highlights the challenge of identifying the hard-core militants as the administration decides what to do with the remaining 198 prisoners.

Like other former Guantanamo detainees who have rejoined al-Qaida in Yemen, al-Shihri, 36, won his release despite jihadist credentials such as, in his case, urban warfare training in Afghanistan.

He later goaded the United States, saying Guantanamo only strengthened his anti-American convictions.

“By God, our imprisonment has only increased our persistence and adherence to our principles,” he said in a speech when al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula formed in Yemen in January 2009. It was included in a propaganda film for the group.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Bounties: Joanne Chesimard, 1 Million Dollars, Cuba

Filed under: Bounties,Cuba — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 6:37 PM

“She is now 120 pounds of money,” State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said to the NJ Star-Ledger. 

    Thanks to RR3 for this one.  This cop killer definitely needs to be brought to justice, and she is hanging out in Cuba living freely under political asylum. She is also the step-aunt of the deceased hip hop artist Tupac Shakur. –Matt

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ACT OF TERRORISM – DOMESTIC TERRORISM; UNLAWFUL FLIGHT TO AVOID CONFINEMENT – MURDER

JOANNE DEBORAH CHESIMARD

Aliases:

Assata Shakur, Joanne Byron, Barbara Odoms, Joanne Chesterman, Joan Davis, Justine Henderson, Mary Davis, Pat Chesimard, Jo-Ann Chesimard, Joanne Debra Chesimard, Joanne D. Byron, Joanne D. Chesimard, Joanne Davis, Chesimard Joanne, Ches Chesimard, Sister-Love Chesimard, Joann Debra Byron Chesimard, Joanne Deborah Byron Chesimard, Joan Chesimard, Josephine Henderson, Carolyn Johnson, Carol Brown, “Ches”

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Books: Storming Las Vegas, by John Huddy

Filed under: Books,Crime — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 11:49 AM

     I just read this book and loved it. Hollywood will certainly make a film about Cuban born criminal named Jose Vigoa, that literally robbed Las Vegas. The best part of the book, is that you still couldn’t figure out if he was an agent of Cuba, or just a Cuban gone bad. Robert Baer(former CIA employee) was interviewed about this guy, and he thought that Vigoa was an agent that slipped in during the eighties Cuban boat crisis. A sleeper agent that went off the deep end, so to speak.  Or maybe he had orders to cause havoc in Vegas? 

     Either way, Vigoa makes Tony Montana from “Scar Face” look like a child. True crime, to me, is always more fascinating than the fictional stuff, and this guy was larger than life.  Not only was he a highly trained and experienced warrior from the cold war era, but he also was an effective drug dealer and violent robber that took down the ‘strip’.   

     From a tactical thought process point of view, Vigoa was a fascinating study. Mentally, this guy operated like a soldier behind enemy lines, rather than a criminal. And the various stories about his time in Angola and Afghanistan were really interesting windows, upon the mentality of Vigoa. From his use of top Private Investigators to collect information on enemies and associates, to controlling the meeting places (controlling your battle space) where very telling, as to Vigoa’s background and capability.  What was really frightening about the guy, was his mental kill-switch.  He was not hesitant in this regard, and that is also what made him such a vicious criminal.

 This book also talked about the bravery of the guards that defended their Armored cars to the death, against Vigoa’s crew and their vicious take downs.  It is a stark reminder, of how dangerous transporting money can be and what the worse case scenario for an armored transport professional could be.  I highly recommend this book. –Head Jundi 

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Storming Las Vegas

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Network producer and onetime Miami Herald columnist Huddy tells a gripping story of greed, violence, theft and public relations. Las Vegas had just launched its new blitz of advertising—advancing itself not as Sin City but as a family-friendly vacation destination—when Jose Vigoa (a Cuban-born commando veteran of the Soviet Army) hit town in the late 1990s. Vigoa and a small crew embarked on a violent 16-month crime wave, targeting some of the Strip’s most prominent (and, as Vigoa showed, vulnerable) institutions. A 23-year veteran of the Las Vegas Police Force, Lt. John Alamshaw was charged with finding and capturing the men behind the crime spree—without allowing the robberies to become national news and spoil Vegas’s new image. Huddy traces Vigoa’s personal history from his childhood in Castro’s Cuba to fighting for the Red Army in Afghanistan, his return to Cuba and eventual resettlement in the United States. Then he chronicles the Cuban’s increasingly audacious grabs for Vegas riches and his ultimate sentencing to more than 500 years in prison with no possibility of parole. This debut is a must for true-crime enthusiasts. B&w photos.  

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0345487451/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
 

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