Here's How Red Teaming May Lead to Better Decisions

All organizations engage in some form of a decision making process to come to a decision or plan of action. Successful organizations have a set process. While there may be slight differences, most processes involve steps similar to 1) identifying the problem, 2) analyzing the problem and gathering relevant information, 3) identifying alternatives, 4) selecting the best solution, 5) taking action, and 6) reviewing the decision and consequences.

While adhering to a process may assuage concerns of ill-informed or rash decisions, the nature of people and organizations may, in fact, hinder the path to selecting the best course of action. Culture and context determine many aspects of human mindsets, experiences, and biases. Often these mindsets, experiences, and biases impact the organizational decision making process and can lead to potential failure. Groupthink is a common example. Fortunately, these types of failures are observable and easily preventable.

Mitigation Through Red Teaming

So how can an organization limit the negative effects of such failures? One effective method is through practicing red teaming. While many, including those in the military, associate red teaming with enemy role playing, it is more about challenging the ideas and thought processes of the organization while countering groupthink. It is a function that provides leaders and decision makers an independent capability to fully explore alternatives in plans, operations, concepts, and organizational capability in the context of the external environment and from the perspectives of partners, adversaries, and others. 

According to the U.S. Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies (UFMCS), a Red Team supports operations, planning, and decision support while also providing critical review and analysis of already-existing plans.

To effectively contribute to organizational decision making, the Red Team requires the following elements:

• Being educated and trained to recognize biases and think critically about the problem.
• Thinking critically and challenging the group using tools and methods that enable leaders to see different perspectives.
• Having the top cover to challenge the organization’s conventional wisdom and leadership.
• Possessing effective written and oral communication skills.
• Having credibility in the area in which they are providing red teaming insights

Red Team Best Practices

There is no prescribed formula for red teaming or set template. Red teaming efforts are best done behind the scenes, providing feedback to leaders and decision makers and other divisions without attribution. While no template exists, UFMCS lists common activities most Red Teams take part in. These include challenging facts and explicit assumptions, looking for implicit (unstated) assumptions, identifying cultural assumptions and developing targeted cultural questions for subject matter experts, challenging the problem frame while proposing alternatives, and identifying cognitive biases and groupthink symptoms.

While a Red Team may help prevent organizational failures through the practice of common activities, in the end the manner in which the Red Team is organized and employed is up to the organization. The organization’s needs should determine how the team looks (permanent team, ad hoc, individuals, etc.), what its assigned roles are, when actions should take place, and where it falls within the organization (directly reporting to the CEO is best).

If your organization regularly falls victim to groupthink or recurring themes often run through developed courses of action then give red teaming a try. It requires an element of cultural savvy, but if done in a manner best suited for your organization’s needs, it may lead to better outcomes. 

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