Connections, Day 4, Working Group Outbriefs

Working Group outbriefs

First group outbrief on Expanding the Applications of Wargaming didn't spend any of their time talking about how wargame tools can actually be applied in other places, but spent their briefing talking about how to reach out to new audiences. The part where I got up and walked out to "stretch my back" was when the speaker devolved into an infomercial for one particular company, repeating over and over again how great that one company does their job, and how they do such great things for people, and how they're the recognized leaders in the field, and how this NDU faculty member who is supposed to be presenting an impartial working group is going to completely ignore anything else any other company has done as a success story. It did *not* reflect well on the working group that they seemed to be so into the tank for that contractor.

The Toward a Better Adjudication was more entertaining, but I didn't have the computer out to catch more of it.
The group split into 2 sub-groups. The first was discussing wargaming PMESII problems, and how social science models can inform them. He also noted the that if you take the "M" out of DIME, you get to "DIE".
Second discussion was how to fight futures wargames. Some of the key takeaways I grabbed were that (a) the enemy is watching your technology developments, just like you are, so these things should surprise you, and (b) try to look for and focus on the large *negative* possible outcomes that could be potentially catastrophic, rather than trying to get to the "best" answer.

The working group I was a part of - Building a Wargame Profession - should be entertaining... I'm curious to see how much of the presentation is actually reflective of the discussions that went on, or if they're reflective of the canned presentations that were thrown at us before the discussions.
Aaaaaand the roster goes up, with *BOTH* of my names spelled wrong. Geez folks... My name, and company (which was wrong on an earlier slide) were both on my registration. It can't be that hard to get it right.
There's an "objectives" slide on-screen right now that we never saw yesterday. I guess it would've been nice to know what our objectives were in the working group yesterday. So now we're running through the "sub"-presentations - each condensed to a single slide. Methinks there's a restroom break coming up in a bit (too much water at breakfast). Besides, there's been enough that didn't seem accurate enough for me that I had to walk away for a second.
This has now devolved into "here's why we can't/shouldn't/won't do this". News flash to folks: the plan is already in the can. It can be done. It will be done. It will probably be done before the working group gets re-convened.

By: Brant