Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 47

DENIERS OF “THE TRUTH”

The teams that used strict MDMP were more likely
to display certain behaviors (discussed in detail below).
However, not all teams using MDMP displayed all the
noted behaviors, and not all members of these teams
displayed the same behavior. On the average, more
team members from a greater number of the MDMP
teams were more likely to display the following behaviors from my observations.

Five Salient Recurring Patterns
Under Conditions in Which
Observations Were Made
First, the planning week was normally characterized
by the officers spending most of their time building
PowerPoint slides. During mealtime, the officers would
be huddled in a corner working on computers while
the NCOs were away eating. The planning week largely
consisted of building products, and little time was spent
on rehearsals. The officers would usually copy what was
in the higher headquarters’ order. Little thinking was
spent on the logic behind what the team was instructed
to do, or thought they should do, or the logic behind the
higher headquarters’ objectives. Even worse, the higher

headquarters’ implicit assertions went largely unquestioned by the team even though the higher headquarters’ order pertained to a larger area and provided a
more general analysis of the population.
Second, the individuals on the MDMP teams had
trouble articulating the logic behind what they were
going to do and why. The officers generally accepted
the higher headquarters