Reflections on Planning in the JIIM Environment
Written by Captain Brian Thorson
During the last eighteen months, I have had the opportunity to participate in a number of training events and operations in the Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, Multinational (JIIM) environment. One particular event stands out and represents my cumulative experience well. During this event, representatives from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, Army National Guard, and Army Reserves joined representatives from the Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security, Defense Logistics Agency, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and Country Team Representatives from multiple embassies. This diverse team of Americans hosted delegations of military, police, and civilians from fourteen nations spanning four continents. Assembling a more diverse group of stakeholders would be challenging even if that had been the stated intent. However, for this week, this varied group of participants gathered with the intent to establish a set of common training objectives and the requisite plans to accomplish them. This gargantuan task fell to the exercise director to synchronize and align each stakeholder’s efforts despite possessing no formal authority over all participants.
With understanding comes the ability to prepare, adapt, and eventually thrive.
While it is obvious this task is complex and dynamic, there is value in understanding what makes it so challenging. With understanding comes the ability to prepare, adapt, and eventually thrive. To that effort, I share my observations and thoughts on factors contributing to JIIM complexity, provide recommendations to set conditions for success, and frame the conversation within our National Defense Strategy’s reliance upon mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships.[1] This approach has been the foundation of our nation’s efforts to maintain the liberal international order established after World War II and is described in the 2018 National Defense Strategy as key to continued US hegemony.[1]
WHY THE JIIM ENVIRONMENT IS CHALLENGING
Absence of Hierarchy and Incongruent Purposes
The United States Military operates within a hierarchical construct. Even those units which successfully employ Mission Command still have defined leaders who hold authority and are ultimately responsible. When working in the JIIM environment, it is common to operate without a true Commander with ultimate authority over all stakeholders. This is further complicated by the sundry agendas each organization brings to the table. Inevitably, some of these agendas will be in conflict with one another. If formal authority is not possible, what tools remain to align objectives, resources, and lines of effort between the myriad stakeholders?
Trust is gained or lost through everyday actions more than grand or occasional gestures.
Trust is the bedrock of cooperative relationships. When members of a team trust one another, compromise and cooperation are obtainable and formal measures of control found in hierarchical organizations become less necessary. While written for the U.S. Army, the mission command principle Build Cohesive Teams Through Mutual Trust is universally important and provides the following sage advice for JIIM operations. “Trust is gained or lost through everyday actions more than grand or occasional gestures. Trust is based on personal qualities, such as professional competence, personal example, and integrity. . . Through collaboration and dialogue, participants share information and perspectives, question assumptions, and exchange ideas to help create and maintain shared understanding, resolve potential misunderstandings, and assess the progress of operations.” [2]
Maintain a focus on the established goals and objectives that initially united the task force. While each stakeholder arrives with, and maintains, an exhaustive list of often contentious, competing, or at least distracting agendas, they each arrived with a purpose that aligns with the ultimate mission of the task force. To do otherwise risks becoming bogged down by less important objectives that are potentially divisive. Yielding to these distracting and divisive agendas could result in the dissolution of the task force or the withdrawal of a unified action partner.
Unique Cultures and Values
Each unit, service, agency, and nation bring their own unique cultures and values to joint operations. Many allies and partner nations also speak different languages. These facts are self-evident to even the neophyte when reading them on paper but are often quickly forgotten when attempting to collaborate because personally-held values are often subconscious during daily life. Culture and values impact communication styles, perceptions of work ethic, risk tolerance, worth and status of individuals, and general priorities among other things.
Demonstrating to unified action partners that their culture and values are important ensures their continued contribution and support.
To prevent divergent cultures and values from detracting from working together, choose to approach differences as opportunities to view the problem set differently and generate unique solutions to complex problems. This requires patience, humility, flexibility, and intellectual agility for all leaders. However, over time, this initial investment will yield great results as the best solution may not be one most appropriate for the U.S. Army to take the lead. Demonstrating to unified action partners that their culture and values are important ensures their continued contribution and support.
It is painfully obvious but important enough to state plainly — ensure you have sufficient translators present to facilitate collaboration, planning, and command of operations. Too often this is forgotten or inadequately resourced. When translators are not planned for appropriately, key stakeholders feel alienated and the joint task force loses their input and risks losing them permanently.
No Common Doctrine or Guiding Framework
Just as there is no leader with ultimate authority within a JIIM environment, there is similarly no binding doctrine or guiding framework to which all JTF members must follow. (One notable exception is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.) It is likely that each contributing party has some set of standard operating procedures (SOP) or guiding documents that indicate their values, planning techniques, and methodology of operations. While third-world foreign partners, organizations of convenience that provide access and emplacement, and small non-governmental organizations may have fewer or less developed SOPs, at a minimum they will arrive to the JTF will a set of values and an operating methodology that may be at odds with current US Department of Defense (DoD) practice.
The best way to operate successfully in environments without established SOPs is to be an expert at your craft. In football, a good quarterback is able to run set plays that have been rehearsed for months during practice. A great quarterback is able to instantly read and anticipate the defense’s strategy, change the offensive play call before the snap based on this understanding and his teammates’ strengths, and with great skill, apply the fundamentals of his team’s offensive style in a modified environment. Similarly, an expert leader in the JIIM environment is able to take her organization’s doctrinal framework, understand the JTF partners and operating environment, and creatively collaborate.
Avoid using jargon, figures of speech, and undefined acronyms.
To supplement mastery of your craft, learn and become comfortable with the doctrine, guiding framework, and SOPs of those unified action partners sufficiently established to possess them. Share our robust collection of doctrine as appropriate to create understanding. Identify and agree upon a common operational language and develop JTF SOPs for both planning and operating. Avoid using jargon, figures of speech, and undefined acronyms.
No Personal Connections
JTFs are often built quickly from a diverse group of unified action partners. As previously discussed, these new team members will have different views and values. These natural differences are common obstacles to establishing personal connections, yet personal connections are often the very thing that enables teams to eliminate information silos and collaborate quickly.
. . . Intentionally build cross-service and cross-country relationships
When the operating environment permits, take time to develop a human connection with all members of the team. Avoid spending time drinking coffee or eating meals with people wearing the same uniform or originating from the same country as you. Instead, intentionally build cross-service and cross-country relationships. These are the very relationships which may enable the JTF to remain focused on the mission and find common ground during trying times.
Arrogant Pride
Americans, especially those serving in the DoD, are prone to believe a few fallacies — all problems have American solutions, the American methodology (insert US Army methodology, US DoS, etc) is preeminent, and American ideas are superior. Nothing is more off-putting than this display of hubris for partners honestly seeking to contribute their knowledge, understanding, and capabilities. Furthermore, many areas of the world are known better by other non-DoD agencies and or our foreign partners. Creating barriers to crucial input and assets puts the mission at risk, wastes time and resources, and potentially isolates or deters our partners from contributing to the JTF.
No one appreciates arrogance. Everyone appreciates being heard.
Confident humility is an essential characteristic of the JTF planner. By approaching the JIIM environment with humility, barriers to collaborating are removed. One must possess the humility to hear instead of be heard, ask for and receive help, consider other perspectives and solutions, admit someone else may have the best idea or resource, and know your role in the process (not necessarily the lead). No one appreciates arrogance. Everyone appreciates being heard.
CONCLUSION
Thriving in the JIIM environment is essential to achieve U.S. strategic objectives globally. The bottom line is, we cannot accomplish national strategic objectives on our own globally and simultaneously. Joint Publication 3–0, Joint Operations explains that, “Today’s potential adversaries can increasingly synchronize, integrate, and direct lethal operations and other non-lethal elements of power with greater sophistication, and are less constrained by geographic, functional, legal, or phasing boundaries. Conflict is now, and will remain, inherently transregional as future potential adversaries’ interests, influence, capabilities, and reach extend beyond single areas of operation.”
A unified campaign plan which employs unified action partners is the only viable and sustainable solution to the range of national security threats experienced simultaneously. [3] Furthermore, in each current guiding national security strategy document, the importance of integrating with all services, the US interagency, non-governmental organizations, and mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships are emphasized. [1,4]
It is clear both experientially, and through our nation’s guiding documents, how crucial it is for today’s leaders to learn to operate and plan effectively and efficiently within the JIIM environment. As we continue to advance as a military, operations will become increasingly integrated. To be successful in this environment, leaders must be deliberate in their approach to the JIIM environment. To overcome the incongruent purposes and absence of hierarchy build trust and remain focused on common interests. Approach differences in cultures and values as an opportunity to explore and generate creative solutions. Prepare now for the lack of guiding framework you may experience by mastering your trade and doctrine. Develop relationships within the newly formed JTF to help streamline communications and defeat silos based on country of origin or organizational affiliation. Finally, if you remember nothing else, approach the JIIM environment with humility.
Captain Brian Thorson is a Medical Service Corps Officer serving as the Deputy Surgeon for 3rd Special Forces Group (A). He previously served in various command and staff positions. The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and do not reflect the official position of the Medical Service Corps, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.
To read more articles like this, visit Medical Service Corps Leader Development.
REFERENCES:
[1] 2018 National Defense Strategy
[2] ADRP 6–0 Mission Command 2–5 and 2–11
[3] JP 3–0 Joint Operations
[4] 2017 National Security Strategy
