War Games

Okay, I promise I am not going to be talking about the 1983 movie War Games, starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, and John Wood - actually, I already did that once before (see "The only winning move is not to play")!  With this post, I am really going to talk about war games.  You see, when I was growing up, my parents gave me the Avalon Hill game "Midway".  It's a strategy board game that is based upon the historical Battle of Midway, a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that was a major victory for the United States over Japan.  It was a great game - still is, in fact (it's been ages since I've played it, but I still have my old copy).  It's almost impossible to play by yourself, which is perfectly okay since my best friend growing up really enjoyed playing it too.  Unfortunately, he used to beat me all the time.  As it turns out, coming from a military family, he was apparently much better at battle strategy than I was at the age.

I was thinking of my war game "Midway" earlier today after coming across a post from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island (I've posted about that place too, see "Tap Code").  Apparently, the Naval War College (NWC) recently hosted its 10th Wargaming 101 course from August 1st to August 10th.  Even more interesting (to me at least), the NWC has an entire department dedicated to wargaming!  Apparently the United States Navy thinks its a worthwhile investment.

Captain Mike O'Hara, who chairs the NWC Wargaming Department said, "It improves decision making under risk and uncertainty. Its power stems from competing against a thinking adversary -- a ‘red team’ -- trying to accomplish its objectives while seeking to undermine your own."

At first, the Wargaming Department was created and developed to educate and train students attending the NWC.  However, in the last 5 years, they have conducted similar "war games" for individuals from outside the War College, including non-Department of Defense organizations such as the U.S. Congress, State Department, and U.S. Coast Guard (yes, the Coast Guard is a branch of the U.S. military but is actually housed within the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense), reflecting a growing interest in wargaming as a useful tool for analysis of national security issues.

I've also been reading about the 18th century Prussian war game, Kriegsspiel.  The word "Kriegsspiel" literally means "war game" in German (I am proud to say that I knew that from my DuoLingo!).  Apparently, Kriegsspiel was the first official war game to be adopted by a military organization for education and training purposes.  The games were reportedly highly realistic and forced players to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity.  Following Prussia's impressive victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War, a number of other countries adopted similar methods to train their military officers.

Why all the emphasis on wargaming?  In short, wargaming is an effective way to train military officers in tactics and strategy.  If you think about it, the health care industry has adopted a number of similar approaches - think about mock codes, simulation training, and mass casualty / disaster drills!  What do all of these have in common?  They train health care providers to respond to events that occur fairly infrequently, maybe even rarely.  The natural question though, is why haven't hospitals and other health care organizations adopted wargaming (or whatever you wish to call it) to help leaders learn how to make effective decisions under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and stress?  How many health care organizations have "simulated" or "gamed" a strategic decision such as an acquisition or merger?

I believe that leaders in health care organizations can and should adopt wargaming methods to help them learn to make better decisions.  We live in a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiquity (the Army War College first used the acronym VUCA to describe the world in which we live today).  Why not take full advantage of all of the things that can help us to drive to better performance?

"Shall we play a game?"