Speaker on Improving Decision Making

In September, Jerry L. Gandy, director, Mission Assessment and Analysis Directorate, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, provided an overview of the service his office provides to the commander of STRATCOM. Gandy talked about working from within to help expose issues holistically across the command. He discussed providing tools to help frame the problem, then mitigating risk by generating alternative futures for the commander to select from. Gandy said they use vignettes to create scenarios for emulation as well as using stochastic models to make inferences as to the likelihood of things happening. Gandy touched briefly on the office's intern program working closely with the Peter Kiewit Institute. He touched on the significance of communications and how operators need to be more conversant with respect to their communication capabilities. In parting, Gandy emphasized the need to define the problem along with the operators whenever possible.