Warfare has largely changed from the army-against-army model to one of army-against-insurgent. The freedom fighters/insurgents are innovative and make weapons from unconventional items, which can be difficult for soldiers to anticipate or spot.

The U.S. Marine Corps has been seeking greater agility in this environment of constant change. Its Next Generation Logistics (NexLog) group, charged with applying technology to logistics, embraced the so-called maker movement, in which individuals apply the power of computer-aided technologies to create and build devices whose manufacture once required a fully equipped factory. Technologies central to the maker movement include computer-aided design (CAD), 3D printing, microcontrollers, and laser cutting. A person equipped with a laptop can quickly make precision parts to build robots, drones, and other devices.

NexLog set up a program called Marine Maker to prepare soldiers to use these skills and technologies on the battlefield. Essentially, it is creating hackers, in the sense of people who craft solutions from whatever is at hand. Most who enter the program have aptitude but do not possess high tech or engineering training. The rationale is that people with specific training tend to rely on that training to solve problems and this group needs to rely instead on innovation and creative solutions. Soldiers are put through Innovation Boot Camp where they are given exercises to craft solutions with limited supplies in limited time. This training design ensures they will be able to react quickly in combat conditions.

In the NexLog rollout of Marine Maker training, hundreds of Marines have completed Innovation Boot Camp at maker labs in California, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., as well as on the ground in Kuwait. Trainers are looking at expanding into programs focused on specific kinds of capabilities, such as anti-drone warfare and explosive ordnance disposal. One NexLog leader envisions a future in which agile-thinking Marines can develop customized drones on demand for a given mission—perhaps in a city or in cold weather—and deploy them as needed. NexLog’s mission is to prepare for the logistics needs of the next decade. Marine Maker is already helping to create that future.

Questions

1. Which type of decision making are Marines being taught in the Marine Maker training: programmed or non programmed decisions? Explain.
2. Does the classical model or the administrative model of decision making better fit the decision process of the Marine Maker program? Why?
3. Which of the chapter’s ideas for creating a learning organization and promoting individual creativity support creative thinking by the Marines?