The purpose of this study is to employ an action research approach to examine and address a tactical performance deficiency in military planning and execution that the authors identified and labeled as the “planning–performance gap.” The authors found that a siloed, mechanistic application of the Marine Corps Planning Process (MCPP) contributes to this gap when facing a thinking enemy.
Over 18 months, the authors collaborated with a US Marine infantry regiment to codevelop and deliver two cycles of a workshop with the goal of improving tactical planning. Seventy-three participants took part. Data collection included interviews, surveys, analytic memos, field notes and observations during a large-scale training exercise. The workshop – Modeling a Thinking Enemy – was designed to strengthen team cognition by promoting enemy-focused planning with active input and collaboration, especially from junior Marines.
Findings suggest that team cognition provides a useful lens for understanding and addressing the planning–performance gap and that a targeted, participatory intervention helped change the application of MCPP from a production-process focused on generating products to a cognitive-process focused on building shared understanding. These changes improved coordination, adaptability and tactical performance during the exercise.
While situated in the military, the principles may – with further research – offer insight for other complex and uncertain environments where adaptive thinking is required. However, generalization should be approached carefully, as findings are highly context-dependent.
This study highlights how action research can serve as a method of inquiry and a structured approach to organizational learning and change. It highlights team cognition as both what a team knows together and how they work together in real time to understand situations and align actions.
