Ben Zweibelson, PhD

May 14

Security Design Techniques, Methods and Facilitation Fundamentals: Using DIXIT Cards for Divergence Acceleration!

Ignoring the contradictory nature of organisations may be dysfunctional for managers and researchers. Many theories do not consider contradictory elements- they simply assume away one of the competing elements. This may lead to dysfunction… Theories of congruence have an order bias. Synthesis is a desirable but not required in organisations…

Innovation

19 min read

Security Design Techniques, Methods and Facilitation Fundamentals: Using DIXIT Cards for Divergence…

Apr 15

Understanding Emergence: How Complexity Theory Requires Getting Out of the Military’s Favored Newtonian Box

The above image is similar to one I saw at a car museum in the Black Forest a few years ago, and it has stuck in my head for a useful way to explain a few critical aspects on complexity theory to military audiences. Emergence is an essential quality of…

Complexity

10 min read

Mar 31

Designing within Danger: How Military Design Contributes to Security Forces Differently

This is an excerpt from an upcoming military design book chapter for an international educational textbook addressing various forms and functions of design practice. Once that project is published (digitally and in print), an announcement will be made through Medium and other social media. …

Design

6 min read

Mar 30

Breaking out of Reverse-Engineered Planning for Future Complex Security Challenges

This post is a revisit to a strategic design article published back in 2015 in the British military journal Defence Studies (Routledge, 15:4, 2015). In the original article, I present how militaries and security-oriented organizations approach complexity through a systematic, linear-casual logic where we end up reverse-engineering all of our…

Design

14 min read

Breaking out of Reverse-Engineered Planning for Future Complex Security Challenges

Mar 25

How “Red, Amber, Green” metrics are blinding us…Organizational Knowledge and the Illusion of Reification (in Military Affairs)

In the modern, data-hungry era of mainstream society, nearly all of us have experienced that sensation when the organization is unable to see the forest for the trees. We tend to become fixated on invented metrics that render us unable to gain critical or creative insight- and we often scurry…

Design

8 min read

How “Red, Amber, Green” metrics are blinding us…Organizational Knowledge and the Illusion of…

Mar 21

Design Facilitation 101: Using Trojan Horses to Sneak Past the Institutional Barriers for Complex Security Affairs

In multiple strategic planning sessions, design working groups, and other situations where my organization confronted some complex, adaptive problems, I gained some valuable insight on organizational change. In this article, I present one approach on how to inject major reform and change without suffering the “Cassandra Syndrome” of Greek lore…

Design

13 min read

Mar 13

‘Emergence’ Explained in Everyday Speak…So Defense Forces Might Mean What they Say!

I see the term “emergence” used quite a bit in security, defense and related discussions. It usually is clustered with “complexity”, “non-linear”, and “adaptive” in discussions on how to better equip organizations to deal with uncertainty. Yet often, the term is being misapplied (forced to fit into a framework based…

Complexity

9 min read

‘Emergence’ Explained in Everyday Speak…So Defense Forces Might Mean What they Say!

Feb 14

The Semiotic Square and Systemic Logic: A Technique for Multiple Futures

This is an excerpt from a design monograph that addresses design, NATO operational planning and Joint planning methodologies (NATO-OPP, JPP, and various service-specific deviations therein). This monograph is pending publication and was produced through the Joint Special Operations University where the author is a design educator (contractor) for the U.S…

Design

15 min read

The Semiotic Square and Systemic Logic: A Technique for Multiple Futures

Feb 6

Shifting Military Decision-Making from Single Ends to Emergent Multiplicities

This is an excerpt from a design monograph that addresses design, NATO operational planning and Joint planning methodologies (NATO-OPP, JPP, and various service-specific deviations therein). This monograph is pending publication and was produced through the Joint Special Operations University where the author is a design educator (contractor) for the U.S…

Design

18 min read

Shifting Military Decision-Making from Single Ends to Emergent Multiplicities

Jan 31

Emergence and Non-Linearity for Military Decision-Making:

This is an excerpt from a design monograph that addresses design, NATO operational planning and Joint planning methodologies (NATO-OPP, JPP, and various service-specific deviations therein). This monograph is pending publication and was produced through the Joint Special Operations University where the author is a design educator (contractor) for the U.S…

Design

25 min read

Emergence and Non-Linearity for Military Decision-Making: