Principles of Decision-Making and People: From a Soldier’s Perspective by Warren S. Pennicooke
What's It About?
A book to help any person or company succeed in business and in life, taken from the experiences of the author’s many positions, locations and battles as an Army leader.Twenty years of military experience, many of them in instructional and leadership roles, teaches a person much about discipline, process and procedures. Basically, what makes an organization click.
Now Warren S. Pennicooke, taking what he gleaned from his many positions, locations and battles as an Army leader, has written a book to help any person or company succeed in business and in life. It’s called Principles of Decision-Making and People: From a Soldier’s Perspective.
Pennicooke notes that the military is structured around people, processes and systems. “The military obsesses over them,” he says, “and rightfully so — the consequences if they do not can be dire.” Thus, he concludes the high standards in the military serve as a strong foundation for any organization to aspire to.
Build Better Teams and Leaders
The author introduces readers to the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) as the backbone to execute any initiative or course of action. But no plan suffices without the right team and the right leadership — that’s where solutions come together. Pennicooke cites “cohesion” as the key trait for building a team whose performance exceeds the sum of its parts.
Readers quickly see the lack of tolerance for individuals who put their personal agendas over that of the team. “It places those who choose to spotlight themselves over the team on notice.”
Pennicooke offers interesting comparisons between the military and corporations when it comes to decision-making. Decisions emanating from boardrooms are more event-based, he points out, and occur only when necessary. The military, on the other hand, is more “constant, static and outside the specific individual things to be done at each stage … more team-empowering.”
In all of his experience, Pennicooke observes that the one critical commonality among leaders is that they possess a high degree of emotional intelligence. All other seemingly essential attributes are not sufficient without EI, he argues.
Articulate and Succinct Blueprint
The author is very articulate in communicating what he has experienced, what he has observed from history, what he has learned and the logic behind that learning. He is able to reach a wide spectrum of readers with his dialogue and systematic approach to processes and evaluating people. He poses many important questions, the answers to which will help leaders bring in the right people and form the best teams.
In Warren Pennicooke’s world, poor decision-making has severe ramifications and often can result in the loss of lives. As readers and leaders take in Pennicooke’s words of wisdom in Principles of Decision-Making and People and apply them to their own worlds and lives, while the dangers might not be as disastrous, the lessons are just as sound and strong.
While the author indicates that the ideas and processes within might not break any new ground, a detailed scrutiny and understanding of them can build better teams and better leaders, promote better decision-making and ultimately more cohesiveness and more desired results.
The Military Decision-Making Process is not a panacea, writes Pennicooke, but it is “a blueprint that depicts how leaders can make better decisions when they remove insularity from their decision-making processes and include the well-intended input of people.”
“A single point of failure can be the demise of the entire system,” writes Pennicooke. Principles of Decision-Making and People is written to ensure that doesn’t happen.
About Warren S. Pennicooke:
Sergeant First Class Warren. S. Pennicooke retired after 20 years of Army service, including four combat tours to Iraq. In addition to Iraq, he served tours in Fort Devens, Massachusetts, Grafenwöhr, Germany, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Camp Casey, Korea, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and in both the 2nd and 3rd brigades of the 25th Infantry Division, Hawaii.
He has also served in various positions as an Academy Instructor, Observer Controller, Battle Staff Instructor, Squad Leader, Platoon Sergeant, Operations NCO, Truckmaster, and First Sergeant. His service medals include four Bronze Star Medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, and four Army Commendation Medals. He is a member of the Sergeant Audie Murphy Club. He works as a military consultant in training the future Army force.
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