Three Captains - a Civil Affairs Detachment Commander, a Special Forces Detachment Commander, and a Ranger Company Commander - were on their way to a meeting in Afghanistan. They were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their up-armored HMMV failed. The vehicle careened almost out of control down the road, bouncing off a number of large boulders and the side of the mountain until it miraculously ground to a halt, scraping along the mountainside.
The vehicle's occupants, shaken but unhurt, now had a problem: they were stuck halfway down a mountain in a vehicle with no brakes and would be late to the CJSOTF CDR's meeting. What were they to do?
"I know", said the Civil Affairs Officer, "Let's have a meeting, propose a Vision, formulate a Mission Statement, define some Goals, and by a process of Continuous Improvement find a solution to the Critical Problems, and we can be on our way."
"No", said the SF Officer. "That will take far too long, and besides, that method has never worked before. I've got my Leatherman tool
* with me, and in no time at all I can strip down the car's braking system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way."
"Well", said the Ranger Officer, "Before we do anything, I think we should push the car back up the road and see if it happens again."
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* Edited to reflect the
new reality.
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