Sep 24, 2021
In this OODAcast we ask retired Admiral Bobby Ray Inman for
insights into his approach to analyzing complex situation and
managing intelligence efforts. Admiral Inman served in the
Navy from November 1951 to July 1982, retiring with the rank of
four star admiral, the first military intelligence officer to ever
reach that rank. On active duty, he served as director of naval
intelligence, then later director of the National Security Agency
and as deputy director of Central Intelligence. After retirement
Inman was chairman and CEO of the Microelectronics and Computer
Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas, for four years and
chairman, president and chief executive officer of Westmark Systems
Inc., a privately owned electronics industry holding company, for
three years. Inman also served as chairman of the Federal Reserve
Bank of Dallas from 1987 through 1990. He became a adjunct
professor at The University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and was
appointed a tenured professor holding the Lyndon B. Johnson
Centennial Chair in National Policy in August 2001. He recently
retired from that position.
Decades ago he codified his principles in a list of rules he
used to teach and lead others with. They are still exchanged and
studied by leaders today, and they provided a good framework for
our discussion in this OODAcast.
Inman’s Rules
1. Conservation of enemies: Be slow to anger and quick to build
allies
2. When you are explaining you are losing: In most cases trying to
explain away something never convinces the listener and just wastes
your time. Learn from your mistake and move on. Sometimes the same
thought is captured by the adage: When in a hole stop
digging
3. Something too good to believe probably is just that, untrue:
This remains important not just in national intelligence but in
fighting fraud.
4. Go to the Hill alone: Supporting governance processes are just
too important.
5. Wisdom in Washington is having much to say and knowing when not
to say it: Never overwhelm decision makers.
6. Never sign for anything
7. The only one looking out for you is you: Take personal
responsibility for your actions.
8. If you think your enemy is stupid, think again: Arrogance
results in failure and surprise.
9. Never try to fool yourself: Too frequently it is easier to
deceive ourselves rather than believe reality
10. Never go into a meeting without knowing what the outcome is
going to be.
11. Don’t change what got you to where you are just to get to the
next place.
12. Intelligence is knowing what the enemy doesn’t want you to
know: It is about stealing secrets, not reading the news.
13. Nothing changes faster than yesterday’s vision of the future:
Don’t try to simply predict, you probably need to conduct scenario
planning over multiple futures.
14. Intelligence users are looking for what is going to happen, not
what has already occurred: Intelligence is not about history. Just
because history is easier does not mean it is the mission.
15. It is much harder to convince someone they are wrong than it is
to convince them they are right: This observation leads to the
important point that intelligence professionals need a high
emotional intelligence and ability to convey the truth in ways that
get it accepted even when it is not welcome.
16. For Intelligence Officers in particular there is no substitute
for the truth.
17. By the time intelligence gets back to a user with the answer
the question usually has changed: Especially in operational
intelligence.
18. Always know your blind spots, get help to cover them.
20. You can never know too much about the enemy: Do not fear
information overload, manage it.
21. Tell what you know, tell what you don’t know, tell what it
means: This framework helps decision-makers contextualize insights
into ways that make intelligence more actionable.
22. Tell them what you are going to say, tell them, then tell them
what you told them, they might remember something.
23. Never have more than three points.
24. Never follow lunch or an animal act.
25. Believe is correct, intelligence officers never feel.
26. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: Be
proactive and seek more insights on the situation
27. Boredom is the enemy, not the time to any briefing.
28. If you can’t summarize it on one page, you can’t sell it to
anyone.
29. Always allow time to consider what the enemy wants me to think,
is he succeeding or am I?
30. If you can’t add value, get out of the way.
31. Beware of mirror imaging: Thinking the adversary or others are
the same as we are has contributed to most major strategic failures
through the years, including the 20 year involvement in
Afghanistan.
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