Operational Thinking and Its Application in Operational Design

Operational thinking is a significant aspect of the military decision-making process, applied by military commanders and their staffs. For a sound resolution of military problems, they are required to think creatively about the application of operational art. The deficiency of operational thinking may not only lead to unwanted risks and unintentional losses in operations; it can also thwart the chances for expected and decisive success. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the very elementary ideas of operational thinking that commanders and operational planners must deal with, to visualize and design feasible military approaches for the conduct of operations. Rather than strict official definitions there are introduced possible content, procedures and guidelines that must be taken into consideration to define and solve complex and ill-structured military problems.