About Design... From Theory to Practice

Operational Design Center of Excellence (COE) From Theory to Practice was established in the summer of 2008 on the premise that organizations and institutions operating in a world of ever increasing complexity need a better way to understand and deal with complex problems. After months of thought and debate, the Center leadership determined that the principal objective should be to form a Community of Practice (COP) capable of spreading the cognitive application of theory to practice to organizations and institutions.

The COP charter is to support, educate and train leadership within organizations and institutions by specializing in the application of the theory of learning and the practice of design (From Theory to Practice) to midcareer and senior executives.

Decision makers, at all levels, face challenges of dealing with complex situations that are ill-defined and fluid because of the presence of numerous interactive and largely autonomous actors. These situations are characterized by constant change and variety that must be understood in order to provide realistic solutions to the problems and establish a desired set of conditions. Misinterpretation of the environment and applying an incorrect approach to solving the problem could result in undesirable consequences. When confronting these complex situations, the difference between success and failure is an in-depth understanding of the complex situation, correct identification of the problem to be resolved, and a clear design to achieve the desired results. These situations often require solutions from multiple partners and competitors in order to reach sound results.

Booz Allen can help you be ready for what’s next
Booz Allen Hamilton, as a leading strategy and technology consulting firm, recognizes the significance of understanding these complex situations and the requirement to design an approach that leads to the desired results. The Center for the Application of Design (CAD) was established to apply and teach the theory and methodology of learning that mitigates strategic crises by positioning operators to better address complex situations. The designer, the primary moderator who reconciles strategic potential with practical operations, is the learning intermediary who synthesizes the emerging world of the operator with the desired world of the strategist. The product is a formal expression of strategic purpose that provides the logical and irreducible framework for the structuring of operations and actions.

Our approach

Stages of Design

Design results

• Make explicit, orderly, and shared what is usually implicit, haphazard, and private
• Promote thinking in terms of interactive actors and their attitudes, agendas, programs of action, and relationships and tendencies, rather than structural component nodes and linkages
• Enables the creative, abductive cognitive process natural to key leaders and staff
• Improves on early and sufficient engagement of the “command team” to build a shared appreciation of the logic of the problem, formulation of the campaign design, and a discursive process for discussing the approach
• Enhances effective learning and adaptation,recognizing that our best efforts to understand will be frustrated. This means considering early the mechanisms for learning at multiple levels

Our team
The Booz Allen team employs a multidisciplinary approach that includes:

• Strategists
• Operational Artists
• Campaign Designers and Planners
• Organizational Designers
• Social, Cognitive, Cultural Psychologists
• Commanders and Senior Mentors
• Learning Administrators
• Modeling and Simulation Experts
  

Our design team applies a collaborative design methodology to create a learning system that allows the decision makers to create a framework and understanding of the strategic logic and context. Once developed, the design team creates a structure to gain a holistic appreciation of the situation in order to decide on a descriptive explanation and theory of action. After the develop of the theory of action, the team develops the design concept for intervention.

Our services
Our service offerings include:

• Conducting instructional sessions to provide understanding of design and its application, giving the client the opportunity to understand and evaluate design in order to use it subsequently to solve unstructured problems (or obtain our support in solving such problems)
• Providing direct support to a client to assist in understanding and/or solving unstructured problems
• Working for a client to understand and/or solve unstructured problems
• Assisting with research, development, and institutionalization of Design

Whether you’re managing today’s issues or looking beyond the horizon, count on us to help you be ready for what’s next.