A critical link in the intelligence system is communication with decision-makers. A significant amount of the organisation’s time and resources are wasted if the intelligence produced has little influence on policy. In a 2020 interview, Dr David Kilcullen, unconventional warfare author, former soldier and diplomat, highlighted a widely acknowledged truth that the majority of intelligence reports do not actually get read. How can the dissemination of intelligence be more influential? A change in the target audience, identifying what is relevant to that audience, and an evolution in the way intelligence in presented is likely to be of greater benefit to the organisation and the outcomes it is trying to achieve.
(This article will look at influencing the strategic policy level of an organisation with a subsequent article to focus on supporting teams at the tactical level.)
Firstly, who is the target audience? Defence commentator Zachery Tyson, writes that dissemination in the US intelligence system is modeled after the US Daily Presidential Brief, where finished product is collated into a folder or verbal brief and delivered once per day to the organisation’s senior official, much like traditional print media. A lot of analytical and management effort goes into this one brief for one person. However, busy senior leaders want to be presented integrated options to enable them to decide the way ahead. In an organisation where each branch presents their own problems and advice, the senior first has to integrate the information before being able to make a decision. Often the real decision-making happens at the operations or policy manager level, with these people putting the options together that go before the senior. Intelligence is likely to have more influence on the organisation by being relevant to the operations or policy team.
What is relevant to an operations or policy team? Each organisation will have different priorities, but in general the three key points of integration are:
Formulation. During formulation, intelligence outlines the environment, its trends and its drivers. Scenario generation is also used to test the policy options to see that it holds up against likely scenarios.
Once policy is in motion the intelligence system provides awareness by collecting information and interpreting it. This makes sense of the external environment on behalf of the organisation by putting individual events into a wider context.
In addition to monitoring the environment once a policy is being implemented, the intelligence system helps to identify whether developing trends are presenting risks or opportunities to the organisation and its desired outcomes. This answers the decision-makers underlying questions: “is the environment being shaped the way our strategy or policy intended?”, “if not why not?”, and then, “so what next?” both for the environment and changes to the policy.
Following better identification of the points of influence, intelligence products themselves need to adapt to how information is consumed. Using more visual communication techniques is an important improvement on the print media approach, but integrating with operations and policy teams requires a more collaborative model of intelligence support overall. Both Kilcullen and Tyson note that the most beneficial part of the daily brief is when the senior can discuss a topic with the intelligence professional. A way to replicate the benefits of this type of interaction is to have a more iterative relationship with the operations or policy team, one based on near continuous interaction. The more an intelligence professional understands about the policy formulation process in general, and the specific issues that individual is trying to resolve for a specific piece of work, the more relevant the intelligence will be. This can extend to working in the same room, or at least having an intelligence liaison in the operations or policy work area. An additional improvement would be to create a webpage where decision makers can easily navigate to the types of tailored product they need to monitor and understand a problem (and making them aware that it exists).
Increasing complexity means that understanding the environment and an organisation’s ability to impact it has never been more in demand by decision makers. Focusing on the right decision makers, and evolving the way in which support is provided, will enable an intelligence system to be relevant, timely, and influential.
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