Canadian Joint Warfare Centre Alternative Analysis Team Assists Canadian Defence Academy with Fighting Spirit Document
April 4, 2024 - Defence Stories
The Joint Research and Analysis (JRA) team of the Canadian Joint Warfare Centre recently had the opportunity to assist the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) with their creation of the Fighting Spirit document. The Alternative Analysis team of the JRA facilitated virtual focus groups aimed at specific portions of the document.
The precursor to the Fighting Spirit document was Duty with Honour which was published in 2003 and revised in 2009, served as the CAF’s primary Profession of Arms document. In the summer of 2024, alongside the Trusted to Serve document, Fighting Spirit will become the current ethos documents for the CAF. Fighting Spirit conveys the CAF’s dedication to the defence of Canada and its renewed commitment to professionalism.
While CDA’s larger campaign to ask for feedback from stakeholders covered a broad spectrum of organizations, the focus groups the CJWC/JRA Alternative Analysis team designed and facilitated were narrower in scope. Participants from one focus group were drawn from the Non-commissioned Members Executive Professional Development Program (NEPDP), and from the Cadet Organizations Administration and Training Service (COATS). They analyzed Fighting Spirit’s treatment of leader character and universal virtues, among several other topics.
The focus groups were conducted remotely, with participants sharing insights through discussions and inputting their thoughts into a text collection tool during the session. This tool remained accessible for some time after the session to incorporate additional feedback from the focus groups.
Why is Alternative Analysis important? Because it helps us bring in multiple, often competing perspectives. The NATO definition for Alternative Analysis is the deliberate application of independent critical thought and alternative perspectives to improve decision-making. It consists of a series of techniques and practices which offer commanders and staff the ability to supplement existing decision-making processes by systematically encouraging diverse views and mindsets with an aim of enriching understanding, enhancing creativity, and ultimately making better quality decisions.