© 2010, Small Wars Foundation September 27, 2010
Design for Napoleon’s Corporal
by Dale C. Eikmeier
Napoleon recognized how vital it was to have an enlisted soldier in the planning process. During every Battle Plans
briefing Napoleon would have a Corporal shine his boots knowing that the Corporal was listening. Once the
General Staff finished the brief, Napoleon would look down at the Corporal and asked if he understood the plan. If
the Corporal answered, Yes Sir! The General would have his Staff execute the plan. If the Corporal answered, No
Sir! The General would have the General Staff rewrite the plan.
1
This explanation of FM 5-0’s Design is for the Everyman, or as the title suggests the
proverbial Napoleon’s Corporal. It is for those with a need to use Design but lack a 100 plus
hours of specialized Design instruction. The focus here is on the “how to” techniques of Design
rather than its cognitive theories. More simply this is about telling time, not building a watch.
The techniques offered are only suggestions or aids, not prescriptions. These techniques are
meant to serve as start points or considerations as the Design process starts and hopefully
contribute to a better Design outcome.
Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking and the Nature of Problems
FM 5-0 says “Design is a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to
understand, visualize, and describe complex, ill-structured problems and develop approaches to
solve them.”
2
Therefore the prerequisite to applying Design is to have a basic understanding of
critical and creative thinking and complex, ill-structured problems.
A complete discussion of critical and creative thinking is beyond the scope of this article.
However, the following is a start. A critical thinker raises vital questions and states them clearly
and precisely; gathers and assesses relevant information; then comes to well-reasoned
conclusions; tests those conclusions; and is open minded to alternatives.
3
In other words critical
thinking is through reasoning held to rigorous standards. Creative thinking is about maximizing
the ability to think of new ideas and includes the process of exploring multiple avenues of
thoughts or actions. Simply put creative thinking is being open-minded and creative. Design
then applies both critical and creative thinking to complex ill-structured problems. This brings
us to the second part of the prerequisite, what are complex ill-structured problems?
Problems have two components, complexity and structure. Complexity deals with the
number factors or elements and their relationships contained within the problem or environment.
The greater the number of elements contained in a problem, the greater its complexity. Think of
it as a scale ranging from simple to complex. For example, a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle can be
relatively simple while a 1000 piece puzzle is more complex. While problem complexity deals
1
http://www.americanincite.com/napoleons-corporal/
2
HQ Dept of the Army, FM 5-0, The Operations Process, March 2010, Washington DC, p. 3-1.
3
Dr Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder, The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking, The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2005,
Dillon Beach, CA. p. 1.
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