Wargaming 101

Wargaming for Leaders co-author Robert Kurz clarifies how wargaming is different from and more effective than brainstorming, takes viewers through Wargaming 101, and describes how wargaming has helped government officials and private-sector leaders solve problems in ways they otherwise couldn’t have.

Kurz gives an example of a wargame for a large financial services company that postulated a terrorist attack on a data facility. The game revealed that the company’s new multimillion-dollar backup site was not configured to handle the particularly crucial category of financial transactions that was affected by the incident. In another wargame Kurz describes, players from government, industry, and nongovernmental organizations were able to address challenges they might face in the event of an avian flu pandemic, experiment with responses, identify gaps in policies, build response plans, and be better prepared to save lives should such a pandemic become reality.

Kurz answers these questions:

• What is wargaming?
• Why did you write Wargaming for Leaders?
• Wargaming 101: How does a wargame work?
• What are some of your favorite wargame stories?
• What makes a Booz Allen wargame different?

Robert Kurz, a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, specializes in strategy, analysis, and wargaming.