​​​Harmattan offers two courses to hone organisational intelligence capabilities, covering both sides of the intelligence value equation: intelligence customers, who need to be able to effectively task, guide and apply intelligence, and intelligence practitioners, who need to be able to respond to unique customer needs and shape actionable, useable results.

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Our two courses in intelligence practice are outlined below. 

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Course: Being an Effective Intelligence Customer

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This one- to two-day course is for managers, planners and decision-makers who are not intelligence specialists but who depend on solid intelligence do their jobs effectively.

 

Intelligence customers are fully half of the equation when it comes to the value of intelligence. They bring their intimate knowledge of organisational strategy, operational realities and strengths and limitations to the table, and put finished intelligence to use through informed plans, decisions, and risk-taking. However, intelligence work can seem arcane to senior managers, and if they do not have a firm grasp of the opportunities and limitations they can fail to task and guide it for optimal results.

 

The course helps managers to become effective customers and users, and focuses on:

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• An introduction to intelligence practitioners and their art

• The menu: different intelligence “products” and their purposes

• Tasking and briefs – knowing what to ask for and how

• Quality in intelligence and how to be a discerning customer

• Working with intelligence teams – coaching and listening for relevant, useable results

• Understanding qualification, dissenting opinion, and assessed confidence

• Hierarchy, office politics, and ambition versus intelligence objectivity

• The role of intelligence customers in intelligence failures (and how to avoid that role)

• Selecting and working with external advisors and intelligence providers

• Hype, fads, myths, gizmos, boilerplates and super-quick results – caveat emptor.

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Course: Managing Complex Intelligence Tasks

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Much intelligence work consists of the ongoing assessment and monitoring of targets set in regular reviews. Standard procedures and processes usually suffice to guide routine work.

 

In other cases, though, decision-makers and leaders have a unique and complex requirement, such as how to respond to specific geopolitical convolutions or a major change in the operating environment, or how to ensure that a high-stakes strategic decision accounts for relevant variables. Practitioners – analysts and planners – need to be able to become intelligence problem-solvers, capable of applying their skills and expertise in new ways to ensure that they provide robust guidance.

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Managing Complex Intelligence Tasks is a two- to three-day course that equips practitioners with the practical knowledge and skills to go beyond standard processes and become adept at responding to unique, high-stakes customer needs. Political risk is the principal frame of reference but the course contents are applicable to a range of contexts. The course includes:

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• Probing and honing the brief and scope for a clear and meaningful target

• Mapping the path to actionable results and designing the project framework

• Team roles, workstream assignments and team coordination

• Collection planning, from context to nuance

• Back to basics – logic and reasoning, how we “know” in intelligence

• Bias and quality control in sources and interpretation

• Fieldwork and human sources in sensitive environments

• Managing uncertainty and dissenting opinion

• Customer interaction and support, dealing with office-political pressure

• Documentation, reporting and dissemination

• Designing a follow-up monitoring programme.