Shalva Lomidze
Major General (Retired)
Former Head of the Georgian Intelligence Service
Advisor of Geocase
It is obvious reality and natural process that only those who take actions, make mistakes. However, professionalism is revealed in the ability of humans/system to handle their own errors. Mistakes in special services may have fatal consequences but the difference between prosperous and failed services is the preparedness to analyze, minimize or prevent them.
Factors defining the success of operations:
• Informational advantage
• Detailed, flexible plan based on the real facts
• Professional executor and leadership
• Adversaries’ errors
• Protection of information and prevention of the leak
• Technical advantage
• Effective reaction to unexpected conditions and benefit from them.
Reasons behind the failure of operations:
• Incorrect and incomplete intelligence
• Inaccurate analysis due to the disinformation from the adversary
• lll-considered planning and strategy, inappropriate assessment of reality, communication problems throughout operation
• Leak of information considering operation details
• Errors made by the officers due to exhaustion, poor training and wrong decisions, lack of motivation
• External factors, unexpected occurrences and unpredictable developments
• Technical and logistical problems, poor resources and support.
It is worth of attention if failures have systematic character. Obviously, repeated lack of success points to the problem within the system and is no ordinary coincidence. Therefore, deep analysis of reasons of failure is of utmost importance since it is apparent that something has to be changed. What should be done in such case apart from analyzing the factors that caused failure, are the following:
• Revision of the strategy of operations
• Application of alternative mechanisms
• Carrying out simulations of various scenarios
• Level up the training of officers
• Implementation of technological innovations
• Detection of those responsible for the failure – executors and/or decision-makers and impartial assessment of their activities.