Leadership and Management
Introduction to Leading Analysis
Instructor: Bruce Pease
Who Is This Course For?
This course is for anyone who currently supervises analysts and the production of analysis or who hopes to have such a position in the future. Regardless of your industry or whether you’re in the public or private sector, if you lead others in providing valuable insights to internal or external customers, this course offers practical strategies and tips for success.
The instructor, Bruce Pease, literally wrote the book on how managers of analysts can help them perform at their best—it’s called Leading Intelligence Analysis—Lessons from the CIA’s Analytic Front Lines. Bruce established and led the Agency’s Office of Terrorism Analysis immediately following the 9/11 attacks and held numerous other positions where he helped analysts cover critical issues. He shares his lessons from those experiences, his time as a Navy intelligence analyst, and his more recent role working as a trainer and consultant in the private sector with some of the country’s leading technology firms.
Related Courses
Leading Analysis Is Different from Doing Analysis
Analytic organizations—and analysts—often assume that if someone is great analyst, they would be an equally effective manager of analysts, but that isn’t always the case. Supervising the analytic process requires a different skill set and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to step away from doing the analysis yourself. This course addresses the challenging transition from analyst to manager and offers practical guidance for easing that transition for new managers and the analysts they supervise. Nobody wants to work for a “manalyst,” and this course will help keep you from becoming one.
Praise for Leading Intelligence Analysis, the Foundation for This Course
“While director of the CIA, I sometimes described the analytic workforce there as resembling a tenured college faculty as I worked to preserve the excellence and independence of thought so essential to success (in either body) and to harness those engines to a common, disciplined enterprise. Bruce Pease was my guide and counselor for that effort, and now Bruce has captured his advice and wisdom in Leading Intelligence Analysis, a must-read for any senior official in or out of government who leads—or depends on—analysis.”
Michael V. Hayden, former Director of the CIA
“Bruce Pease is one of the finest leaders and analysts ever to serve at the Central Intelligence Agency. Few had his ability to cut through complicated issues and provide senior leaders with wisdom. No matter what business you are in, Bruce brings clarity and balance to help get the most out of your forecasters, most of whom are inundated with data in this digital age. The results will be game changing.”
George Tenet, former Director of the CIA
“Bruce Pease has written a much-needed book on a long-ignored topic: how does one lead analysts? Most analysis is at some level a group activity, whether in government or the private sector… Leadership matters in analysis as in all other endeavors, and Pease offers invaluable guidance on how best to lead effectively. This book is a must for anyone in a leadership role in an analytic enterprise.”
Mark Lowenthal, author of Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy
What You'll Get
Video
Content
Course
Transcript
Downloadable
Extras
What You'll Learn
In this course, you’ll learn:
- How to continue to employ your analytic skills as a manager without succumbing to the temptation to become the “uberanalyst.”
- How to diagnose and appreciate the various ways your analysts might think and how to take advantage of those differences.
- Ways to create a productive environment in which your analysts can flourish, in part by avoiding doing some of the things that all analysts hate.
- How to recognize when an analytic problem calls for an individual analyst, a deep expert, a team approach, or data analytics.
- Why new ideas are often squelched and how to protect and nurture them.
- The critical role a manager plays in choosing the right questions for their analysts to answer and what differentiates a good analytic question from a bad one.
- Your responsibilities as a manager of analysts go beyond producing analysis, from ensuring your employees have the tools they need to dealing with customers and seniors in your own organization.
Course Content
Introduction
Lesson 1 – Leading Analysis Is Different from Doing Analysis
Lesson 2 – Understanding Analysts
Lesson 3 – Shaping the Environment
Lesson 4 – Choosing the Best Approach
Lesson 5 – Nurturing the Idea
Lesson 6 – Asking the Right Question
Lesson 7 – Analysis as a Business
Conclusion
Meet Your Instructor
Bruce Pease
Bruce E. Pease is a consultant on national security issues and the application of artificial intelligence, and he teaches leadership, ethics, and analysis. For 17 years he led CIA’s front-burner components, specializing in threats to US security and developing expertise in today’s most pressing security issues. In the late 1990s, he led CIA’s Office of Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Analysis, providing key policy support during multiple crises in the Middle East. After the 9/11 attacks, he established and led CIA’s new Office of Terrorism Analysis and then became deputy director of the Counterterrorism Center. In 2004, he became director of CIA’s Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center, analyzing the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction and emerging military technologies. His service also includes work as part of the White House staff, when he was Director of Intelligence Programs on the National Security Council, as well as eight years of active duty in the US Navy.
Try a sample lecture
Nurturing the New Idea
This lecture is a part of JTG Proficiency1’s course Introduction to Leading Analysis by Bruce Pease.