From United States military and intelligence war-gaming, set out for organizations by Micah Zenko (Red Team, 2015) and Bryce G. Hoffman (Red Teaming, 2017).
Gives an independent team the mandate to attack a plan, defense, or set of assumptions, and turns what it finds into revisions before anything is committed.
When to reach for it
Nobody has been given the job of breaking a high-stakes plan, and the people who wrote it are about to approve it.
How it runs
- Define exactly what is being tested.
- Appoint a separate team with expertise and freedom to report.
- Agree the rules of engagement and what is off limits.
- Brief the team enough to attack, without adopting the plan's logic.
- Let the team attack within a fixed time.
- Sort findings into fixes and accepted risks, then revise.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy, 2015
- Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything, 2017