2. Intelligence Direction Fundamentals

This course delves into the critical first stage of the intelligence cycle: Intelligence Direction, when the intelligence customer sends their requirements, or questions they want answered by you and your colleagues.

Here’s what you can expect to learn:

• The Role of Direction: You’ll explore the concept of direction and its importance in setting the stage for the entire intelligence process. Direction serves as the foundation, guiding intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination efforts.
  
• Intelligence Customers: The course will define and differentiate various intelligence customers. These customers, ranging from government officials to military commanders, have specific needs and questions that intelligence professionals aim to address.
  
• Understanding Customer Needs: You’ll gain insight into how to identify and understand the diverse needs of intelligence customers. This involves deciphering their priorities, concerns, and the specific information they require to make informed decisions.
  
• Translating Needs into Requirements: This section will explore how intelligence professionals transform customer needs into actionable intelligence requirements. You’ll learn how to formulate clear, concise, and prioritized questions that can be effectively addressed by the intelligence cycle.
  
• Types of Intelligence Requirements: The course might introduce different types of intelligence requirements, such as:
  • Priority Intelligence Requirements (PIRs): Time-sensitive and critical information needs for ongoing operations.
  • Enduring Intelligence Requirements (EIRs): Long-term information needs to support strategic planning and anticipate future challenges.
    
• Effective Communication: You’ll likely learn best practices for clear communication with intelligence customers. This includes active listening, clarifying needs, and ensuring a mutual understanding of the requirements.
  
• Real-World Examples: The course might incorporate real-world examples or case studies to illustrate how intelligence direction translates into actionable intelligence and informs decision-making.

Course Outline:

Expected Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. Explain the significance of intelligence direction in the intelligence cycle.
2. Identify different types of intelligence customers and their needs.
3. Effectively translate customer needs into clear and concise intelligence requirements.
4. Recognize the importance of tailoring requirements to various intelligence disciplines (e.g., human intelligence, signals intelligence).
5. Demonstrate strong communication skills for interacting with intelligence customers.

Overall, the Intelligence Direction Fundamentals course equips you with the knowledge and skills to build a strong foundation for your intelligence career.

Who this program is for:

The courses of the Intelligence Cycle Fundamentals program, are designed as an introductory window into the world of Intelligence, thus no previous training or education on Intelligence is required.

The courses of this program are for anybody who wants to engage with intelligence in their career right now, or in the future. These could be researchers, journalists, analysts, policymakers, security professionals and much more.

Content Warning: 

This course deals with the common types of work in the intelligence industry and therefore features broad discussions of issues such as conflict, terrorism, and natural disasters. We also provide links to historic documents that deal with these topics throughout the course. We include this context because they are common topics in intelligence and are the subject of most historic and declassified documents. For specific concerns about the nature of any content please contact school@greydynamics.com.