How Does a SF A-Team Take Down a National

Level Target?

One tool we used in the military to make sure we had the right target  or goal and applied
the correct amount of work was something called the CARVER matrix. The CARVER
Matrix is a  system that was developed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to 
assess specific targets. The goal of the CARVER Matrix is to determine  which target or part
of a target is the best to attack.

How Does a SF A-Team Take Down a Nation Level Target?

During Operation Desert Storm, U.S. Special Ops was tasked to disable  the Iraqi Air
Defense System. To do this, they applied the factors of  CARVER to break this large system
into smaller pieces and eventually  identified small buried communications bunkers, which
they destroyed  before the air war commenced. These small, surgical strikes disabled the 
entire system as it prevented radar sites from directing fire from  missile batteries at the
oncoming aircraft.

The CARVER Matrix

For the military purpose, the acronym, CARVER, stands for  Criticality, Accessibility,
Recuperability, Vulnerability, Effect and  Recognizability.
Criticality: The target value. How vital is this to  the overall organization? A target is
critical when its compromise or  destruction  has a highly significant impact in the overall 
organization.

Accessibility: How easily can I reach the target? What are the defenses? Do I need an
insider? Is the target computer off the internet?

Recuperability: How long will it take for the  organization to replace, repair, or bypass the
destruction or damage  caused to the target? Once the compromise was found, how long will
it  take for the system to recuperate from it.

Vulnerability: What is the degree of knowledge needed to attack the target? How exposed
is it versus how well defended is it?

Effect: What’s the impact of the attack?

Recognizability: Can I identify the target as such? How easy is to recognize that a specific
item is the target.

How do we use the CARVER Matrix?

Write down the targets in a table, on top of that table write the  components of CARVER,
then rank each target on each component with  values from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest
priority or, in our case, the  highest value:

The CARVER Matrix for Your Life

So let’s change this a bit for work on your life and your goals.

Criticality.How critical is the goal with respect to your dreams? Will it move you

significantly closer to  your dream, or is it a relatively puny and insignificant item? A low 
criticality project might be cleaning out your garage. It would be nice  to do, but it’s probably
not going to make that much difference in your  life.
Accessibility.Can you actually do the goal, or is it  beyond your abilities at the moment?
Do you have the means to tackle  this project immediately, or does it have prerequisites?
Starting a new  business might not be very accessible if you work long hours and are  living
paycheck to paycheck, but asking for a promotion may be very  accessible.

Return. For personal productivity we’ll use Return instead. How great is the expected

return on your commitment of  resources? Developing a new passive income stream may
yield a  significant return, while watching the news may yield virtually none.

Vulnerability.How easy is the goal/project to  accomplish? What amount of resources will
be required to do it? A  one-day project will score a high vulnerability rating, while a  six-
month project will score much lower. Similarly, an inexpensive  project is more vulnerable
than an expensive one.

Effect.If you successfully complete the goal, how  widespread will the impact be? If you
successfully complete your  project, what effect will it have on your life as well as the lives of 
others? Writing a best-selling book may have a significant effect, while  completing your tax
return will have very little effect.

Recognizability.Do you understand your goal  well enough to accomplish it? Is your

project crystal clear or totally  fuzzy? How easy is it to recognize the steps necessary to
complete the  project? Have you completed this type of project before, or will you  have to
figure out the steps as you go along? Clear goals with clear  steps will score higher on
recognizability than foggy goals with unclear  steps.

Now let’s see how we can create another CARVER matrix to prioritize  certain projects. The
1-5 rankings for each factor are simply for the  sake of example, so your own rankings may
vary. Keep in mind that these  rankings are all relative to your primary objective, mission,
or  purpose.

The numbers tell the story. According to our CARVER matrix, the most important project to
tackle next is to start a blog. While it’s among the least  critical items and won’t necessarily
produce a great return for the time  invested, it’s relatively easy and straightforward to do.
Next comes  writing a book, which is a more critical long-term project (at least for  our
arbitrary person making these evaluations), but it will also  require a lot more effort to
achieve. The worst project is being happy,  its main drawbacks being that it’s too fuzzy and
ill-defined, so it  might be wise to replace that one with a more specific project.

CARVER does a fairly decent job of spitting out an showing you what’s  important. It’s really
good at depicting which projects are worth the  effort and which aren’t. It also shows when
you should tackle a piece of  low-hanging fruit vs. initiating a really big project.

This was adapted from Page on achievethegreenberetway.com

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