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Herding Cats in the AI Age

About Jeep Marshall

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About the Author

Section titled “About the Author”

Jeep Marshall LTC, U.S. Army (Retired) Airborne Infantry | Special Operations | Process Improvement 📧 admin@herding-cats.ai

Background

Section titled “Background”

I served 26 years in the U.S. Army, spanning airborne infantry and special operations. Seven of those years went to training brigade-level staffs through simulation-driven exercises — where every planning framework described in this series got tested under operational pressure, repeatedly, with real consequences for failure.

I hold Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification. I’ve applied DMAIC methodology to military operations, organizational systems, and — more recently — to AI agent architecture and workflow design.

Currently I’m building a comprehensive “second brain” knowledge management system using Obsidian, Claude AI, and multi-agent workflows. That system accidentally became the laboratory documented in Paper 3.

The Thesis

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The AI industry has a discipline problem, not an intelligence problem.

I learned this in the Army. Individual brilliance doesn’t survive contact with organizational complexity. A platoon of exceptional soldiers fails without doctrine. A fleet of brilliant AI agents does the same thing — just faster and at greater expense.

These papers make the case that the next generation of AI practitioners needs Black Belts and battle staff officers more than another language model.

How This Series Happened

Section titled “How This Series Happened”

I didn’t plan to write seven research papers and a case study. I planned to build a better personal knowledge management system.

What happened instead: I started applying military planning frameworks to AI workflows, ran into every coordination problem the academic literature predicted, documented the failures, and kept refining the doctrine. By the time I had 1,768 git commits across 33 days of multi-agent operations, the papers were writing themselves.

Claude AI assisted throughout. The research, the analysis, the live field tests, and the cross-series synthesis all happened in real-time sessions. The ideas and the operational experience are mine. The execution partnership made them publishable.

Research Methodology

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Each paper applies a multi-disciplinary analytical team — a methodology I borrowed from how a proper battle staff operates:

  • LSS-BB (Lean Six Sigma Black Belt): Waste analysis, process capability assessment, DMAIC framework
  • QASA (Quality Assurance Standards Analyst): Source verification, cross-reference validation, publication readiness
  • ASS2 (Automation, Structure & Scalability, Safety & Security): Three-domain review applied together — automation potential, structural scalability, and safety/security posture. Flat, equal-weight framework, not single-lens analysis.
  • Creative Arts Practitioner: Hands-on field testing, visual evidence, professional workflow assessment
  • Observer-Controller: Scope management, quality gate enforcement, cross-series continuity

This isn’t decoration. The multi-perspective lens produces findings that a single analyst misses.

Publications and Target Venues

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The series targets both practitioner and academic audiences:

  • Small Wars Journal (military AI doctrine, operational applications)
  • Military Review (command and control frameworks)
  • War on the Rocks (strategic analysis)
  • Journal of Force Structure (organizational design)
  • General practitioner audience via Obsidian Publish

Contact

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For questions, collaboration, or speaking inquiries:

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© 2026 Jeep Marshall. All rights reserved. “Herding Cats in the AI Age” is an original research series by Jeep Marshall.

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