The Army Capstone Concept: the Army wants your comments

[Bill Jakola]

I like your idea of training complexity by training in the real world; the idea has merit and such real world training would be difficult to replicate in a classroom or other artifical training area, like the Army's combat training centers. However there are things that are difficult or impossible to train in public areas, like things that involve lethal force or unique cultural differences. So a combination of these types of trainiing seems right.

Also, as far as short cutting the system; well developed leaders, I believe, would not only circumvent the systems shortfalls, but also improve these systemic weak areas. That 's what good leaders do.

Bill Jakola

Keep your powder dry!

[Elric]

Also, as far as short cutting the system; well developed leaders, I believe, would not only circumvent the systems shortfalls, but also improve these systemic weak areas. That 's what good leaders do.

Bill, I have to love your attitude. Unfortunately, hope is not an approved Army planning method (but it seems to be extensively used). How long must we circumvent the shortfalls? I don't have the "luxury" of the 200+ training days available to the active component. Until the big guns clean the Augean stables, many Guard and Reserve units struggle with the growing list of mandatory training, soldier readiness, and, oh, almost forgot, missions...

IMHO, the Army has changed to self service, where the individual soldier is expected to monitor their records, medical status, DTS, and oh, don't forget your professional reading! Except we are not trained in records or medical or finance. The system IMHO, requires too much immersion by every soldier in non-mission tasks. Need to get ready for a mission? Quick, everyone run to a system and bang out your DTS voucher! The DD 1351-2 got me paid in less than a month, fax or scan it in. No computer needed. Plus, I didn't need a government CC, and I could control my credit rating (if DTS does not pay your CC, you will be counseled!)..

Computer access is a sore point. The centralized "support" system seems to be better at denying access to soldiers with a valid CAC card than Chinese hackers. Without access, a soldier is unable to access all these self help things for the weekend. (my record is three months). The S6 shop has had it's ability to actually help drastically reduced.

Take care of the ordinary things while fixing the big things...

[Rob Thornton]

Bill,
Are there going to be any specific qualifications of functions the Army wants its leaders of a given rank or position to be capable of doing? Are we going to see for example what the Army wants out of a DIV CDR or MG? Will we be able to walk that back through one or more developmental paths and look at what possible assignments or experiences might produce that leader?

An example question might be what prepares someone to take on being a COCOM CDR or a service chief? If we can't qualify what it is we expect that leader to be capable of at a given level, I'm not sure we can really get to how we develop them to do so.

Best, Rob

[Bill Jakola]

Bill,
Are there going to be any specific qualifications of functions the Army wants its leaders of a given rank or position to be capable of doing? Are we going to see for example what the Army wants out of a DIV CDR or MG? Will we be able to walk that back through one or more developmental paths and look at what possible assignments or experiences might produce that leader?

Best, Rob

I do not claim to be all things TRADOC and do not know the answers to your many excellent questions. What I say here is only the view from my foxhole. But, I can tell you that the ALDS is a base document that will have annexes that should help answer at least some of your questions.

Also, you and others in this discussion may benefit from reading the "Global Achievement Gap" book by Tony Wagner--and no I don't get a commission. This educator dissects learning and some of the shortcommings in our education system. Many of Mr. Wagner's observations can apply to leader development and the methods we use.

Bill Jakola

Keep your powder dry!

[marct]

Hi Rob,

Are there going to be any specific qualifications of functions the Army wants its leaders of a given rank or position to be capable of doing? Are we going to see for example what the Army wants out of a DIV CDR or MG? Will we be able to walk that back through one or more developmental paths and look at what possible assignments or experiences might produce that leader?

I do not claim to be all things TRADOC and do not know the answers to your many excellent questions. What I say here is only the view from my foxhole. But, I can tell you that the ALDS is a base document that will have annexes that should help answer at least some of your questions.

This is, of course, one of the most crucial things. I've already emailed Bill with a suggested POC from the CF who has done that for us (shoot me an email if you want same ).

The ALDS is, from what I can see, a political document - a strategy for competing in the bureaucratic battlespace. The appendices - and why is TRADOC using the French Annexes (?!) - should contain the actualities of it. Personally, I would hope that they have a good theoretical model of leader development, but I doubt they do which, BTW, is not a slam at TRADOC. The best ones I've seen, coming out of both the CF and the management literature, are still pretty sparse in terms of really thinking through implications and connections and they are, IMO, based on demonstrably false metaphysical and ontological models.

My musings at this point in time lean towards the idea that what TRADOC should seriously consider doing is to develop such a theoretical model using a variant of red teaming with an extremely interdisciplinary crowd of people before they produce cast in stone operational outlines. The analogy I like to use is that you would want to plan out a campaign until you had a map of the battlespace, so why are you doing so in this instance?

What bugs me is that there actually are a decent collection of methodological techniques for developing such a model, but they don't appear to be used. Building a map of the campaign territory isn't that hard, but it is complex and requires some very odd ways of looking at things (e.g. imagine trying to design mapping conventions for a terrain that is constantly changing; you know how much fun that is ).

[Bill Jakola]

ALCON: the TRADOC Senior Leaders Conference (TSLC) is next week 9-11 March 2010 at Williamsburg, VA. This is an important venue for continuing the discussion from the last TSLC in August.

The conference will bring together many of the Army’s senior professionals to discuss ways to improve the training and education of America’s Soldiers under the theme, “Our Army’s Campaign of Learning.” The recently published Army Capstone Concept (ACC) describes the broad capabilities the Army will require to fight in the future, and provides the common language and conceptual foundation for an ongoing campaign of learning and analysis. The prioritized capabilities that emerge from the ACC and the other, more detailed Warfighter Function (WfF) and Operating concepts will guide changes across DOTMLPF.

The Army of the future will learn differently, build leaders differently, train differently and redesign itself more quickly. And the capstone concept serves as our “line of departure” for building that Army.

During Day 1 of the conference, our Centers of Excellence will have their first opportunity to backbrief the implications of the ACC to their WfFs and the associated 1st Order Required Capabilities.

During Day 2, we will focus on developing some tangible solutions to assist in developing a new learning concept for our Army. We recognize we live in an increasingly competitive world. The important corollary of this is that we live in a competitive learning environment. In this environment, the nation and its military that learn the fastest, and the best, are going to prevail. To that end, we are developing a new learning concept to provide the basis for building an Army education system adapted to the learning styles and information needs of its learners, while ensuring we still deliver the high-quality content our Soldiers need and deserve.

Also at TSLC, we will have military bloggers as well as traditional media covering this conference so you can all be part of the ongoing conversation.

Bill Jakola

[marct]

Hi Bill,

I'm certainly glad to hear that the conversation will be continuing . Do you have a list of the bloggers, yet, who will be there?

Cheers,

Marc

[Bill Jakola]

The new FM 5.0 is out; here is the link and forward: http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/FM50/
"The environment in which we conduct operations is characterized by four clear trends: growing uncertainty, rapid change, increased competitiveness, and greater decentralization. Given these trends, our leaders must expect and be prepared to confront a variety of complex problems, most of which will include myriad interdependent variables and all of which will include a human dimension.

With the publication of FM 5-0, The Operations Process, and the introduction of design into our doctrine, we highlight the importance of understanding complex problems more fully before we seek to solve them through our traditional planning processes.

Design is neither a process nor a checklist. It is a critical and creative thinking methodology to help commanders understand the environment, analyze problems, and consider potential approaches so they can exploit opportunities, identify vulnerabilities, and anticipate transitions during a campaign.

Commanders apply design to understand before entering the visualize, describe, direct, lead, and assess cycle. Einstein once said, “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.” Combining design with the military decision making process provides Army leaders with a more comprehensive approach to problem solving under conditions of complexity and uncertainty. The mission narrative produced through design enables leaders to articulate the context in which they operate to both subordinates and superiors alike.

In addition to the introduction of design, this revision of FM 5-0 builds on and expands the body of doctrine associated with full spectrum operations described in the 2008 edition of FM 3-0, Operations. Moving beyond planning and orders production, this manual holistically addresses planning, preparation, execution, and assessment in the continuous learning cycle of the operations process. It reinforces the central role of commanders in the operations process through battle command—applying the art and science of understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, leading, and assessing operations—in exercising effective command and control. The intent of FM 5-0 is to encourage greater flexibility through critical thought, action, and initiative. Army leaders must not only develop effective plans, they must be able to convert those plans into timely action while maintaining the capability to reframe and adapt as the situation changes in an increasingly dynamic operational environment. "

Bill Jakola

[Bill Jakola]

the Army has changed to self service, where the individual soldier is expected to monitor their records, medical status, DTS, and oh, don't forget your professional reading!

Great point! Yes, self serve is a big part of it. Also, I too have reserve experience and can empathize with the extra challenges Citizen-Soldiers face. And don't even get me started on the difficulties of DTS; you are preaching to the choir there.

However, back to self serve; the Army has always required Soldiers to monitor their records, medical status, travel, and conduct professional reading. Although Soldiers rely on bureaucratic systems to assist in these areas, those who aggressively manage their own are more prepared and tend to be ready when called to duty. More importantly, the skills required to overcome poorly made systems, like DTS, are the type needed for complex problem solving. I am not saying that it we should provide Soldiers with a broken system just to train them on working within a suboptimal bureaucracy; but that fixing the system will not remove the requirement for developing those skills. Success in the operational environment requires adaptive, resilient, Soldiers who are constantly looking for innovative way to solve problems and know how to ask the right questions.

Bill Jakola

Keep your powder dry!