Educating Special Forces Junior Leaders for a Complex Security Environment

[marct]

I do have to admit to knowing only one Baroque Singer -- and that only virtually...

Someday, we'll fix that "virtually" part over bourbon and beers .

Much there to think about. Seriously. Especially the "Transdisciplinarity is a threat to the 'box of boxes' " issue...

There has been some decent work done in the area, but it's spread across a whole slew of disciplines. I think my favorite piece dealing with it is Andrew Abbott's The System of the Professions - a brilliant work, IMO, that should be mandatory reading in high school!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about and working with the issue of transdisciplinarity in my academic life. I suspect that we are right on the cusp of getting decent methodologies to actually get some decent empirical data on the issue but, so far, I haven't seen anything yet (at the empirical level) that I really like. What I want is brain scans, darn it!

On a less serious note (slightly), stand-up comedy and improvisational acting have merit as cross disciplines; leadership they say is half showmanship -- and the benefits of both alternatives to the military briefer go without saying...

In many ways, the best training I ever had for teaching was the training I got in improv acting and stand-up comedy. I've also run some informal polls, and it seems that most of my students learn better when they can laugh at the process of learning (endorphin induced stress-reduction is my guess). As for the leader motivation aspect you bring up Ken, I totally agree, although i might put it a touch higher .

Cheers,

Marc