The conference spent much of afternoon today discussing a long list of personnel management issues. These included enlisted recruiting, enlistment contracts, managing headcount around deployment schedules, reforms to NCO education, officer education, and more. Several leaders explained the consequences a variety of quotas and timelines were having on personnel management.

The Army is formulating personnel plans based on assumptions regarding the future operating environment and the combat taskings and headcount that will result from these assumptions. That is prudent planning and a reasonable reaction by leaders held accountable for results.

But they and everyone else knows that what actually happens will be far different from what they plan for. The need for adaptation is the underlying theme of this conference. Over the next five years the Army’s personnel system, and the personnel themselves, will feel the burden of adaptation when events end up differing substantially from projections.

-Robert Haddick