Transcript Justify Change - Project White Horse

Raising the Bar:
Creating Adaptive Leaders to Deal With
The Changing Face of War
Executive Summary
Major Donald E. Vandergriff
Assistant Professor of Military Science
Georgetown University
EXSUM
May 10, 2005
Purpose &
Points of Discussion
• Purpose: Summary of the 149 page briefing
“Raising the Bar: Creating Adaptive Leaders to
Deal with the Changing Face of War” (as well
as the forthcoming book from the Naval
Institute Press)
• Points of discussion:
– Current and emerging operating environment
–
–
–
–
Historical traditions
Evolve accessions
Keys to transformation
Conclusion: What has to be done?
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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Current and Emerging Operating Environment
“Why”-The Generations of War
Nuclear
Weapons
Proliferate
Peace of
Westphalia
Precursor activities – going
back to Alexander & Sun Tzu
(and before)
Fall of
USSR
2 GW
1
GW
3 GW
States &
non-states
wage war
maneuver
concepts
State-vs-state—
only “legal” form
of war
New commo &
trans networks
4 GW
Highly irregular / partisan
/guerrilla warfare; terrorism;
criminal organizations, etc.
States & nonstates wage
war
(all technically illegal)
©Dr. Chet Richards
www.jaddams.com
1600
1700
“What” type of Army
& Leaders?
Raising the Bar EXSUM
1800
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
1900
2000
3
Current and Emerging Operating Environment
What?-Army Doing Good Things – But?
• Most dramatic since reforms of Elihu Root
(1899-1904)!
• Focused on more than one type of threat
• “17 focus areas” = parallel, systematic
evolution - first time in army history
• Understands need to change career path
progression to create ‘pentathlete’ or
adaptive leader
Highly exemplary – but you must simultaneously evolve
the CULTURE to support the pentathlete!
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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Current and Emerging Operating Environment
The Sum & Key
People-Centric Warfare
Investing in people
What kind of war for the Army?
Large scale operation/small scale contingency
How the enemy fights/operating environment
Not the same culture?
Politically tolerable to have junior “free-thinkers”?
Centers of Gravity for Winning Wars
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
Changed Culture
How-to?
Flexibility? Which level has the “freedom of action”?
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Historical Traditions
The Barriers?
• Mobilization doctrine (Path to Victory)
• “Cheap way of getting officers” (CC studies 2001 & 2002)
• Barriers to more experience, earlier
– Fight between Army & Universities-curriculum (Univ. Wisc. 1930s)
– Vietnam: Loss of stature of ROTC programs in relation to academic
programs / punitive measures taken (1969 onward)
– Mistrust of Army well until 1980s; possibility of reemergence even
today
• But effective reform/evolution can be done, efforts by
– MG Robert Wagner moved ROTC forward by years (1983-86)
– Efforts by MG Casey focused on marketing and recruiting, can
carry the wrong message (2001-3)
• “The Way Ahead” (2001) was a holistic look at Cadet Command,
focused on selection and screening
• Assumes once their in, they will stay in? “We got you now!”
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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Historical Traditions
The Result: “The Production-Line”
The Army’s response to:
 current shortages
 future field grade short falls
 force structure changes,
i.e., increase of Units of Action
Strategic, operational
& tactical impacts
To meet the cycle of decline
Increase “mission”
“The Army ‘machine’ equates 2LTs with ZERO
years of experience to Captains with 10 years
of years.” (PERSORSA)
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
But in reality:
 Experience goes down
 Quality decreases
 Competence suffers
 Retention pays
 EXAMPLE—Non-BQ
CPTs as APMS to schools
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Evolve Accessions
BOLC I Education vs. Training
Favors centralized
training with
resources,
ranges,
personnel, time
Baseline
Resources scale
In sum:
• Favor strengths
• Educate early
• Task-train as
necessary
• To enhance
decision making
• As cognitive
skills established,
plug in task
training
Force-on-Force,
Free-play exercises
Complex Unit Tasks
Weapon Tasks Training
Tasks Training:
What to think
Education:
“How to think”
Individual Tasks
Administrative Tasks
Cognitive development
Language (s)
Tactical Decision Games
Learning Theory
Complexity scale
Cognitive
Skills education
Raising the Bar EXSUM
Favors campusbased education,
mental resources
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
Task
Training
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Evolve Accessions
Begins with tough screening
Baseline
A Different Way to Look at BOLC
Task Training
Cognitive
Skills education
Academic Rigor
begins here!
First tough cut
comes here,
needs to come
earlier than later
Rite of
Passage
BOLC I
Establishes the
foundation in
cognitive skills
“how to think”
sets the foundation
Raising the Bar EXSUM
First
unit
Ft Benning
IN
AR
FA
AV
Ft Bliss
AD
EN
MP
CM
Ft Knox
SC
MI
TC
MS
Ft Sill
QM
OD
AG
FI
BOLC II
“Culturalize”
Brings together
those who passed
through the “gate
of commissioning,”
creating bonds
BOLC III
Specialized
training, and
administrative
tasks
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
Functional
Training
(ABN/Ranger,
Scout Leader)
These may
be offered
earlier
Learning from
the platoon
sergeant/NCOs,
COs, many
tasks can be
learned here
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Evolve Accessions
Education Reform
•
“Mental Preparation” is a long term investment, “we want to plant oak trees,
not pine trees,” CSA April 11, 2003
– BOLC is good start, with Phase II bonding/building trust early; BOLC III should
favor task training
• But…Phase I needs to develop cognitive development (CD) early, social
emotional development (ED), perceptual & pearning process (P&L), and
knowledge development (KD) is the sum of the first two.
•
Plan must favor strengths, understand-avoid weaknesses (summary)
Major
Factors
Strengths
Weaknesses
Action/Plan
ROTC
(today’s
Army)
Bridge with society; located
w/intellectual capital; good at
training; public more
supportive of changes
Resource poor; training
vice education; view of by
Army culture;
CD early-45-50 TDGs in four
years, reading list; free play
force on force; task-training
consolidated joint resources
Y-Gen
Most educated/earlier; like
mental challenges; seeks
autonomy; impatient, expects
more out of chain of cmd
Focused present; physical
durability; removed from
harsh reality of world (U.S.
society)
CD is more advanced, ED is
delta, give ldr spots earliermentor; 4 yrs-excitement;
include more interaction
Expeditionary
Army
Speed, no-notice; calls for
more at lower levels; no build
up and train up; Stabilization”what right looks like”
Conflict with personnel
system; conflict with force
structure; still too
technologically focused
Culture create & nurture
adaptability & innovation;
create systems that support
above-promotion, evals, select.
Non-state harder to target;
“Strategic lieutenant” vice
(how does it
access to “off-the-shelf”;
“intern”; 9-layer hierarchy
favor U.S?)
merging levels-of-war
slows OODA-loop
©
2005
Donald
E. Vandergriff
Raising the Bar EXSUM
War
Must prepare ED and KD
through painful, but safe CD
and P&L
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Evolve Accessions
Centers around Cognitive Development
• “Learning organization” exposes cadets-classical education- they find
answers
-
Experiencing the emotional trauma of failing within a safe, face saving environment
that is needed to promote ED
Once cadets finds the answers themselves, these lessons are emotionally marked in
time
• CD and ED need to be developed in synchrony
-
in order to maximize knowledge development, KD
CD lays open to the individual a landscape of choices
ED determines whether he or she makes the RIGHT CHOICES under prevailing
circumstances
• Tools to assist good teachers
•
•
•
•
•
Tactical decision games (TDGs) key
Intensive confidential individual assessment, feedback, and development planning
360-degree double loop feedback
Establishing the blend of instructional technologies to use, particularly in the
institutional setting, is critical to promoting synchronous growth in CD, ED, and,
consequently, KD
Force on force, free play exercises against a thinking enemy
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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Evolve Accessions
The Degree in Decisive Leadership
Commissioning
BA Decisive
Leadership
Army loan forgiven
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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Conclusion
2nd Generation Army w/3rd Generation People
• Evolution into the 4th Generation of War:
– “Strategic lieutenant” (and “corporal”) becoming reality
• Pushing more demands/requirements to lowest levels
• Merging the traditional levels of war-decisions can impact strategy
– Non-state groups have identified U.S. strengths and weaknesses
– Hierarchal & centralized units have slower decision-cycles
• Mobilization doctrine & cultural perceptions-shaped ROTC:
– To fill out the numbers for USMA in times of need (1863-1973)
– Conflicts with colleges, 1917-1970, minimized rigor of curriculum
– Evolution of the training and evaluation process of Frederick Taylor
• Focus on “fundamentals,” “there is time to learn the rest,” “academicsfirst,” “crawl-walk-run”—out of box seen as “fun” or “too-advanced” not
training
• Leadership evaluations focused on “checking-the-block”
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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Conclusion
Plan to Evolve Culture
• Army is adapting, but by climate, not culture
– After the need goes away, so do the positive climates?
– Cultural engines identified by Army Training and Leadership
Development Panel (ATLDP) of 2001 remain
• “up or out” promotion (1916)
• Production line accessions=quantity trumps quality (1900)
• Bloated officer corps, driven by short-term measures (1947)
• Culture must evolve slightly ahead of other institutional
changes in order to be in place,
– To nurture traits of desired behavior
– Sustain changes brought about to ensure success
• The hardest part to develop is the details in a strategic
how-to to move from here to there
Raising the Bar EXSUM
© 2005 Donald E. Vandergriff
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