Photo Credit: Eric Pilgrim, Fort Knox News
In full disclosure, if you think this article will provide some sort of insight to gain a foothold at the Battalion Commander’s Assessment Program (BCAP); it won’t. What it will do is provide some of my thoughts based on my attendance as part of FY20’s BCAP Cohort 002. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the program and within the scope I’m allowed, I will share my impressions on my involvement.
Perhaps due to my 16+ years within the legacy command slating process, I was skeptical on the utility of the BCAP. While the BCAP introduces multiple “vectors” of additional information for a board to consider, it also only presents a snapshot in time of an officer. You have a bad day, and your physical fitness test score is not as high as usual. You didn’t sleep well, and your assessments suffered. The reality is, although it is only a snapshot, it is also real life for a Battalion Commander. Not every day is a great day; sometimes it’s just okay. If the BCAP can provide some additional insight into the “wholeness” of an officer, or even just identify an officer who may potentially derail an organization with an abusive or toxic attitude, then I think it is worth a try.
The program is high on the Chief of Staff’s priorities, and MG McGee, the Director of the Army Talent Management Task Force (ATMTF), has taken this charge to heart. Several times during MG McGee’s opening remarks to my cohort, he emphasized that the BCAP was to be a professional, world-class event. This is important, because how many times do we over promise and under deliver? Not so in this case. The cadre – pulled from multiple organizations across CONUS – clearly spent time rehearsing and learning their duties. The cadre ensured continuity across all cohorts through scripting and highly regimented administrative processes and procedures. To ensure further fairness, all of the candidates left phones, smartwatches, pens, and paper in our rooms, so as not to compromise any information. Sure, there were some hiccups with timing and some technical setbacks, but there were contingency plans and changes to the schedule did not compromise the integrity of the program.
You would think with all the mystery surrounding the events that some sort of Hunger Games or NFL Combine mentality would set in, causing candidates to turn against each other. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I don’t know if it was MG McGee’s remarks that “our only competition is ourselves”, or if we collectively understood that everyone was just as nervous as the next, but there was no outward competition at play. Instead, old friends reconnected and new friendships formed in the same way teams form under a shared experience. I personally connected to officers I would probably never otherwise ever meet, and some of these connections are likely to last beyond the five-day event.
While the BCAP is a program worth running, the next real question is how sustainable is it? While there are monetary costs associated with running a program with travel and lodging requirements, these are relatively insignificant in the scheme of how useful the program will be in talent management. What is costly is the 6 weeks the 170+ cadre (some from the ATMTF and many from units across the Army) and the 30+ operational psychologists spent at Fort Knox facilitating the assessment. You also cannot discount the enormous effort it took for ATMTF personnel to research and collect subordinate and peer evaluations for over 750 participating candidates. Is it possible to maintain the labor cost, year after year, in order to pull a snapshot of information on an officer preparing for command? There is discussion of extending this program to Brigade-level command selects, as well as Command Sergeant Majors. That potentially increases the annual support personnel requirements for multiple BCAP sessions. I suppose it depends on what cost you place on ensuring units have the best leadership possible. Is it possible to enumerate the damage a toxic leader can do to an organization or the young leaders that take on those traits? It will require more than one iteration of the program to determine the effects of BCAP on placing the best candidates into command billets.
Overall, I think the BCAP is a promising program that has the potential to ensure we place talent in the best positions possible. The Army Talent Management Task Force planned, prepared, and executed a very good event; one that I am honored to have participated in. I look forward to feedback from other candidates, as well as the potential growth of the program.
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MAJ Bradley is currently the Chief of Operations, Operations Group Foxtrot, Mission Command Training Program. A Military Police officer, she has served in Military Police organizations with operational experience in Iraq. She completed her BN S3 / XO and BDE S3 time in the 42nd Military Police Brigade. Prior to assuming the position of Chief of Operations, she served as the Senior Military Police Observer, Coach / Trainer in the Operations Group.
Under the ‘continuous education’ concept, the correct pluralization is command sergeants major. Otherwise, a good article providing another first-hand perspective on the BCAP.
I am happy that MAJ Bradley felt comfortable posting this. I have been working with the ATMTF for over a year and know that the philosophy of the BCAP is that providing more information about officers will allow the Army to make better decisions regarding Battalion Command selection. The audience that has to be convinced that this is a fair and better process is both senior leaders who are making the selections and the population of officers being considered. It sounds like MAJ Bradley is convinced that there is merit to the approach. Her concerns about sustainability are warranted. One step at a time…
Major Bradley,
Having enjoyed and succeeded at the gift of battalion command I found your assessment well described and therefore well founded. What concerns me is the real mystery you did not mention and perhaps felt it better left unsaid; the correlation between 16-17 years of assessments by professional officers and exactly the weight accorded this incredibly important aspect of evaluation in the new BCAP. The description publicly provided by HRC side stepped this most important of correlations mentioning only that it was important but not the exact role it would play in the BCAP. I sincerely hope for all of you that your positive evaluations over half of your careers, which enabled you to qualify for BCAP still carries the awesome weight it deserves. Good luck and take care of your battalion and know always, it is a gift, not a mere stepping stone to another position, a true gift of soldiers lives to be cherished always.