On July 10, 2019, I reported to Fort Leavenworth and the Command General Staff College.  I had prepared myself to be led into a room with a doctor holding an orbitoclast for the lobotomy I had been promised.  After some quick in-processing, I received administrative information before they sent me on my way.  I was relieved to still have my mind, but surely the lobotomy everyone had promised would happen later in the year.   

Returning in August for the first day of class, we were shown the academic calendar. Again, I looked for the block of time reserved for the inevitable procedure.  But there was nothing blocked off for the “lobotomy”.  Now I started to worry.  Would I be whisked away from my home in the middle of the night and taken to the bowels of the Lewis and Clark Building? That was surely where the operating room existed…when would this dreaded procedure happen?  When would we all become the brainless, automaton field grades we had all seen during our time as company grade officers? 

Now, in our graduation week, it is safe to say that the lobotomy we were promised will not materialize.  So what does that mean?  Why does this famed Command General Staff College (CGSC) myth exist and what lessons can be taken away from this year to ensure we don’t find out we were in fact lobotomized without even knowing it happened… 

Family and You 

CGSC is one of the best opportunities in the Army to invest in family and yourself. Do this by establishing habits to invest your time wisely.  The academics are more time-consuming than in the past.  The recent changes to the curriculum to support the possible master’s degree have added time in and out of the classroom.  For those that also attempted to complete a master’s, whether the MMAS or a civilian degree, the time commitment for these academic pursuits became significant (think company command – again).  Regardless, you must find ways to take care of your family and yourself.   Block family time off every day.  Cook and eat dinner with them as much as possible.  I either ensured I did my work in the classroom before heading home or after my son went to bed.   

Take time not only for your family but also for yourself. Work out, read a book (not in the curriculum), write and reflect, or find a  new hobby.  Use a calendar (Google Calendar was my choice) to deliberately schedule your time and hold yourself accountable.  Time is always at a premium, even here at CGSC.  You will need to make deliberate decisions on where you invest time both at CGSC and in your future positions. 

 It is also important to share that some believe placing family first during Professional Military Education (PME) is not the priority and you are not maximizing your time here.  But I would challenge you to think about how many leaders you have served with that choose to first share their failures not as a leader, but as a member of their own family. If you fail to find ways to put your family first at CGSC, there is a low probability you will find ways to do so in the crucible years that follow. The most important thing I did this year was to ensure I placed my family first.  I have no doubt the foundation laid with my wife and son at Fort Leavenworth will translate to a stronger family in the years that follow. 

Relationships Matter 

One of the highlights this year was standing in front of my house around a fire pit with friends and their families. While seemingly insignificant, these moments shared together will forge connections that will make a difference in our future organizations.  The relationships that are built here could be the difference between success and failure.  Every senior leader who speaks at CGSC remarks on how they continue to work with their former classmates and how much that influences their ability to succeed.  Do not underestimate the importance of investing time in building a diverse network. 

You will work with peers from every branch, service, and many foreign militaries.  These are the same people that will be in key staff roles in a few short weeks.  While at CGSC make friends with those outside your own branch and comfort zone.  There will be opportunities in the classroom due to the diversity of every staff group but find ways to connect outside the classroom as well.  

Do not forget about the faculty.  Those that are great instructors will bend over backward to help you during your year at CGSC.  They will be your linkage to the institutional domain by providing products, answering questions, or allowing you to vent and work through problems by leveraging their experience and academic expertise. 

It must be acknowledged that this year’s incoming class will be hindered in their ability to network due to COVID-19 and a possible distance learning environment.  Networking and building meaningful relationships with your peers will be more challenging, but it is essential to find ways to get it done.  The network established here may even be more important than the doctrine learned, so do not waste the opportunity despite the obstacles.  One way our staff group (8B!) has been able to keep in contact is Apps like GroupMe.  We have also used Zoom to hold social hours and catch up with each other. 

Know Your Job  

Recently General Rainey, the Combined Arms Center Commander, published a video on the Profession of Arms for all CGSC students to watch.  In the video, he stated that if he could do one thing with CGSC it would be to make all graduates “card-carrying members of the Profession.”  In a virtual LPD with The Field Grade Leader, he explained that the Army expects CGSC graduates to be experts in their field, regardless of the area.  Take the time at CGSC to get into doctrine, especially within your branch and warfighting function.  The assigned reading will force you to read doctrine but this can be a task and you must force yourself to do it.   

A way to make doctrine easier to digest is to write a quick summary immediately after reading.  These quick summaries will help you reflect and digest your biggest takeaway from that night’s reading.  The opportunity exists to ensure you are competent when you arrive at your next unit; take advantage. 

Another aspect of “knowing your job” is to know yourself.  Increase your self-awareness and find ways to understand yourself.  The first few weeks of common core will give you some tests (Meyers-Briggs, etc.) to understand yourself.  Identify your weaknesses and work on them.  I realized I have a bad habit of waiting to talk and I put a lot of emphasis on practicing active listening.  Everything you do at CGSC is peer leadership, and those that genuinely cannot lead will be found out.   Find ways to better understand yourself and how you operate in a team. 

Lastly, read outside the curriculum.  Building the ability to develop yourself and become a life-long learner is invaluable.  I often listened to books on Audible while I worked out.  Talk to your classmates about the good stuff they are reading.  Send professional articles to your classmates and talk about them.  The one book I absolutely recommend taking a look at is Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.  It is a fantastic look at all three types of leadership and gives insight into how to be a professional and serve as an organizational leader. 

In the End 

To those of us graduating this week, let us not be the reason to continue the lobotomy myth.  That choice is up to us.  Find ways to positively influence the people around you and organizations we help lead.  Be positive leaders within our future organizations that others will wish to emulate and follow.  We will only truly know who was snuck into the CGSC basement in a few years when we emerge from the crucible of our time as majors.   

To the incoming class who will undoubtedly have an interesting experience this year, have no fear!  There will be no “One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” moment (referring to a lobotomy).  Take advantage of this year to network, learn as much as you can, and, enjoy your family.  There are things to complain about here!  Find ways to make this year worthwhile based upon your own assessment.  Acknowledge signing into SATS is ridiculous and then move on!  Be patient with the frustrations you will have.   Understand that the institution and faculty of CGSC are only a part of your education and development.  The learning experience is as much about your self-reflection and growth as it is about your time in the classroom.  Find the way that will allow you to get the most out of this year, however that may be.   

Major Billy Folinusz is a graduating student from the Command General Staff Officer’s College.  He was commissioned as an Armor officer from James Madison University in 2009. He also holds a Masters of Public Policy from Temple University.  He is headed to Fort Stewart to join The Rock of the Marne.  He is married to his wife Theresa and the proud father of Theodore. 

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When I found out that I was selected to attend resident Intermediate Level Education (ILE) at Fort Leavenworth, I immediately realized how little I knew about the course. My research brought up numerous articles from officers discussing their year at Fort Leavenworth. These articles are what I found most useful and are the reason that I decided to write my own. Hopefully, my experience and advice serve two purposes. The first is to assist future classes in understanding the course of instruction and aid in your preparation for the “Best Year of Your Life.” Second, this article will be my attempt to, as General Funk says, “Leave the jersey in a better place than I found it.”

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College 101

Our academic year consisted of three phases: Common Core, the Advanced Operations Course (AOC), and two terms of electives. Classes during all three phases are taught almost entirely by instructors from the Departments of Tactics (DTAC), History, Command and Leadership, Logistics and Resource Operations (DLRO), and Joint, Interagency and Multinational Operations (DJIMO). In general, we attended class between four to eight hours, Monday through Friday, at the Lewis and Clark Center in our assigned staff group (SG) classroom. Each staff group consists of approximately 16 students from the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, interagency (CIA, USAID, State Department, etc.) and partner nation armed forces.

Each staff group had three faculty members consisting of a mix of active-duty officers and civilian instructors. Instruction during Common Core and AOC was almost entirely at the staff group level with a few exceptions for classes that are taught by subject matter experts.

Our class started in early August with Common Core lasting until the Thanksgiving break. Common Core culminated with the X100 exam, which is a comprehensive test of everything covered in Common Core. It is a two-part assessment that starts with a multiple-choice test and ends with an oral board. During the oral board, which lasts about an hour, students answered questions from 3 faculty members from outside their section.

AOC consisted of a mix of classes and planning exercises. Planning exercises consisted of one or two staff groups acting as a brigade, division, or higher-level staff. During some of the planning exercises, students worked as the staff for both friendly and enemy forces. Planning exercises lasted between two to five days with a mix of four and eight hour days. Following AOC, we transitioned to electives.

Electives were two, four-week terms, with students taking course loads based on what their branch, functional area, or service required. In addition, students could take course that lined up with their personal and professional interests. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our elective requirements and terms were adjusted and taught exclusively online.

Throughout Common Core, AOC, and electives, we were evaluated through multiple-choice tests, presentations, research papers, argumentative essays, class participation, forum discussions, group projects, planning products, field grade officer competency reports, and briefings of all kinds.

Following electives, the last couple of weeks consisted of out-processing, PCS preparation, and a graduation ceremony, all heavily modified because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advice for Future Classes

Prepare Now

One of the main reasons that I had a positive experience is because I had a good idea of what to expect before attending. Research, discussions with previous graduates, expectation management, and having a “Whole-Of-Family” approach to resident ILE before I arrived set me up to have a rewarding year. Read and understand the doctrine referenced during the pre-courses and tests that you will complete before arrival. A thorough understanding of this doctrine will make Common Core much easier.

Make Your Staff Group Great

Second, only to your own attitude, your staff group is the biggest factor in determining whether your CGSC experience is positive or negative. You can’t do anything to influence what staff group you are in, but you can play a huge role in its success or failure. I was lucky to be placed in a fantastic staff group that worked well together from day one. Your staff group may take more work. Put in that work, and it will pay dividends throughout the year.

Set Goals

Decide what you want to get out of the academic year before you arrive. You can earn a master’s degree, compete for student awards, improve yourself physically, prioritize your studies, or some combination of all these. Having an endstate to work towards will help maintain focus on the areas that are most important to you.

Learn (or Remember) How to Learn

If you have not been in an academic environment for a long time, you’ll need to dust off and improve your study habits from college. There is a lot of reading, writing, and information to digest at CGSC. Writing is one area where you may struggle if you don’t put in the time to improve. Thankfully CGSC has a great learning resource center to improve study habits, time management, speed reading, and writing.

Knowledge Management

Have a system to manage information in both digital and analog formats before you arrive. Your ability to rapidly find information from multiple disparate sources while taking exams will significantly affect your grades. If you are the type of person with thousands of emails in your inbox and a computer monitor filled with icons, you need to figure out a knowledge management system that works before you start classes.

Technology

If you do not have a good laptop or tablet, I recommend getting one. Wi-Fi is available in all the classrooms and the library at Fort Leavenworth. Having a laptop or tablet in class makes life a lot easier. At home, having multiple monitors helps when writing and taking exams. The COVID-19 pandemic will, most likely, change or interrupt in-class instruction during the 2021 academic year. Having a good home office will help minimize these interruptions. I also recommend purchasing the premium versions of Grammarly, Zotero, and Quizlet. Grammarly is a great proofreading program, Zotero makes writing research papers easier, and Quizlet will help when studying for the X100 exam.

Be Flexible

At the time of this writing, it is unclear how COVID-19 will affect the class of 2021. Regardless of how this class is conducted the biggest challenge will be in integrating and developing a staff group when not everyone is at Fort Leavenworth for the entire time. Because of the large role it plays in your CGSC experience, I recommend prioritizing staff group integration and development as early as possible. As mentioned earlier, your staff group is really, really, important.

Final Thoughts

Every officer that attends resident ILE at Fort Leavenworth will have a unique experience; uniquely good, bad, or average. Take the classwork seriously and put in the time needed to accomplish your goals. CGSC was not “The best year of my life,” but it was a great one.

MAJ Philip Henke is currently attending AMSP at SAMS. MAJ Henke is a Cyber and Electronic Warfare Officer who began his commissioned service in the Infantry. MAJ Henke served 5 years on active duty as a Cannon Crewmember where he achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant before attending Kansas State University and OCS. MAJ Henke most recently served as the Cyber and Electronic Warfare Operations Officer for the 7^th Special Forces Group. He can be reached on DOD webmail and on Twitter @PhilipHenke    

The post U.S. Army CGSC: Overview and Advice for the Class of 2021 appeared first on The Field Grade Leader.

Assuming the fall assignment and unit interview cycle will proceed as normal, the authors of this blog set out to provide insight into the AIM 2.0 and unit interview process for the incoming CGSOC AY20-21. The process begins almost immediately once the course begins. Prepared officers will develop a game plan to increase their chances of receiving their desired assignment.  

These recommendations do not supersede or replace official guidance from Human Resource Command Career Coaches. This is “a way” and the environment continues to evolve with each marketplace cycle, so ensure you stay current with the most recent messages, guidance, and peer feedback. 

Initial unit visits began in late August/early September. Some units requested personal bio sheets, ORB, AIM resume, last 3 OERs (even though CGSC leadership said that units should not be asking for them). Each unit approaches the interview and unit visit differently. Some units sent preparatory emails, held a command briefing, and hosted a social. Others will come unannounced and expectedly receive little turnout. As expected the units with high geographical desirability and those that place significant value in the visit process will typically draw the largest audience for the command briefings and socials. Ensure to respond quickly to the units you’re interested in and schedule an interview.  

Point #1 (ORB)– As always have your ORB correct and up to date. The AIM 2.0 resume doesn’t take the place of the ORB. It is still necessary to ensure your DA photo is current as well as awards, qualifications, education, and previous assignments are accurate and able to understand in a single glance. If you were recently promoted to Major, get an updated DA photo as soon as possible.  

Point #2 (AIM2.0 Resume)– Fill out your AIM 2.0 resume in its entirety. How much and in what format is still up to each individual with each branch providing different recommendations. Some officers went with the narrative style as if they were speaking directly to a Brigade Commander while others utilized a succinct bullet style resume. 

Summary: Both authors expressed their desire to serve in the unit and general goals for Field Grade Key Development assignment as well as background and experience you bring to the job. Resist the urge to just regurgitate your ORB assignment information. Elaborate the experience gained from your previous positions. 

Education: Similarly don’t just restate your civilian education that is also on your ORB. Highlight any unique knowledge, skills, publications, or unique classes you completed. 

Civilian Section: Here is an opportunity to shed light on your priorities outside of the Army. Ensure to share your hobbies, competitions, volunteering, or any relevant civilian job experience. Include publications or projects you’ve worked on that are not captured on evaluations. 

Assignments: Major accomplishments from previous assignments. This is where you can distinguish yourself. Instead of just saying that you were a company commander, highlight relevant operational experience that might relate to a unit’s current mission set or regional focus. 

Additional Skills & Certifications: Skills that don’t show up on your ORB, which might be of interest to interested commanders, for example, civilian certifications like SCUBA, CROSSFIT, first-aid/CPR. 

Cultural Experiences & Travel: Areas that you study or have experience with. Certainly link any regional or cultural experience to any unit regional alignment specialty. 

Language: Include any language skills that don’t show up on ORB, certain positions prefer language proficiency.  

References:  The system allows as many as you’d like but only the last four show up on the printed resume. Choose wisely! It’s very likely the BDE CDRs will look at who they know on your list. Ensure your references are aware that they are listed by asking for their support.  

Point #3 (Audience)– Know your audience. Your resume will likely not go straight to a BDE CDR, so think about the S1/AS1 who is receiving your packet. How well you communicate with the S1/Strength Manager is extremely important since their impression of you will determine which packets are prioritized for the boss. 

Point #4 (Network)– Leverage your professional network early and often in the process. A supporting message from an advocate to a hiring manager or senior leader goes a long way in promoting your stock to the prospective unit. Before reporting to CGSC, think about who you may leverage and reach out to them.  

Point #5 (The Interview)– The Interview and unit socials: The most important advice we can offer is to be ready with a “value proposition” on why you want to serve in that unit and what sets you apart from your peers.  

This was a consistent question across all of our interviews. Be prepared with a concise elevator pitch for when it’s asked. Come with extra copies of the documents requested and have a few questions to ask the interviewer. Ensure you are honest about where that specific unit lines up with your projected preferences in the AIM talent marketplace. Assuming unit hiring managers and Division Chiefs of Staff talk to one another, officers who are inconsistent between interviews and their actual preferences assume the risk and potentially tarnish their reputation.  

Attend the unit socials as time permits. Balancing school work, family commitments, and unit networking can be challenging so try and prioritize those units you are specifically interested in. Standard field grade professional appearance and dress code recommendations apply. 

Point #6 (The Marketplace)– Ensure to rank order every single preference available with an extra focus on your top 10%. Hiring managers can see if an officer has listed their unit in their top ten or top 10% whichever is greater. For example, if you have 200 potential assignments, the top 20 will see that you’ve preferenced them. Ranking all potential assignments only benefits officers and can create potential opportunities if you were unable to interview with a specific unit or your personal preferences change as the assignment cycle progresses.  

Effects of COVID-19– The recent decision to split CGSC AY 20-21 presents a unique challenge to those officers in cohort 2 who will miss the fall semester unit visit opportunities. CGSC leadership, unit hiring managers, and prospective officers should start thinking about how cohort 2 can receive an equitable unit interview experience in a distributed manner. Leveraging existing technology such as Microsoft Teams through the DOD’s Commercial Virtual Remote Environment is a possible avenue to broadcast both unit command briefs and scheduling personal interviews.  Adopting a virtual interview plan promotes equity for the fall manning cycle and could increase market matches in the AIM system. 

Conclusion– Officers, units, and HRC are adjusting to the new Army Talent Management System. While every individual’s experience varies the authors felt that the system provided transparency and offered the officers a say in their next assignment. The downside is that the process begins earlier than the previous model, even before arriving at ILE, to ensure you set conditions to achieve the desired outcome. Make no mistake about it the new process gives the individual Soldier a voice, but you will need to communicate early and often with potential commanders to align your desired assignment with the needs of the unit.

MAJ Matthew Lensing is an Infantry Officer and current student at the US Army Command and General Staff College.  

MAJ David Weart (Twitter: @dweart19) is an Engineer officer and current student at the US Army Command and General Staff College.  

The post CGSC Speed Dating: AIM2 and You appeared first on The Field Grade Leader.

It’s been two years since I completed my Field Grade Key and Developmental (KD) time. Since then, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to gather my thoughts and reflect on my time as a Battalion and Brigade S3. By no means does my experience make me an expert. If anything, it’s an opportunity to think. My intent is to reinforce common fundamentals with personally unique thoughts. Much of it is directed at the man in the mirror. 

I graduated from CGSC on a Thursday. On Monday I signed into my new unit as the Battalion S3. In the next two weeks, we executed our final CPX prior to equipment load-out operations for our deployment to Afghanistan. We departed a couple months later. 

Just a few months into our deployment, the Brigade, and Battalion Commanders began discussing the next year’s Field Grade Slate. After a nine-month deployment and block leave, I assumed duties as the Brigade S3. All of it seemed to happen so quickly because it did. One day I was talking about being an S3 or XO, the next I was a Battalion Task Force S3, then a Brigade S3.   

This is not abnormal. It happens. My desire is to help you prepare for the exciting challenge you are about to embark on. Serving as personal reminders, here are my top 10 lessons from my KD time: 

“Be a Team Player” 

Field grade leaders must work together and be absolute team players-with each other, subordinates, superiors, organic, and non-organic units. Though Commanders of all rank and type may or maybe team players, it is our job to work through this to develop and execute the best plan. Work together and have each other’s best interests in mind. I was blessed to have great Major teammates and it made life enjoyable. The success of the organization and the Commander’s vision depends on your ability to get over yourself and simply work well with others, everybody, always. 

“Resist Firefighting” 

Resist the “I’m putting out another fire” mentality. Most of the time it’s not a fire. Other times, there may be sparks, but nothing ignited yet. Nobody wants to hear how busy you are and it’s exhausting if you always run around like a firefighter. Instead, try to prevent the fire from starting and build a nice campfire. Gather the kindling, keep the tinder-dry, add fuel where necessary, spark when ready, protect it from getting out of control, and just manage it. And remember, you have an entire team assisting you in gathering all the tools and building this campfire. Your ability to calmly handle challenging situations speaks volumes. 

 “Be an Action-Oriented Learner” 

You know more than you think but will learn far more than you already know. Be comfortable and confident in this. Know what you need to know and where to find it and absorb everything else as much as possible. With this, take action. Do not wait. Trust yourself and each other and accept the outcome. That piece of information your waiting for likely doesn’t exist, at least the way you want it.  

“Be a Change Agent” 

You are someone who can change things and what you say and do matters. Look for opportunities to influence and change the culture of the organization. This is one of the Commander’s primary responsibilities and you are a critical part of it. Be an advocate for positive change. Even if the Commander isn’t, look for ways to positively influence it on their behalf. Additionally, work for your higher headquarters and assist them with supporting you.  

“Develop Others“ 

Challenge yourself to take time to develop yourself and others. Deliberately create opportunities to provide and receive productive feedback, not just reactionary comments. Continue coaching others as they navigate their daily responsibilities. They understand your focus and priorities and may help you understand them better. Make it a point to make the job appealing to others in your organization. They are watching you and the younger Officers are trying to decide if they want your job in the future. It takes work to serve and develop others in your environment, so I know it will push you further. I trust if you do this, you too will be developed beyond what you could have imagined.  

“Stay Humble with Perspective” 

Humbly serve others while remembering you were once a Lieutenant, a Captain, and are now just a Major. You are valued and important, but replaceable. You made some of the same mistakes and share similar lessons learned like everybody else, and will continue doing so. Be cautious in your application of personal experience when referring to other’s abilities and experiences. They have accepted the call to serve just like you. The last thing they need is somebody always telling them how different it was in when they were in their shoes. 

“Be Kind” 

Just be kind to others. Never belittle or denigrate others, especially in front of an audience. This removes your humanity and communicates complete disrespect to your organization. Do you desire or are developed by this type of treatment? So then don’t do it to others. They deserve better. Kindness will go a long way and help you with being a team player. 

“Have a Life” 

We all have a family and friends of some sort. Everybody is a human being with a life. Set the example for others to follow by making this part of your life a priority. Give others the freedom to do the same. Don’t act like everything is so important you have to stay at all hours. Simply leave and go home. It says a lot when you spend little time at home, so don’t do it. Of course, there are times to surge (fewer than we often think), but this should be the exception, not the rule.  

“Empower Others” 

Empower your staff and delegate as much as possible. Create an environment where others can contribute to improving the organization. Their work matters so let them know by providing them opportunities to unleash their power. In the end, they are the ones doing the work. Do this and they will amaze you. 

“You are a Leader” 

Most importantly, do not forget you are still a leader. Be the best follower possible while leading others. Set the example. Exercise direct and indirect organizational leadership in full support of your Commander. Influence others by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. You are not the Commander, but you are always a leader. 

The Army has prepared you for the developmental opportunity to serve as a key staff officer. Do your best to learn from, give to and enjoy it. I hope it will be as personally and professionally rewarding as mine.  

Author:  Major Chad Monroe

The post Reflections on Being an “Iron Major” appeared first on The Field Grade Leader.

There I was…It was 2013, I was an aviation battalion S-3 in Afghanistan, and my boss had just given me less than 24 hours to write an argumentative essay. Someone at a higher headquarters wanted to redeploy one of our aerial medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopter companies without replacing it. My boss believed this decision would severely impede MEDEVAC in our area of operations and the division commander agreed. He said he would take the issue to his boss and asked us to provide a short paper summarizing our analysis and recommendation. The writing fell to me. I had thought I’d left the argumentative essay behind two years earlier when I graduated from the Command and General Staff College (CGSC). But once again, I found myself crafting a thesis, gathering evidence, and writing an argument. 

Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.

― Desmond Tutu 

Reflecting on this and other experiences, I realized that argumentative writing is one of the most important skills I learned at CGSC. The argumentative essay is a simple, yet powerful tool. It is writing an author uses to convince the reader of something. At its heart is the thesis—a claim that the author wants the persuade the reader is true. To do so, the author presents evidence—reasons that the reader should accept the author’s thesis. Evidence can be facts, logical arguments, data, or stories (like the one I used at the beginning of this essay to convince you of my thesis). Though argumentative writing is common in academia, many overlook its practical usefulness.  

For field grade officers, the ability to write well and persuade others is indispensable. There are three reasons why. First, most field grade work involves persuading peers and seniors rather than ordering around subordinates. Second, argumentative essays are everywhere in field grade life. Many routine field grade tasks are argumentative essays in disguise. Third, most field grades will serve on a general staff where persuasive writing will be vital to their success. CGSC graduates shouldn’t abandon the argumentative essay. Instead, they should aspire to master it.  

Argumentation—whether written or not—is something field grade officers must do well. Captains succeed by leading Soldiers they outrank, but majors succeed by influencing those they do not. Recommending a course of action, for example, requires a field grade officer to convince a commander that the unit should do something (thesis) based on a staff analysis (evidence). Battalion S-3s and XOs create opportunities by persuading their peers to work together, influencing the brigade to push back on a task, or convincing the division to allocate training resources. Moreover, email is the primary way much of this field grade work gets done, and commanders pay attention to how well their officers write. Field grades who can deliver a compelling argument have a crucial advantage over those who cannot. 

Another reason to master this tool is that many field grade tasks are argumentative essays in disguise. Award writing is a good example. Award recommendations are nothing more than argumentative essays. The recommender argues that someone should receive an award (thesis) and gives reasons why the approval authority should agree (evidence). Field grade leaders routinely write letters of recommendation for subordinates competing for nominative positions, applying to graduate school, or transitioning to civilian jobs. The writer argues that an organization should accept or hire a person (thesis) and provides reasons why (evidence). Evaluation reports are the most impactful argumentative essays that field grade officers write. Raters and senior raters advise boards whether a Soldier should be promoted (thesis) and why the Soldier’s performance and potential justify that recommendation (evidence). 

A final reason for mastering the argumentative essay is that persuasive writing is vital for success on a general staff. Personal interactions between general officers and those they senior rate are infrequent. Consequently, field grade officers’ reputations are based mainly on their writing skills—for better or worse. Moreover, senior leaders rarely have time to read lengthy staff products, so staff officers must write with concision and clarity. The MEDEVAC essay I wrote for my division commander in Afghanistan was two pages. A three-star I worked for preferred single-page information papers. I once drafted a recommendation for a four-star commander to send to the Army chief of staff. My boss told me to “keep it at the four-star level,” which meant I had to make an argument in three to four sentences.  

I expect this year’s CGSC graduates will have similar experiences. Accordingly, I advise them to build on the argumentative writing foundations laid at CGSC. There are three ways to do this. First, write often. Contributing to the professional discourse in journals and online forums is a great way to hone writing skills while adding to our professional body of knowledge. Second, read widely. Good writers are avid readers because it exposes them to effective (and not-so-effective) writing. Finally, study writing and argumentation. I recommend the following resources to start: 

• Effective argumentation blends clear thinking, logic, and reasoning. Oxford Guide to Effective Argument and Critical Thinking Oxford Guide covers all three.  
• The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition is a staple writing guide, but I also recommend The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.  
• There are excellent resources on the internet as well, including this video of Steven Pinker, author of The Sense of Style.  

• Most universities host online writing labs. Among the best are Purdue University, Excelsior College, and the University of Toronto. Importantly, online writing labs cater to students, not professionals. To understand how professional writing differs from student writing, I recommend this video from the University of Chicago. 

To the CGSC class of 2020, I say congratulations! Many of you may be looking forward to leaving the argumentative essay behind. To be sure, you are finished with academic essays (for now, at least). But writing and arguing will be essential to your success as a field grade leader. Rather than abandoning the argumentative essay at graduation, I hope you instead resolve to master it.  

Lieutenant Colonel Trent J. Lythgoe is an Army Aviation Officer and Assistant Professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Kansas.  

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Anyone following the Field Grade Leader knows the importance of reading. Anyone short on material or motivation can find dozens of book lists and a stream of articles that support professional reading. Everyone knows we need to read, but rarely do we talk about how to read. We assume that because we can see and comprehend words and the order they are in, we can read. But is that true? Everyone knows what a map looks like, but not everyone can use it for land navigation.

There are many reasons military professionals must-read, but they all boil down to two: mentorship and self-improvement.[1]  Field grade officers shoulder the heaviest mentorship burden in the officer corps. Good mentors are experts, but expertise requires experience and education.[2] The former provides a grounded understanding of reality and the latter provides the broader context to properly situate, reflect on, and re-evaluate our experiences. Reading for self-improvement allows us to map our professional landscape, both what is there and what is not. Knowing what is there and what is not illuminates people and concepts outside our personal experiences and identifies gaps we could fill with our own writing. Further, self-improvement helps us become better mentors.

Reading well is a three-step process not unlike preparing for a mission. First, understand the terrain—identify the minor and major terrain features and their significance. Second, select the appropriate equipment—determine how to record what you will learn. Third, execute—read.

Search

In mapping the professional landscape, trusted national security websites are the “minor terrain features.” They help situate experience in and build an understanding of, the character of war. Many websites have outstanding bases upon which to layer personal interests.[3] Email distribution lists from think tanks, war colleges (of all services), and other trusted sources broaden and deepen that understanding. These minor terrain features make us better mentors by enabling us to answer the immediate question of “what is there.” This question helps us link our experiences, which can only ever be limited, with the landscape’s “major terrain features.”

The major terrain features are those foundational in the professional landscape. These time-tested sources provide enduring lessons about the nature of war and are often—though not always—written by experts with both practical military experience as well as education. Jomini, Grant, Slim, Luttwak, Gray, Murray, Howard, and above all Clausewitz are the highlights of this group. These sources are primarily for self-improvement, helping us answer the longer-term question of “how things got there.” They are often abstract and therefore rarely of immediate use, but without them, the significance—or lack thereof—of the rest of the landscape is impossible to discern.

Record

There are dozens of professional websites and hundreds of well-researched books to read. Collectively, there is far more information than any one person can remember, yet forgotten information is useless for mentorship and self-improvement. However, as one of my mentors told me, the paper never forgets. Nor do digits, to update the adage for 2020. The next best thing to being able to immediately recall information is the ability to record information and revisit it later. This requires an organized, searchable structure.

One useful piece of equipment is a citation manager. Citation managers are programs, many of them free, that allow users to save documents and webpages directly from a browser to a local drive, then access them offline. They also often automatically record critical information such as authors, dates, and URLs, and enable organized notetaking. Everything in the program is searchable, meaning that the answer to “didn’t I read something about X?” is only ever a few keystrokes away. Better-informed officers are more effective mentors and receive better-quality mentorship from their mentors. As an added bonus, citation managers properly format citations with just a few clicks, a huge time-saver if you intend to write and publish.

Organized, structured information records have the salutary benefit of enabling “spaced repetition.” Spaced repetition is a learning and teaching technique that uses a series of reviews of content over a long period of time to reinforce learning.[4]  In short, repeated engagement with the material helps people learn it better. Such continual learning and reinforcement of that learning enable better mentorship and builds individual expertise. It also supports the Army’s explicit guidance from DA PAM 600-3 on self-development.[5]

Read

As with any “mission,” thorough preparation makes execution relatively simple. Having mapped the landscape and selected the right equipment, the reading itself is straightforward, albeit sometimes time-consuming. First, read the headline. Second, assuming the headline is interesting and relevant, skim the article to determine whether the author’s assertions are valid; at this stage, the evidence matters less than assertions. Consider reading just the topic sentences of each paragraph. Finally, if the assertions seem valid, read thoroughly to see if the author supports the assertions and makes a sound argument.

Sometimes, the assertions and evidence are unremarkable and part of or even a whole document can be easily skimmed or ignored. This is often the case with “hot takes” on ongoing events—they are often interesting, but they are only rarely insightful. Other times, the evidence and the assertion will be truly insightful and worthy of considered thought.[6] Such material contains the greatest potential for self-development. Being conversant on evolving doctrinal and conceptual thought requires engaging with bold, well-supported assertions because practical change follows conceptual change. Field grade officers, as the future strategic leaders of the Army, must know where the Army is going in order to shape the future field grade officers—now the captains and lieutenants—who will run it.

Conclusion

Approaching self-development as if it were a mission helps provide structure and focus. Ideally, this process is circular, with reading begetting further searching, all of it consistently resulting in self-development and writing for publication and to add your mind to the discourse. There are many articles on that subject already.[7] If you do not read to write to publish though, read to be a better mentor. It is a lot of reading if you do it. If not, expertise will be elusive. The Army, your unit, and your subordinates need you to be the best mentor you can be. Don’t let them down by taking an amateurish approach to your—and their—self-development.

MAJ Dzwonczyk is a Strategist assigned to the Joint Task Force-North J5. Formerly a Quartermaster/Logistics Officer, he has served in operational assignments in Airborne and Stryker BCTs, to include deployments to Iraq, Haiti, and Afghanistan. He holds a Master’s Degree from Penn State University and is a graduate of the Basic Strategic Arts Program and the Command and General Staff College.

Works Cited

Beaumont, David. “Every Logistician Must Write.” Logistics In War, February 7, 2019. Accessed February 7, 2019. https://logisticsinwar.com/2019/02/07/every-logistician-must-write-2/.

Byerly, Joe. “Blogs I Follow.” From the Green Notebook. Accessed March 7, 2020. https://fromthegreennotebook.com/blogs-i-follow/.

———. “Think, Write, and Publish: An Army Captain’s Perspective.” Small Wars Journal (October 27, 2013). Accessed June 13, 2017. http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/think-write-and-publish-an-army-captain%E2%80%99s-perspective.

Byrnes, Mike. “Synchronizing Change and Air Force Culture: Modernization and the Dirty Secret of Aircrew Shortages.” War on the Rocks. Last modified March 9, 2020. Accessed March 26, 2020. https://warontherocks.com/2020/03/synchronizing-change-and-air-force-culture-modernization-and-the-dirty-secret-of-aircrew-shortages/.

Doctrine Man. “On Writing – Beyond the Objective.” Medium, November 20, 2014. Accessed December 16, 2016. https://medium.com/the-smoking-gun/on-writing-10c2f650109b#.ysjntagxz.

Marlow, Rebecca. “Start. Just Start – PME and the Fear of Writing.” Logistics In War, March 1, 2019. Accessed March 4, 2019. https://logisticsinwar.com/2019/03/01/start-just-start-pme-and-the-fear-of-writing/.

Michaels, Joseph. “Why We Read.” The Field Grade Leader. Last modified April 25, 2020. Accessed April 30, 2020. http://fieldgradeleader.themilitaryleader.com/read/.

Nichols, Tom. “The Death Of Expertise.” The Federalist. Last modified January 17, 2014. Accessed February 11, 2020. https://thefederalist.com/2014/01/17/the-death-of-expertise/.

pptsapper. “Why Do We Write?” The Angry Staff Officer, January 22, 2018. Accessed January 24, 2018. https://angrystaffofficer.com/2018/01/22/why-do-we-write/.

Stavridis, James. “Read, Think, Write, Publish.” Proceedings of the US Naval Institute 134, no. 8 (2008): 16–19.

Tabibian, Behzad, Utkarsh Upadhyay, Abir De, Ali Zarezade, Bernhard Schölkopf, and Manuel Gomez-Rodriguez. “Enhancing Human Learning via Spaced Repetition Optimization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 10 (March 5, 2019): 3988.

“DA PAM 600-3 Officer Professional Development and Career Management.” Department of the Army, April 3, 2019. Accessed June 7, 2020. https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN14707_DA%20Pam%20600_3_FINAL.pdf.

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This article will review the authors observed trends of new field grades reintroduced back into their respective formations following their year of study at Command and General Staff College (CGSC). It will provide a synopsis of four areas that new field grades inquire about the most before they take on a staff position and considerations on how the environment has changed due to COVID19 since their last position prior to CGSC.  

Gather Context 

The recommended first step for current CGSC graduates to take before their reintroduction to the force is to understand the state of the Army and the operational or administrative environment that they are returning. It is dramatically different from those of junior field grades of the past. New staff officers are not falling in on a routine, cyclic long-range training plan. COVID19 is affecting months of collective training and having long-term impacts on the sustainable readiness model (SRM); specifically, in manning, resourcing, synchronization, and prioritization for units across the force.  

Upon the lift of Department of Defense restrictions, entire timelines for units must be re-planned, from collective to individual training. The doctrinal templates and procedures CGSC graduates have been learning may not be applicable to the Army upon reintegration. Instead of inheriting a transition and long-range training plan, graduates will have to think about how to apply environmental considerations to build a feasible and executable way ahead almost immediately. Lessons gained from CGSC may help, but rapidly evaluating what lessons to apply and when is far more valuable.  

Training models, methods, and SRM are rapidly changing. Resources are quickly being re-sequenced to support the FY 21 Global Force Management Allocation Plan (GFMAP). Units are deploying without Combat Training Center rotations.  New ways of doing business incur risk and look different. These non-standard new business rules will concern leaders ingrained in regimented glide paths. The challenge is to provide options founded in a sound understanding of the problems that best align with the commander’s intent and then execute coordination accordingly.  

Do Not Overburden the System 

COVID19 has had a positive impact. It stripped that which was not essential away from calendars. Limited resources like VTCs, SVOIP phones, constrained staffs into preserving only critical operations, shunting non-essential actions to preserve core function, which has generated white space. Graduates must be careful not to oversaturate this white space. In its “Lighten the Load”, study the Army found new ways to drop the average weight of soldiers’ kit. However, once a reduction was in place, commanders saw it as an opportunity to add back to it. The result was that soldiers carried more weight than the original starting point. Do not be an officer that takes a reduced system, and overburdens it, just because there is an opportunity.  

A mistake that some junior field grades make when they return to staff is that they turn off the learning mentality of CGSC, and revert to their last position of authority, most commonly a company commander. Graduates who show up to a unit and try to command staff, rather than learn from it, generally burn bridges quickly. Transitioning oneself from a commander to an action officer is a tough transition, more so in the dynamic COVID19 environment. Some majors execute this transition effortlessly, while some cannot let go of their command mentality. To overcome this, spend deliberate time to visualize how the systems currently work, two weeks with your predecessor is not enough. Understand current systems and processes before you try to adapt them. The system is going to try to achieve equilibrium to where it was before COVID19, let that natural transition occur before adopting it.   

Graduates Have Not Yet Begun to Write… 

CGSC requires hundreds of hours of reading, but as many graduates know, it is only a lot if you do it. However, graduates could not avoid writing. This constant churn of briefs, papers, products, and orders is not complete. Orders production is about to be a large portion of many graduates’ jobs. Similar to how there is a difference between reading and reading for comprehension, there is a vast difference in the level of writing graduates are about to be responsible for. The shift between routine and graduate-level writing will occur at a more rapid rate than most will have ever endured during their career.  Especially when faced with taking very complex products, plans, publications like COVID19 OPORDs or policies, and breaking them down into small executable parts for leaders or subordinates. This is both a skill that has to be developed and an art form learned through observing your audience.  

During the initial few weeks within a new unit, study how your commander speaks. Literally, list the verbiage they use, key phrases, terms, concepts. Begin injecting those into your own writing and emulate the commander’s voice. These pay dividends in both ghost note writing, and orders production to ensure that a nested and streamlined message is clearly conveyed and that it best replicates the way with which one commander communicates.  

Discerning What Matters 

There will be overwhelming periods, even for the most organized and detail-oriented major. It is the nature of middle management. Staff officers are both in between the doers, who will have questions of you, and the conceptual leaders who are generating the requirements asking for subject matter expertise to inform their decisions. Success depends upon how one understands the COVID19 environment and discerns what will apply today, tomorrow, a month, a year from now, and what residual factors changed it for the better. The residuals are the enhanced processes or procedures that will endure. Each of these time horizons requires a different depth of effort and rigor to comprehend. Majors, who can manage this understanding earlier regardless of the environment, generally generate thought freedom of maneuver for themselves, which in turn enables the optimal focus of their time and resources. 

Major Lyons holds a Master’s degree in Military Operational Arts and Science from the United States Air Force, Air Command Staff College. He has served in Air Defense and Sustainment Brigades as well as the United States Army Asymmetric Warfare Group as an Operational Advisor, Troop Commander and Group Operations Officer with operational experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, and Africa. He currently serves as the Active Defense Chief at the Army Air and Missile Defense Command level, deployed forward serving within the US Air Force Central Command, 609th Combat Operations Division, Combined Air Operations Center. His other works include Defining Cross-Domain Maneuver for the 21st Century, the U.S. Army Travel Awareness Handbook, and multiple articles within the Small Arms Review, Havok Journal, and the Journal of Asymmetric Warfare. 

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Microsoft Teams is a highly effective command and control system that empowers leaders at echelon to create a collaborative and inclusive environment to share information rapidly, increase understanding, and enable decision making. The Army must maintain this capability to effectively operate in a COVID environment in the 21^st Century and Field Grade leaders must embrace technology that helps us propagate data, information, and knowledge across our formations quickly to enable Mission Command and maintain a competitive edge over our adversaries.

In March 2020, the world and the United States found themselves unprepared as they became entrenched in the COVID-19 pandemic that moved from Asia across the globe in four months. The Army found that many of its systems and processes were unsuitable for the rapid and drastic changes it was forced to implement to protect the force and mitigate the potential for a speedy decline in readiness. Protecting the force became the mission and number one priority.

Society has entered an Information age. Everyone has access to massive amounts of information through the World Wide Web, high powered computers, tablets, smartphones, and cloud technology; and currently, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are redefining how and even what decisions are made. Now, more than ever, field grade leaders must embrace technology that helps propagate data, information, and knowledge across our formations quickly to flatten communication, gain efficiency and speed, enable mission command, and for a competitive advantage.

Commanders and staff’s ability to quickly aggregate, analyze, decipher, and disseminate information into missions orders at echelon underpins mission command. Most notably, building cohesive teams through trust, creating a shared understanding, and exercising disciplined initiative (see Figure 1).[1] In fact, this is so important that Army doctrine refers to and encourages units to use parallel planning as much as possible.[2] However, e-mail remains the most prolific digital system across the Army. We all have confidence in our e-mail, but we also learned behaviors that hinder collaboration and inclusiveness. More often than not, e-mails are addressed to a limited audience, and information remains on our hard drives because portals and shared drives have become too cumbersome. While understandable and unintentional, leaders at echelon need to get serious about changing this behavior. Microsoft Teams is a platform that can help leaders reverse these trends and facilitate improved vertical and horizontal collaboration.

Individually, people must get comfortable sharing data and making it accessible and open to outside analysis and perspectives. Furthermore, we have to be comfortable bringing these conversations into more public forums; diverse thinking will increase the breadth and depth of understanding. Data and information accessibility is critical to be more objective and empowering commanders and staff’s to understand, decide, and act decisively. Microsoft Teams is an incredible tool to promote information accessibility and flatten communications.

ADP 6-0, Mission Command, Command and Control of Army Forces describes how the Army employs Command and Control to exercise authority and direction to accomplish a mission.[3] Mission Command, as a warfighting function, exercises command and control (C2) systems comprised of people, processes, networks, and command posts. These systems support commanders’ decision-making by collecting, creating, and maintaining relevant information to enable effective collaboration and communication with Soldiers.[4] Information age C2 systems are collaborative tools to facilitate processes that are effective, efficient, and enable relevant tempo to defeat an adversary. MS Teams is an innovative C2 system DoD fielded to increase distributed mission command under COVID conditions. It is a simple and highly effective capability the U.S. Army must retain and field grader leaders must employ to maintain a competitive edge over our adversaries.

Microsoft Team features include direct messaging, group chats, video teleconference, and file sharing in an intuitive user-interface that is secure, at the unclassified level, and can be used on government-issued systems and personal devices. This powerful change in Army operations has promoted unsurpassed distributed collaboration, inclusiveness, and increased efficiency. At the tactical level, formations have used these features to execute Team Leader Academies, Gunnery Skills Test Training, Mortar Gunnery Skills Training, Leader Development Programs, and full staff MDMP under COVID conditions. Units continued on their pre-COVID training schedule simply by downloading one collaborative app onto each Soldiers’ device.

As units returned to operations under COVID conditions, Soldiers began taking hands-on and written examinations and demonstrated increased scores and individual skill proficiency. An indicator that this generation of Soldiers is comfortable and achieves results sharing and collaborating virtually. The result is an increase in individual and unit lethality and safety for future training.

Staffs became more efficient at MDMP as they had to communicate in both the oral and written form clearly and concisely to overcome not being in the same room. Unit staffs, empowered by MS Teams, easily brought subordinate commanders into planning sessions resulting in synchronized plans.

The layout of MS Teams supported effective knowledge management to increase collaboration, understanding, and decision making. Dissemination of information across a wide audience in a rapid manner ensured consumers received timely information to support operations. For example, one battalion executive officer built a “Maintenance Net” on MS Teams where the ESR, 5988 trackers, services tracker, BN maintenance meeting slides, and BN LOGSYNC slides were updated daily. Company XOs could update products and brief the BN XO during daily sync meetings from their personal device, even when in the field executing gunnery. No longer were company XOs reliant on Ethernet cables or physically driving to and from meetings while their unit was in the field. The BN XO could review the information and drive actions to support a unit in the field in near real-time. Information age leaders are driving powerful cultural changes right now to create formations better manned, trained, and equipped.

MS Teams demonstrates the direction the Army must go to execute operations in the information age as well as in a COVID environment. It is through applications like MS Team, information age leaders at echelon can create a collaborative and inclusive command and control system to enable operations. Field Grade leaders must embrace technology to propagate data, information, and knowledge at relevant speeds across our formations to flatten our communications, enable Mission Command, and maintain our competitive edge over our adversaries.

MAJ Kyle Trottier is the Executive Officer for 1st ABCT 3ID. An Armor Officer he has served in Armor and Infantry Brigade Combat Teams with operational experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served as the Battalion Executive Officer for 2-7IN, 1/3ABCT, and the Chief of Future Operations for 3ID.

MAJ William Sitze is the Aide-de-Camp to the Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces Command. He is an Infantry Officer that has served in Airborne, Infantry, Stryker, and Armored Brigade combat teams with operational experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He recently served as the Battalion S3 and then Executive Officer for 2-501 PIR, 1/82 IBCT (ABN).

[1] U.S. Army. Mission Command, Command and Control of Army Forces. Department of the Army. ADP 6-0. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 2019. 1-6.

[2] U.S. Army. Commander and Staff Organization and Operations, FM 6-0. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.  9-2.

[3] Mission Command. 1-3

[4] Mission Command, 4-1.

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“Black Swan – First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations…Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact…”1  

– Nassim Taleb, Black Swan 

There are certain events and circumstances in life that will catch you unprepared or place you in unexpected situations. The author Nassim Taleb categorized these significant events as “Black Swans” in the book that shared the same title. The premise for those types of events is that they are unexpected and have radical and far-reaching effects. Depending on whom you ask, a global pandemic may not have been a surprise throughout certain parts of the world. However, the CoronaVirus-19 (CV-19) pandemic drastically changed how the military operates daily both in garrison and deployed environments. Routine daily in-person contact, group physical training, and meetings were replaced by phone calls, text messages, and smartphone/computer applications. The pandemic highlighted the importance of the individual disciplined initiative, distributed leadership, and technological solutions. The intent of this article is to offer insights from serving as a field grade officer during the CV-19 pandemic and provide concepts and recommendations for future field grade officers that are faced with similar circumstances.  

First and foremost, protect the force. Your primary mission during this time of the CV-19 pandemic is to maintain the organizational readiness of your unit. It starts and ends with the health of your Soldiers. Take social distancing and preventive/mitigation measures seriously. How you emphasize and communicate the CV-19 preventive measures is just as important as the measure themselves. Two examples I can offer for your consideration is the USS Theodore Roosevelt and from personal experience, the Resolute Support Mission’s CV-19 preparations.2 Unfortunately, for the Roosevelt and its crew, they were reacting to the effects of the CV-19 infection and did not have the opportunity to implement proactive control measures prior to the spread. In contrast, General Miller, the Commander of Resolute Support, instituted preventive measures, such as testing procedures, quarantine/isolation protocol, building and manning a mobile hospital, sourcing personal protective equipment, and controlling the inflow of personnel to Coalition Forces bases across the Combined Joint Operations Area-Afghanistan (CJOA-A). His actions protected coalition forces and improved the organization’s ability to respond to a future CV-19 outbreak. The Commanders took actions based on their specific situations and information available to them at the time. This is not to laud one response over another, but to illustrate that you as a leader will be required to make decisions that will affect the health of your organization. Moreover, proactive CV-19 prevention measures emplaced to protect the force will aide in maintaining and enhancing the overall readiness of the force during the pandemic. To emplace these CV-19 preventive measures, changes will and are being made to normal operations. However, leadership principles and fundamentals remain unchanged. 

The CV-19 pandemic forced Army leaders to modify their methods of engagement with their Soldiers, however, the pandemic did not change what constitutes great leadership. The US Army defines leadership as “the activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish a mission or task.”3 Leaders provide purpose and direction during times of uncertainty by framing problems and creating solutions. It begins with understanding the current situation, developing a vision of the future, and finally describing an approach for how organizations will arrive at that future state. Social distancing measures directed by the Department of Defense, limited the amount of direct in-person contact, changing what was once routine. Leaders across the Army have a choice to make. They can be victimized by the current situation or they can find new and different ways to interact with their Soldiers to accomplish their mission. Engaged leadership and structure are the keys to success. Set goals for your Soldiers to achieve. The goals may seem little at first, but small goals add up and can turn into larger accomplishments over time. The achievements can provide the Soldiers with a sense of success and let them know their efforts matter to you and the unit. Complementary to those goals is a clear understanding of expectations. Leaders must communicate their expectations continuously throughout this period of transition. The expectations reinforce and enhance new systems being implemented and provide predictability across the organization.    

Implementing systems and processes provides predictability and structure for organizations during uncertain situations. The systems and processes may not fix the underlying issue that led to the situation; however, it does provide predictability and a sense of normalcy for your Soldiers.4 Systems start with a battle rhythm and training calendar. Inform your Soldiers of the daily, weekly, and monthly schedule and the associated requirements. Have an honest conversation with your Commander about his/her priorities and discuss what the unit must do, as well as what the unit will not be able to do. Communicate the “why” to your unit by issuing the Commander’s guidance and intent.5 Encourage disciplined initiative and create ways to identify and reward the behavior. Set suspense dates early in the process to create time for subordinate elements to execute (remember the 1/3, 2/3 rule). Build flexibility into your schedule to allow people to adapt to the new methods of operations. Take time to think through how you will integrate technology into your systems and processes. 

The military is not new to using technological solutions to accomplish a mission. The current pandemic merely accelerated an ongoing trend of technology integration into daily operations. So how does one approach integrating technology? I recommend developing a theory of employment, outlining how the technology would be used to achieve an objective. What are the inputs and outputs? Who participates? What is the best way to convey the information? This is similar to building seven-minute drills for unit SOPs. The only difference is that you have the opportunity to explore and integrate more systems. Smartphone applications such as WhatsApp or Signal are excellent for rapidly disseminating information. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones are useful for organizing larger meetings while maintaining social distance protocols. VOIP and email allow you to share and review products but are limited for product collaboration. The Microsoft cloud system Azure and the Teams application are great for sharing and collaborating on products from Microsoft Office. However, to effectively integrate technology across organizations, people need to first, know how to use the system and second understand how the system will be employed by the organization. There may be some discovery learning at echelon during these times. That is okay. Do not let it preclude you from trying something new.  

Ultimately, be creative with your approach. You have an amazing opportunity to shape how your organization conducts business and integrates technology. Systems that you implement today may become the model for future action. Engage with your commander often to understand his/her priorities for the organization. Understand your limitations and emphasize the importance of maintaining readiness by protecting the force. Leaders provide focus and clarity in times of uncertainty. Embrace the challenge and step into the arena. To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, it is not the critic who counts, but the man in the arena who is marred by failure but continues to dare for greatness. 6 The Army needs your leadership, creativity, and experience to maintain readiness and prepare Soldiers to fight and win. 

Major Peter Crosthwaite is the Battalion Executive Officer for 4th Battalion, 3rd Security Forces Assistance Brigade (SFAB), currently forward deployed to Herat, Afghanistan. He is a Field Artillery Officer with 15 years of active duty experience and three operational deployments to CENTCOM Theaters. A graduate of the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Major Crosthwaite enjoys the study of leadership and military history and is currently applying to pursue a PhD in Military History.  

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Today marks a bitter day in the fight against Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), the disease caused by the virus known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The Army lost a good leader today, a friend to many across the Army Reserve and Joint communities. He will remain nameless here. His cause of death is still not disclosed, though COVID-19 symptoms appear to have contributed to his death. And by the time you read this, his death will be in the past. The Army will have moved on in a positive direction, with new ways to organize its command and control systems (C2) in the age of COVID. These innovative ways are driven by the mission command approach and by the management of people, processes, networks, and the organization (command post). This leader’s death strikes a lot of America’s front–line warriors personally, as do all deaths and sicknesses caused by this disease. But we Soldier on. 

The U.S. military continues to work with many fellow Americans, at home and abroad, who are gravely affected by this global pandemic and national emergency. Many of these brave Americans are on the front line of this fight right now, either in a green suit or in a sky–blue medical suit, continuing work to stop the disease’s spread. To date (as of 24 May), U.S. public health jurisdictions have reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that over 1.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with the disease. According to the same reporting, over 96,000 Americans have died from complications related to the disease. But the military mission does not stop because the Department must keep moving forward. 

Still, the circumstances give the nation reason for pause as all Americans reflect on how best to adapt to this new way of life. Right now, brave teams of military personnel are actively in the fight, while parts of the nation find small innovative ways to work safe and keep moving forward. This gives Department of Defense leaders more than enough reason to continue in the vein of the global consensus, the same consensus of the last 70-plus days since this writer started quarantine with his family: #stayhome, #washyourhands, and #killthevirus. But the giant that is the Department of Defense must fight on. Learned long ago, in the midst of the Second Battle of the Marne and in the streets of Sadr City, the mission continues.  

But how? The fight continues through the mission command approach to command and control. On a separate site, readers can dig into the Reinvigorating the Army’s Approach to Mission Command series of articles, co-authored by Gen. Stephen Townsend, Maj. Gen. Douglas Crissman, and Maj. Kelly McCoy. These articles spark the conversations needed to redirect Army understanding of mission command as an approach and a philosophy. And though the April 2019 series preceded the July 2019 doctrine update, these articles did the Force a service in revealing the new definition of mission command: “the Army’s approach to command and control …empowers subordinate decision-making and decentralized execution appropriate to the situation.”  

Yes, in case you or your commander missed it, the Army’s conceptualization of mission command changed last summer. It is no longer the thing, but rather a philosophy that drives the thing. Mission command is an approach that is not interchangeable with the use of C2. It is no longer just another way to say “task org” or “command of missions,” which many senior leaders and organizations still mistake and misuse. Instead it drives the revived command and control warfighting function, which is at the heart of the elements of combat power in the field, down range, and in garrison. And, most recently, it drives the Defense Department’s new distributed work environment. This is how the military moves forward. 

At the heart of the mission command philosophy are the mission command principles. There are seven of them now: competence, mutual trust, shared understanding, commander’s intent, mission orders, disciplined initiative, and risk acceptance. And right now, parts of the U.S. military are making good use of each of these principles.  

The Army and the Defense Department are, by and large, making the best and adapting to a strenuous distributed work environment, with growth of virtual meetings, training, and recruiting. Indeed, the Regular Army workforce now faces the same distributed experiences of the National Guard and Reserve workforce with increased use of Defense Collaboration Service (DCS) and Microsoft Teams. The total team is now immersed in mission command principles. It starts with disciplined initiative, mutual trust, and risk acceptance. 

Disciplined initiative and mutual trust are now key watchwords for remotely working leaders and staffers. The chief of staff or executive officer are no longer peering over the shoulders of the coordinating staff or action officers. The context of daily telework forces mutual trust, as optimistic as this sounds. Taking on new, or even the same, projects and workloads in a new distributed work environment also requires exceptional competence and risk acceptance. Leaders are forced to further analyze talent, underwrite risk, and trust their teams while working from afar. These principles are a foundational start to progress in the new way forward for life after COVID-19. 

Mission orders, meanwhile, are, or should be, in constant draft, review, and dissemination to the formations. Checked your inbox lately for the latest Department of the Army fragmentary order updates? They are coming out often and getting published down echelon. Suddenly seeing an increase in use of mission orders from your own command? This writer is. His current command’s commanding general leads from the front daily by providing clear intent and stepping back to let the staff work their processes and take disciplined initiative. This is the mission command principles at work. 

What about your own work lines of effort? Seeing the mission command principles in action there? From this laptop alone, briefs are prepared, distributed, and hosted. Orders are drafted, peer reviewed, and stored on the Department of Defense Enterprise Portal Service SharePoint. And collaborations are initiated and actively brought to life through Teams or DCS. 

Also at the heart of mission command are the components of knowledge management (KM): people, processes, tools, and organization. These first three components form the context of the last component, the organization. Noticing a new organizational context lately? One with a hurried shift to figure out how to best align work packages against people, processes, and available tools? This is the components of KM in action, and it reinforces the mission command approach to command and control. 

This is a watershed moment for the Department of Defense, and at the lowest levels it is a watershed moment for tactical commanders. Will they see and take advantage of the lessons that stand before them in letting go, trusting, and taking risk, as Auftragstaktik intended, and as Nelson helped pioneer? Will they champion efforts to optimize performance through an adaptable and innovative arrangement of the KM components and the aligned C2 system? In the end, all of this is an effort to ensure knowledge analysis and flow in support of learning and effective, de-centralized decision-making. This is the 21st century military needed, to jointly operate as an institution ready for the multi-domain fight. 

Welcome to the new normal. The Army knows it can overcome complex, hybrid threats in the current operational environment. It has done so for almost three months in this new global context. Look at the work of Training and Doctrine Command and how they keep the Army moving forward with a new normal at basic training. Look at the other examples provided in the latest news from the Army. Degraded work conditions, persistent cyber threats, and an unseen biological enemy—these things have not stopped the U.S. Army or the Defense Department. They drive on, processing and compartmentalizing their losses and developing new paths forward. Despite due criticism of aged philosophies, they continue the mission.  

This is what the leader lost would have wanted: to keep moving forward. This is the legacy he would have asked for and for decades contributed to. For him, for the tens of thousands lost, for the heroes of the past and present, and for the Soldiers who will fight tomorrow’s wars, the Army must not let the lessons learned from this experience pass by without capture and analysis for future application.  

Major (P) Stefan M. Wiesz is an FA 57 and currently serving as an AGR deputy division plans officer in the Army Reserve. A basic branch Armor Officer, he has served in Armor and Cavalry organizations in the 3rd and 28th Infantry Divisions, with operational experience in Iraq and Kuwait. His most recent assignment includes BDE S3 in the Military Intelligence Readiness Command, out of Fort Belvoir, VA. 

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