This year’s Command General Staff College will be graduating and PCSing (hopefully) in the midst of a pandemic that has fundamentally changed the daily lives of people across the world. As these newly minted Majors head back out across the force they are taking the institutional knowledge imparted upon them that will continue to move the Army forward. But it is important to take a look at how COVID-19 has possibly changed some of these lessons learned in the classroom.

This year’s graduation week initiative will be focused on conducting an “after-action review” of sorts to take a look at how we did in the ongoing response to COVID-19. We all saw leaders across the force do an exceptional job leading organizations through this and we have also seen the struggles to break our norms like haircuts and mass formations for accountability. So how have we done? How will the Army’s experience and DOD inform the future? What systems succeeded or failed? Did Mission Command work in this de-centralized environment or did it prove we talk the talk, but not walk the walk with MC? Should more staff work be done via telework? How else will COVID-19 shape the force moving forward?

Contact us at fglinitiatives@gmail.com if you are interested in writing a piece for Graduation Week or have additional questions.