| I have some opinions on the topic of Army General | | | | example: do we "give students voice" to shape their |
| Officers education and selection. I am interested in | | | | personal learning environment? Are our students |
| how we improve the capability of Army colleges to | | | | speaking their minds or are they waiting for |
| support life long learning in our student officers (and | | | | permission to speak? If they aren't speaking is it |
| faculty). I argue that our college should be as flexible | | | | because they are certain about the probable |
| as the organizations we are telling these officers | | | | outcome of their feedback? How much authority do |
| they will have to create and lead when they leave | | | | they have to steer their own learning course? We |
| our building. | | | | see stats from student feedback in curriculum |
| Marshall fired a ton of old guys prior to WW2 who | | | | meetings but there are no students present when |
| were optimized for their peacetime positions based | | | | we make crucial decisions, and our curriculum |
| on their experiences and the nature of the pre-war | | | | meetings are not assessed on quality and |
| environment. The discontinuity that was WW2, in | | | | performance like we do for every lesson, block, and |
| Marshall's judgment, required a bold shift in selection | | | | graded student product. Are students satisfied with |
| criteria for GO. It's a young man's game? But is there | | | | the payoff of giving feedback for themselves? Or is |
| a substitute for the years of practical experience and | | | | it really indirect, weak "feed forward"? |
| intuition honed by the career paths of GOs prior to | | | | Are our classrooms and learning environments truly a |
| their promotion? Doesn't the top leader have to go | | | | network of learning organizations or are we a set of |
| through all those formative experiences to develop | | | | isolated, compartmentalized homogenized standard |
| the skill sets required for the thorniest problems? | | | | parts designed to teach the same things in generally |
| Perhaps, if you believe that we are looking for | | | | the same way against a single consensus view of |
| leadership to be contained within a single node inside | | | | what's required for the next 10 years of service? |
| the network organization. | | | | If you'd argue that we can't teach everything the |
| But if you believe we are in a world of complex | | | | officers will need to know in the next 10 years I'd |
| adaptive systems, filled with wicked problems, then | | | | agree, and then ask if we are helping jointly create |
| the probability goes to zero you can have anticipated | | | | the environment that promotes lifelong learning, |
| all the requirements the GO leader must have in place | | | | providing the infrastructure to support it through |
| prior to the challenge emerging. You would tend to | | | | reachback and the ability to adapt quickly to |
| prefer selection systems that reward the kind of | | | | emerging educational requirements in whatever scope |
| attitude toward learning and developing that Jim | | | | and size is required for the next surprise, rather than |
| Greer describes above, where ideal GOs candidates | | | | trying to get the curriculum "correct and stable, once |
| have a record of modelling the lifestyle of life long | | | | and for all". |
| learning and building organizations. Particularly if you | | | | The Romans had tribunes of the people to directly |
| believe that the solutions for or management of | | | | represent the people, with real authority to act in real |
| wicked problems are to be found in quickly framing | | | | time on their behalf. Do our officers have an |
| problems and assembling the right team from the | | | | equivalent voice to take on real responsibility for their |
| network of resources to satisfy the challenge. | | | | education? |
| In that kind of organization you would expect to see | | | | Could our college routinely solicit the educational |
| officer students inside Army schools taking on more | | | | needs of our newly arriving officers in August, do a |
| responsibility for their own education, particularly | | | | needs assessment and create curriculum for learning |
| those attending colleges that aim for graduate level | | | | inquiries that satisfied most of the expressed "needs |
| education and seeking to leverage the insights and | | | | to know" within 3 months? We couldn't if you |
| potential of soldiers fresh from the cauldron. You | | | | believed that each new piece of curriculum would |
| would expect to see a broad diversity of topics, | | | | have to be exhaustively researched, vetted and |
| approaches, methods and reflections, a flexibility | | | | synthesized and approved for mass consumption |
| towards learning that models the kinds of open and | | | | before the first day of class, and we couldn't if you |
| inquiring attitudes we say the future battlefield will | | | | thought every new piece of curriculum must meet |
| require. You would expect risk to be taken within | | | | the standard of "every MAJ for the next 10 years |
| schools, rather than say, an approach of standardized | | | | needs to know". And yet that's the kind of |
| curriculum, methods and assessments that aim to | | | | organizational flexibility and adaptability we are asking |
| certify performance against an established, | | | | them to develop in their units upon graduation. |
| seductively time-tested checklist.within CGSC, for | | | | College, teach thyself? |