Learning through fear and failure

I learn more in a tough environment than in a soft environment.  I learn when I work.  I work when I’m motivated.  I’m motivated when I know that I have something to do.  I have something to do when I know that my boss will check if I’m doing it or not.    

In my current employment I take a new group of Soldiers to play war every six weeks.  Building a field problem for 300 Soldiers to train on Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills and their Military Occupational Specialty for 96 hours at a time in a remote location is taxing.  We, at the company level, plan the operations, the food and water needs, transportation, billeting, build an inclement weather plan, etc.  Well, we recently changed Brigade Commanders. 

The former Brigade Commander visited the field problems, knew the process, and understood the standard.  He made on-the-spot corrections, informed my boss (Battalion Commander) if something was not right in my operations, and chaired extensive After Action Reviews following every exercise.  I thoroughly prepared for each exercise a full month from its start point with MDMP, I continuously sought ways to improve my operations, I checked to ensure my subordinates completed tasks, and I scrutinized my actions during the exercise so the AAR would develop in a favorable way for me.  I learned.  I developed.

The current Brigade Commander does not visit the field problems, trusts that we (Company Commanders) are conducting business properly, and believes in a positive work environment.  She asks questions instead of correcting us because she wants to understand our thought processes so she can learn, she does not yell at my direct supervisor when I’m wrong, and she does not chair an AAR after any field exercise.  We build AAR Powerpoint slides to send to her after the exercises and she ALWAYS sends positive feedback for a “job well done!”  I haven’t done anything wrong in months.  I know because she hasn’t told me that I have.  I don’t plan as thoroughly for exercises anymore, I don’t conduct MDMP, and I don’t learn as much as I used to learn during each exercise.  I’m not developing as I did before.   

I need fear of failure to grow.  I don’t have that.  -antiwasp

Filed under: Environment, Lessons Learned, Military, Wisdom

Survival of the fittest just broke Earth’s most lethal fighting force: Competition within the US Army

Army instilling competition within the ranks with upcoming cuts in personnel:

The Army recently re-instituted “block checks” for Lieutenants and Captains.  A block check is a control measure to ensure that Senior Raters (people’s bosses’ bosses) evaluate their personnel properly.  It’s a computerized system making it so Senior Raters can only give a top block check to 49% of the people in each rank (grade) that they senior rate.  This means that 51% of the people that they evaluate each year will be given a “Center of Mass” block check – meaning their performance was mediocre for the year.  I saw a close-hold email today detailing that soon Command Sergeant Majors would be subject to block checks as well. 

The pain will trickle down to the lower NCO levels.  You can be sure of that.

The Army also recently brought back Retention Control Points and decreased the percentage of people that they are promoting yearly.  So, people in the Army need to get promoted within a specified timeline or they are booted out of the military.  For instance, an E-5 in the military has been promoted four times if he entered the military at E-1.  If an E-5 doesn’t hit E-6 by year 13 of his career he’ll get kicked out and receive zero retirement, despite the number of deployments he has.

Yearly evaluations with block checks are used to decide promotions/retention.

Officers that get passed over for promotion three times also get booted out.  I know several Majors that lost their careers within the past month.  They dedicated well over a decade to the people of the United States and now they have to start over.  This is fine.  This is competition.  This is the environment that we are building in the US Army.  Have the most disciplined, hardest charging, proudest, and best trained Soldiers in the Battalion or receive a Center of Mass Block Check on your evaluation.  Look better than the competition or get out of the Army.  Fuck cooperation, right?  Let’s make the Army like the free market where we have individual companies trying to put each other out of business.  That sounds like a great idea. I’m sure we’ll get real far with this strategy . . . Bring it on Iran!

The fact is that we are not the civilian world.  We are one team.  We depend on each other and shouldn’t see others within the ranks as our enemies.  We never leave a fallen comrade, and we’re supposed to lean on our battle buddies when we need help.  But those days are over.  Soldier will soon want to see their peers fail.  Survival of the fittest just broke Earth’s most lethal fighting force.  -antiwasp

Filed under: Economy, Military, Wisdom

The Love and Hate of a Cog

I adore the epiphany that I’m a small part of something larger, when I, as a cog, can see the output of the machine.  I hate being a cog in the machine when the machine expends its cogs, or disregards the individual efforts of each cog. 

I appreciate being an American when we rally to help people in need after Katrina, or 9/11, or when we rallied together and rose for a cause such as in the Occupy Movement.  In these instances I knew that we had a significant effect on America’s future, and I helped with my small cog portion.  I’m revolted in my Americanism when I reflect on how much money General Electric made last year, without paying taxes, and I realize that the son a CEO will never work for survival.  I then realize that I will work for survival in the American Machine until the day I die.  I’m possibly more talented than the son – but we will never play on level playing fields. 

I value my place in the Army when I contemplate being the most lethal fighting force in the world, or when I think of the many cases where we helped needy people in Iraq or Kuwait.  I know I played a part.  I can’t stand the Army when I see cut backs, and Generals with Congress chucking people who sacrificed for their country . . . dumping Soldiers without a pension after they damaged their bodies, minds, and families on missions they were told to execute.  It’s cruel to order someone to sacrifice for you, and then abandon them.

I cherish my role in the family unit with parents, children, grandparents, uncles, and aunts.  I love that I’m expected to lend a hand to anyone of the people in my family if they need it, and to know they would reciprocate.  I detest being the butt of someone else’s anger or jealousy in the pettiness of other people’s gossip within the family unit.  -antiwasp

Filed under: Economy, Military, Parenting, Politics, Relationships, Wisdom