GyBill
10-03-2010, 01:52
Corps to roll out new leadership training
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Oct 2, 2010 9:26:55 EDT
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — A training initiative that has quietly grown throughout the Corps in recent years will soon be formalized in an All Marine message mapping out how troops will transition to values-based leadership throughout their careers.
A wide-reaching effort to reinvigorate the service’s ethos of honor, courage and commitment, the Marine Corps Values Program was one of Gen. James Conway’s first initiatives when he became commandant in November 2006. At the time, several Marines were under investigation in connection with alleged war crimes.
“It made us wonder if, in the effort to provide battlefield forces, we’d taken some shortcuts as an institution and emphasized some aspects of the training more than others,” Conway told Marine Corps Times in September. “In virtually every case, there was either an NCO or officer involved.”
The ALMAR will be released in the fall, officials said, but enlisted and officer recruits have undergone the training since late 2007. The program is more than a refresher course, however. It is designed to follow Marines throughout their careers.
Starting in boot camp and Officer Candidate School, recruits are imbued with these core values through interactive discussions in which the same conclusion in a hypothetical scenario would be reached by each person. That’s nothing new.
What is new is how drill instructors and sergeant instructors convey the principles.
“Before that, it was a one-way discussion with DIs,” said Bruce Raich of the Ground Training Division under Training and Education Command, where the program was drawn up. “There was little two-way, with ‘what do you think?’ Now they pause for discussion. They hear honor, courage, commitment related to almost everything they do in recruit training these days.”
Now, too, when a new Marine takes the next steps to the School of Infantry or The Basic School and then moves on to a military occupational specialty school, there are more guided core values discussions with instructors who have been trained in the same methods the drill instructors use.
Instead of shuffling through a rote slideshow, instructors are taught how to use body language, eye contact and voice intonation to convey dry but important topics such as sexual harassment, equal opportunity or suicide.
The program was introduced quietly because “we want the staff noncommissioned officers and junior officers to buy into this thing,” said Dennis Judge, a retired colonel who heads TECOM’s Ground Training Division. “When something gets rolled out with a lot of fanfare it’s ‘OK, here we go again’ and it’s just another program.”
As Marines progress throughout their careers, the lessons learned in values-based training transition to values-based leadership. This approach recognizes that a platoon commander addressing 40 Marines will relay values discussions differently than a battalion commander who must reach 1,000, officials said. The same holds true for NCOs.
“We’re always tying it back to honor, courage and commitment because as they rise in rank and responsibility, it frames the way they lead their Marines,” said David Lance, head of the training management and evaluation section within the division.
As Marines move through instructor courses, they will be required to contribute their guided discussion scenarios to a curriculum library that Lance said will be accessible by April through the Marine Corps Training Information Management System.
“It’s who we are, it’s a core identity that we are principled warriors,” Conway said. “We’re fighting people that don’t have principles, but we cannot lower ourselves to their standards. We’ve got to maintain our own standards and be what Marines have always been on the battlefield.”
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Oct 2, 2010 9:26:55 EDT
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — A training initiative that has quietly grown throughout the Corps in recent years will soon be formalized in an All Marine message mapping out how troops will transition to values-based leadership throughout their careers.
A wide-reaching effort to reinvigorate the service’s ethos of honor, courage and commitment, the Marine Corps Values Program was one of Gen. James Conway’s first initiatives when he became commandant in November 2006. At the time, several Marines were under investigation in connection with alleged war crimes.
“It made us wonder if, in the effort to provide battlefield forces, we’d taken some shortcuts as an institution and emphasized some aspects of the training more than others,” Conway told Marine Corps Times in September. “In virtually every case, there was either an NCO or officer involved.”
The ALMAR will be released in the fall, officials said, but enlisted and officer recruits have undergone the training since late 2007. The program is more than a refresher course, however. It is designed to follow Marines throughout their careers.
Starting in boot camp and Officer Candidate School, recruits are imbued with these core values through interactive discussions in which the same conclusion in a hypothetical scenario would be reached by each person. That’s nothing new.
What is new is how drill instructors and sergeant instructors convey the principles.
“Before that, it was a one-way discussion with DIs,” said Bruce Raich of the Ground Training Division under Training and Education Command, where the program was drawn up. “There was little two-way, with ‘what do you think?’ Now they pause for discussion. They hear honor, courage, commitment related to almost everything they do in recruit training these days.”
Now, too, when a new Marine takes the next steps to the School of Infantry or The Basic School and then moves on to a military occupational specialty school, there are more guided core values discussions with instructors who have been trained in the same methods the drill instructors use.
Instead of shuffling through a rote slideshow, instructors are taught how to use body language, eye contact and voice intonation to convey dry but important topics such as sexual harassment, equal opportunity or suicide.
The program was introduced quietly because “we want the staff noncommissioned officers and junior officers to buy into this thing,” said Dennis Judge, a retired colonel who heads TECOM’s Ground Training Division. “When something gets rolled out with a lot of fanfare it’s ‘OK, here we go again’ and it’s just another program.”
As Marines progress throughout their careers, the lessons learned in values-based training transition to values-based leadership. This approach recognizes that a platoon commander addressing 40 Marines will relay values discussions differently than a battalion commander who must reach 1,000, officials said. The same holds true for NCOs.
“We’re always tying it back to honor, courage and commitment because as they rise in rank and responsibility, it frames the way they lead their Marines,” said David Lance, head of the training management and evaluation section within the division.
As Marines move through instructor courses, they will be required to contribute their guided discussion scenarios to a curriculum library that Lance said will be accessible by April through the Marine Corps Training Information Management System.
“It’s who we are, it’s a core identity that we are principled warriors,” Conway said. “We’re fighting people that don’t have principles, but we cannot lower ourselves to their standards. We’ve got to maintain our own standards and be what Marines have always been on the battlefield.”