Battalion Commander Assessment Program: Documentary

dawn is breaking on what might appear to be another ordinary day in an ordinary army installation but not today today marks the dawn of a new path for the world's greatest fighting force today the way the army selects its future battalion commanders is about to change for the better [Music] in a few hours the first of nearly 800 officers will be arriving here they are coming from every major army installation in the US and from every major overseas location from the Middle East to East and Southeast Asia from Australia to Africa and beyond over five days these officers mostly majors and lieutenant Colonel's will be the first to undergo a new way to determine who our best fit to be the Army's next battalion commanders but why the change historically the Army has picked its battalion commanders and officers to serve in key billets using a board to review and assign value to an officer's past performance much of the information considered in this process however relies strongly on the subjective evaluation of a senior rater and while the insights of this Raiders perception of the officer are critical they're also limited and don't include other relevant information about the candidate in short for such an important decision too much emphasis is placed on too little information or as the army chief of staff recently noted right now we spend more time and money selecting a private to be in the range of regiment than we do when sucked in what I would argue is one of the most consequential leadership positions in the Army our battalion commanders meet JP McGee the army Major General charged with planning and executing the Army's first iteration of the battalion commander assessment program general we are sitting in the General George Patton Museum in Fort Knox Kentucky I want to start just by asking what is the significance of having this conversation in this setting well I think it's a great place to have this interview because I think if you look at George Patton he was someone who had a unique set of talents and those talents were used to excel our army in a direction both in peacetime in combat to make us better ready to fight a war like World War two and then actually win a war like World War two so for an officer who is imbued with so many talents it's great to be able to sit here and talk to you in his museum about how we're trying to uncover and find those talents in our officer corps today to make sure we put the right leaders in positions that can help lead our army into the future so general tell me why did the army decide to change how it chooses its future battalion commanders the legacy selection system for battalion commanders in the Army has been tried and true and is a very good process but when we took a look at it what we realize is it relies on too little information it wasn't that the system was bad it's not it's actually a very good system and it's really fair the question was is this the very best way that we can pick battalion commanders this critical position for army and I think when we reviewed it we said there are probably better ways to do it to add more additional relevant information that might not be included on the officer evaluation report for us to make this decision for the army about who we're going to put in charge of the sons and daughters of America organizations in government industry and professional sports have demonstrated the power of assessment based selections to identify the best candidates to fill critical positions now the Army is using a similar model tailored to the enterprise to select battalion commanders and like the way it considers any new weapon system or platform the army tested it first you conducted a pilot program last year to validate this way of picking battalion can you tell me about that program all 27 officers who went through this process said that they thought this was a better way to pick battalion commanders and the army needed to institute it we had a panel of seven general officers who were the panel members in terms of doing the interview process for the candidates all seven general officers who participated in that said this is a better way for the army to pick battalion commanders and recommended that we actually we add this as a new function [Music] the candidates are given 45 minutes to read a professional journal article on a military related topic next they're given an essay prompt and another 45 minutes to respond to that prompt general what is being measured by the written assessment so the written assessment is a measurement of a candidate's ability to read an essay and then craft an argumentative essay in its in support of a thesis we send the scoring rubric to all the candidates so they know that what we're looking at in terms of their their writing requirements similarly now we're adding in a writing assessments an objective measure into the officer core so the officer core will know that if they want to rise to the level of being a battalion commander it's important for them to do the preparation and work to improve their ability as a writer that's gonna make our communications clearer and better and it's just gonna raise the level of performance across the entire officer corps I'm wondering how does the army account for maybe some unconventional responses from candidates in the written assessment so I think if you look at the scoring rubric which again we share with the candidates originality and and freedom of thought is very much part of that and it's actually a graded part so I think it's encouraged the writing assignment is the first of a battery of tests that will take place over the five-day period major-general Magee gave us insight into the remaining assessment and why they were chosen so an evaluation is largely a subjective measure it is what you decide about your subordinates and how you rank them and so I've served as a senior rater many time the Army gives me broad guidance in what we're looking at and tells us that as a senior rater you're supposed to look at potential but I have wide discretion and how I determine what potential actually looks like an assessment is something very different as an assessment as we define it is objective and it's the same and it's consistent so the one piece that every army soldier is used to in terms of assessments are is the APFT so every six months the army requires every soldier taken on the physical fitness test it consists of three events push-ups for two minutes sit-ups for two minutes and a two-mile run the fact that every soldier in the army knows their to be measured in an objective way on that assessment means that they train and prepare in order to be ready for that test similarly we're going to measure them and their verbal communication skills in a in a fairly unique way we're going to take a look at their cognitive non cognitive functioning which is also going to be important so all of these will require officers in order to prepare for the selection for battalion command to improve upon these skills that we think are important to have within the officer corps and you'll see I believe over time a rise in the level of performance and all of these skills that we want to have within the office core just by including it in this selection process for batang command the army slowly but surely is learning more about the knowledge skills and behaviors of each officer which might not be apparent or noted in the subjective legacy approach now that the candidates for battalion command have been tested on written communication and physical fitness they'll take the cognitive and non-cognitive assessment a valid predictor for advancement into senior ranks dr. Jake Goodwin is a behavioral and social science researcher with the Army Research Institute dr. Goodwin tell us more about these cognitive and non-cognitive tests and how they're used in the be captain the tests are designed to assess the potential of the candidates to perform as a battalion commander as well as really perform as a senior leader as they move beyond battalion command the tests have two different major components the cognitive components of the non cognitive components the cognitive components measure general cognitive ability as well as some other specific cognitive skills that are really related to strategic leadership the non cognitive components measure temperament thats related to performance in these types of positions the tests that we're using were developed in the 1990s is that correct that's correct back in the 90s we started to identify attributes that were associated with leadership at senior levels in the army and we performed a series of research studies that looked at whether these attributes actually predicted someone's career progression performance in the different positions and ultimately their ultimate rank of attainment the studies actually took place over the course of 20 years so it took a long time for us to gather the data to be able to see which attributes actually predicted for this so the test that we're using here at B cap assessed those attributes while the tests these officers take are comprehensive they don't tell a complete story about the candidates major general McGee noted the importance of peer and subordinate evaluations to the process so this is the largest attempt to gather pure and subordinate feedback to help the army make a decision in the history of the army what has been different is we have actually chosen who the peers and subordinates are in order to gather that information so we've gone through the records we've seen who you've worked with we've seen who's worked for you and we've sent them surveys these surveys were deliberately smaller so they don't take very long the goal is from they take about 10 to 15 minutes to fill out there based on different attributes and competencies we would like to see within our leaders and then there are also a series of questions about whether these leaders possess counterproductive leadership traits and how frequently they actually manifest them what do you say to critics who would consider the peer and subordinate evaluations a popularity contest I understand where those critics would be concerned about whether you have been unpopular sometimes as a leader would that whether that would be something that we would consider and I also understand that sometimes there's a line between whether you're a hard leader who has high standards or someone who's certainly crossed that line where that line exists is fairly subjective I think it is also fair to be concerned that if somebody had a bad experience maybe it was a low performing officer who had to be counseled or didn't receive a good evaluation from that officer that that officer would tend to use this tool in order to gain some form of retribution on the officer I can tell you after seeing hundreds of these of these surveys and reading through them that the soldiers that we've asked the officers that we've asked have used this tool incredibly responsibly and the vast majority of the evaluations on our officers who are coming forward for retained command are tremendously positive ok so that hasn't shown itself the other piece of this is that information is all contextualized by a group of very experienced panel members so a major-general two-star general two brigadier General's and two former brigade commanders so Colonels who have a tremendous amount of experience they've all led formations and they understand the nature of leadership isn't mean you always have to make everybody happy and it's not a popularity contest and I think the leaders that are sitting on these panels and making these decisions have proven themselves tremendously capable of contextualizing the information positive or negative about any one of the candidates dr. Melissa wolf is a senior research psychologist with the Center for ArmA profession and leadership she helped develop the peer and subordinate assessment that provides insight into the leadership effectiveness of the candidates for battalion command what is the assessment designed to tell us about each candidate the assessment is basically going to tell us how the leader operates within the demands a battalion command so the assessment was specifically designed to capture those key behaviors competencies and attributes that are known to predict success in battalion command and we asked a number of their peers and subordinates how they operate and so this assessment basically gives us a sense of what are their strengths what are their capabilities and what are their some of their developmental needs relative to what we need out of our battalion commanders does this assessment help detect toxic leadership well that's an interesting question you know toxic leadership is something that the Army has been studying for a number of years and we've actually realized that the phenomenon of toxic leadership is more than just a negative label it's a series of behaviors of a whole spectrum from behaviors that are really benign and that people aren't intended to it all the way up to really negative behaviors that are abuse over what's more formerly known as toxic and army research has shown that the many behaviors on that spectrum can contribute to negative outcomes such as decreased readiness decreased unit cohesion decreased disciplined initiative things that the army really cares about for accomplishing the missions and so yes this instrument does assess the frequency with which the candidates engage in counterproductive leadership but that being said it's the frequency if you have a bad day and you yell in the unit or yell at someone or lose your temper that's not surely an indication of consistent counterproductive leadership that's a bad day so what have you learned about B cap candidates through this assessment we have learned that we have a lot of really good lieutenant Colonel's and major promotable out there who are going through this process the vast majority of individuals are exhibiting the competencies and behaviors that we need them to there are effective leaders they delegate well they create a clear vision and we're also learning that our peers and subordinates have a really unique insight into their candidates which is helping us to provide a really rich understanding of the candidates capabilities - dr. Wolf's point about using subordinates and peers to assess leadership effectiveness this is only one of many areas considered during the psychological assessment and as major-general Magee noted this is the single largest gathering of operational psychologists in the army with me now are three of them Colonel Jeffrey McNeal is director of psychological applications for the US Army Special Operations Command and lead operational psychologist for the battalion commander assessment program next Master Sergeant Ivan Vasquez senior operational NCO and major Garen Davenport lead Operations Officer for the assessment program each of you have different roles within the psychological assessment portion of the program but I want to ask some general questions colonel what is significant about this effort on behalf of the operational psychologists I think the first thing that stands out in significance is that we have a team of 35 operational psychologists and operational psychology NCOs from across the army that have come together for this and it's really unprecedented to have this many psychologists and operational psych NCOs to support an assessment program can you tell me what is the value to the army of these psychological assessments it's focused on suitability attributes rather than a diagnosis or looking at a mental on I'm kind of a mental health assessment that's the important distinction and what opera operational psychologists bring major Davenport can you talk about the leadership reaction course so basically came out and there's various events on the leadership reaction course and we want outlook today which of these events is gonna be most important and help us get the best glimpse of some of these scanners do not always a leader but also as a follower that's really important so we've been keeping the data we've been looking at it all this data goes to interviewing psychologists we're not out here just running any tests that we can think of or any assessment just because it's a good idea everything's looked at so if it doesn't make sense before I get anything anything of value there's no sense of putting a candidate through these assessments with me is Staff Sergeant Ronnie Morales psychology NCO to further explain the leader reaction course behind us sergeant Morales what are the candidates doing and how does it figure into the assessment all right so what you see these candidates doing here today is tackling some obstacles so what we're trying to kind of get from these obstacles is how they perform as leader and as a follower some of these obstacles are really challenging some of them actually have no solution have no have no right answer some of them do we really don't care so much if they're successful at completing the obstacle we're really more looking at how they engage with their teammates and how they perform as a leader and the follower I'm catching up with some of the candidates as they complete the lrc Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Brigante what are your impressions of the course and the assessment program so far I think it's a great opportunity to get a deeper assessment of all the candidates you know typically the board only looks at the each file for a very short amount of time so this goes beyond the paper and it gives I think gives a army leadership a better sense of who we are individually what our personality traits are and just how we interact in a social setting no assessment for a battalion command posting would be complete without understanding each candidate's leadership capabilities but what exactly are the psychologists looking for Maj Jess Harmon is one of them dr. Harmon can you tell me what kind of questions that candidates can expect and what you're trying to learn from those questions the candidates can expect questions related to their personal professional backgrounds or military history as well as questions about how they perceive themselves and how they interact in their environments outside of be cap the purpose of the question is to help the panel members gain information and eliminate amount of time to make a decision on their potential for battalion command can you tell me how this assessment differs from other assessments that you've done or that the army has conducted in the past this is not a medical assessment nor is it a mental health assessment this is used for purposes of personnel selection for battalion command and future potential what value does this program have for the army it allows each candidate an opportunity more time with the with the individuals who are making a decision on their future career and so instead of it being just a packet that's being reviewed they have the opportunity to sit down and talk through their strengths their their weaknesses who they are and how they I'm here and why it's important for them to move forward so I think it gives a candidate an opportunity to share more information as they move forward and a more holistic approach of each candidate as they're being selected for battalion command welcome to the blind panel interview depending on your viewpoint it's either the easiest or the hardest day of the program the panel is composed of five voting members a two-star general to one-star generals and two former brigade commanders there are also three non-voting members on each panel including a panel moderator a command sergeant major and a senior psychologist the panel sits on one side of the partition the candidate sits on the other but why a blind interview how do you do the best-informed process and we saw a study a few studies that have been unsympathetic is that when they would audition for new members to join the other Symphony they would find that when they would bring someone in they would have someone play a cello they would be all evaluated and looked at the panel members would all vote the proficiency of that that cello player in a certain service scoring system but when they erected a screen between them so you couldn't see the the player on the other side of the screen what they found as they made tremendously different choices about who they would pick as a cello player so we decided to erect that screen in order to see how that would reduce the bias and focus the panel members I'm really listening to the candidates and then focusing on what we're asking them to evaluate them on which is their ability to communicate in the verbal form the other great thing about having that screen between the candidate and the panel is it allows that candidate to be able to speak I think more freely about some of the issues that come up not worrying about looking at the panel members not being distracted by any of their their gestures what information does the panel have about the candidates during that blind panel interview we try to present the relevant information to the panel members so they can make the best informed decision so they get a holistic view of the candidate based on the psychometric assessments that have been done in the psychological interview they are able to look at the peer and subordinate feedback the that is incorporated in the file of the campaign they're able to look in a tiered fashion at how the candidates have done on all the assessments that we ran for them over 100 senior army officers representing units from around the army serve on the panel with me art Major General Paul Calvert Colonel Joe Locke and Major General Raul escrow bono so can you tell us how the information on this panel differs from other panels you participated in in the past there's a lot more information that is provided to you in terms of cognitive assessments that you don't have as a part of the selection board process and the way we have done them in the past I think the information is much richer but the identity of the officer that is coming before the panel you don't know you don't know their background you don't know their branch so it's really a blind on blind panel in the past results about a file review this time you get to ask questions we go back to their behavior at a situation we see how they behave back in that situation then we see how they acted and then we understand and see how they they perform in that particular situation which helps kind of understand future behavior for their for the candidates so that's what we're looking for we're looking for battalion commanders that they can perform on there a lot of stress but trying to understand what how they're going to perform in the future colonel can you tell me why you think this process or if you think it should be used for other selection processes in the future for the army yeah I think it's got application there I'll tell you though if you think about just the level of importance it is for selecting battalion commanders and the degree of impact that they have on the day-to-day lives of all of our soldiers if we invest significant amount of time here picking the right guys for a battalion command the pool of people that are that it can command brigades or command at higher levels is much much higher so I think if we get this right it has just the second third or effects that can't even be measured yet you as the program winds down we wanted some parting words from those officers who just completed the Army's first battalion commander assessment program major I'm strong did the program meet your expectations of what you thought it might be I mean most challenging was was probably being resilient as each you know assessment was administered so as you take an assessment you're obviously gonna go back to that wonder what you could have done better but at that point in time you're faced with another assessment and so it's a matter of continuing to push forward and and try not to look back too much anytime you do one of these courses especially one of these that are sort of a first for the army you expect there's going to be a lot of friction and a lot of hiccups but it really exceeded my expectations you know highly professional consistent and fair across the board I felt like the sequencing was was excellent and just the professionalism of the NCOs and the officers that ran this program I was very impressed can you pinpoint over the last four days what was one of the hardest parts I think one of the hardest parts was probably a lengthy some of the lengthy assessments there that we did I mean they really sort of dig deep in into some of the areas psychological assessments cognitive and non-cognitive assessments but these are all great indicators and and lots of data that we can collect over time to where we can make better decisions to put the right people in the right places at the right time this really looked at the whole person your emotional side your physical side your mental side and then just you know your strengths and weaknesses so I thought this assessment was much more in-depth much more thorough and in more of a 360-degree approach and I think it's definitely a better way to assess battalion commanders and and especially the fact that you're you're being looked at physically looked at and then talked to and all the different metrics and assessments it's definitely gives more depth to some things oh very good there's certain things you control you control your physical fitness and your height weight so you've got to make sure that you do that the PT test is great it - the army standard and I think that was a that was a wake-up call for some folks that weren't maybe used to the standard being greater that's the standard I think together getting us on the same playing field if you will is a great way for us to see the transparency on with how we're getting evaluated against our peers and then also for the army to know that they're getting a uniform product with what we're going through here so far it seems like it's a pretty pretty validate it's very professionally run and they keep us moving so there's not a lot of sitting around and waiting it's good well this is really my first type of assessment that I've gone through and absolutely overwhelmed my expectations it's been extremely efficiently run the scariest part of the leader reaction course was just watching a bunch of 40 year olds trying to negotiate those obstacles so we're very happy our wives and spouses weren't out there to make fun of us come with a good attitude don't don't dwell on you know what happens continue to push forward and it'll be fine general tell me about what happens to the candidates after they've completed the course within about two months we believe we'll have a finalized and approved list of an order of merit list for those officers and so about two months for the initial results ready for command and not ready for command to be approved then about four months for the actual slated to occur were officers we're determined ready for command would find out what battalions they would go to for those candidates who don't make either list who are not deemed ready for command are there to stand still in their military career at that point if it fits within their timeline they'll have an opportunity to come back next year and and compete again to see if they're right candidate to be a battalion commander they'll be provided some developmental feedback in order to help allow them to improve over the next year and then they're allowed to come back and try to be a battalion commander again if you want the big picture about the battalion commander assessment program and how it ties in to army talent management there's no one better to ask than the Army Chief of Staff General James McConville so chief why do you consider this program to be so important for the army I I think this program is absolutely critical because battalion commanders that raise the group of the next leaders of the army every soldier every noncommissioned officer and every officer they touch is a future leader the army the battalion command assessment program is a transformational change in the United States Army it's really going from very good to great and that's what we need to do we know in the future we're going to be in a time of great power competition we must have the best leaders and this program is going to allow us to put the best leaders into what I consider the most consequential command job in the Army in battalion command we're very blessed to have the greatest leaders in the army and this process is only gonna make us better the battalion commander assessment program is the foothold for a talent management revolution that is sweeping through our army it marks a transformational shift in how the army selects officers to serve in the most consequential leadership positions and the Army is intent on getting it right our soldiers our army our nation depend on it [Music] you

Channel: The U.S. Army

Views: 5,327

Rating: 4.7741938 out of 5

Keywords: BCAP, US Army

Id: JrA1EP4l29g

Length: 30min 5sec (1805 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 11 2020