Post by uncommonhistorian on Apr 3, 2016 5:25:24 GMT -8
I'm just catching up on all the Jocko Podcasts that I've missed while on a training exercise, and Episode 7, where Jocko talks about Jaffna and the IPKF fighting the LTTE was incredible. One point really stuck out. Jocko was reading the author's thoughts on commanders who fly in on a helo, look around, flash a couple smiles and leave, giving no regard to the troops laying in the muck who are actually doing the fighting. He says something along the lines of: If a commander's visit does not inspire the troops, leave them talking about his visit for the next week or 10 days, and does not challenge them to find an innovative solution to a problem, then it is best if he does not visit at all.
I am a Marine Corps communications officer in North Carolina, and in my limited time in the Fleet so far, I have seen higher-ups do this exact same thing multiple times. Maybe it's because I'm relatively inexperienced, but to me, when a senior commander comes down to the work spaces, it should be to talk to the troops, find out how people are doing and find out if they need anything that is lacking. Instead, what I see is senior commanders coming down and nano-managing EVERYTHING, big and small, to how a posted order is hung to why is this computer in this spot. The troops and the junior commanders in the work spaces watch them walk through and wait for the higher-ups to make some snide and passive-aggressive comment about something. Perhaps I need to look in the mirror and examine what I'm doing at the lower level to mitigate things like this.
Any way, that specific part of Assignment Jaffna really caught my attention and made me realize that, for all the talk about mission tactics and leadership at the lower levels that the US military (and especially the Marine Corps) likes to espouse, it is still an institutional struggle.
I am a Marine Corps communications officer in North Carolina, and in my limited time in the Fleet so far, I have seen higher-ups do this exact same thing multiple times. Maybe it's because I'm relatively inexperienced, but to me, when a senior commander comes down to the work spaces, it should be to talk to the troops, find out how people are doing and find out if they need anything that is lacking. Instead, what I see is senior commanders coming down and nano-managing EVERYTHING, big and small, to how a posted order is hung to why is this computer in this spot. The troops and the junior commanders in the work spaces watch them walk through and wait for the higher-ups to make some snide and passive-aggressive comment about something. Perhaps I need to look in the mirror and examine what I'm doing at the lower level to mitigate things like this.
Any way, that specific part of Assignment Jaffna really caught my attention and made me realize that, for all the talk about mission tactics and leadership at the lower levels that the US military (and especially the Marine Corps) likes to espouse, it is still an institutional struggle.
