How the Army leveraged real-life experiences of its ranks to strengthen the moral fabric of its force

What would you do? This is the question that the Army is challenging its soldiers to answer by applying the appropriate decision-making skills and courage to do what is right.

In an effort to accelerate ethical, Soldier, and leader development in individuals, units, and Army institutions, the Army Center of Excellence for the Professional Military Ethic (ACPME), turned to the Praevius Group to create and document personal stories and experiences to develop leaders at all levels. In a satisfaction survey, one of the team members from the ACPME said, “Even though ethics is a fuzzy area, Praevius is always quick to understand the variables that the ACPME wants to manipulate and the metrics we want to consider…”

The Praevius Group has been working with experiential learning and the development of the Army’s leaders over the past three years.  As part of this focus, Praevius developed a product and learning software called Leader Challenge.  This product and methodology emerged from a partnership with the Center for Company-level Leaders at West Point and the Army Research Institute.  More specifically, the product promotes training and leadership development in both a classroom and distance learning environment. The content is based on real-life stories collected from hundreds of video interviews with U.S. Army Soldiers - the voices of the Soldiers form the basis of the captivating learning modules. The learning pedagogy in the platform has been developed through support from various academic institutions and scholars.    Chris Miller, one of the Partners at the Praevius Group said, “We created ways to develop soldiers and train them to make the right decisions on the battlefield or the home front.  This training and development doesn’t replace real experience but compliments it and increases the cognitive readiness of Soldiers.”

The power of stories
Most people don’t remember everything that they learned in school or in training, but they are more likely to remember stories and experiences. Whether it is a story of how a leader made a decision on a midnight raid or a personal account of an ethical dilemma with a family at home, stories and experiences set the stage for great learning scenarios. They are “sticky” and promote thinking and development.  Integrating appropriate leadership theories and scenarios has created a powerful learning experience for the force. The Praevius Group recently published paper on the research and theory behind this methodology. 

In partnership with Army organizations, Praevius will provide a number of tangible benefits to the force: curriculum and courseware for formal training and development on the professional military ethic; publications and research on topics pertinent to Army values and the warrior ethos; leader developmental products; train-the-trainer courses and leader training; and outreach through a number of conferences, seminars, and forums.

If you have access to Army Knowledge Online, you can review some of the products created for ACPME here:  https://www.us.army.mil/suite/page/611545 

 

 

About Praevius Group

                   

Praevius Group is a firm that provides military technology integration, defense intelligence services and leadership development programs. We help organizations Think Differently by analyzing where you are, where you want to go and how to get there. Praevius combines unparalleled military leadership experience, comprehensive capabilities to solve tough problems, and extensive research methodologies to shape programs. The Praevius Group partners with clients to help them impact others through the innovative fusion of leadership and technology. When your organization is ready to think differently, the Praevius Group is ready to lead the way.

www.praevius.com