Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 48

0

3
B
O
L
C

LT/CPT
36 Month
Tour
C

C

C

6

9

CPT
36 Month Tour
(12-18 mo
Command)

I

12

Broadening
E

L

15

18

MAJ
Broadening/Joint Battalion Command
Max 36 Month Tour
(24 months)
Contingency
(24 month KD)
Expeditionary
MAJ
Broadening/Joint
Force
24 month KD
(36 months)
(18-24 months)

BOLC: Basic Officers Leaders Course
CCC: Captains Career Course

ILE: Intermediate Level Education
KD: Key Developmental

21

C

S

S
Broadening

24

Brigade
Command
(18-24 months)

27

Broadening

SSC: Senior Service College

Officer Career Timeline
These data illustrate that Army enterprise-level
business management, guided by the Army business
management strategy, is the right idea. The Army business management strategy includes a goal to “provide
better alignment between business operations and
operational forces.”19 However, while Army operational
doctrine clearly addresses tactical- and operational-level leader development, the word enterprise is noticeably
scarce in its text. This suggests that the Army still needs
to improve its enterprise alignment.
Serving as a warrior is a noble calling; the warrior’s
identity supports the Army’s core mission to fight and win
the nation’s wars. However, the muddy boots culture is not
supportive of developing the professional soldier for responsibilities at senior levels, a cultural dissonance further
compounded by dysfunctional anti-intellectualism and
supposedly egalitarian practices. Change is needed.
Acknowledging that Army culture is misaligned
with needs of the profession, Chief of Staff of the Army
Gen. Raymond T. Odierno has taken appropriate
action. Two senior leader development courses have
been established to fill the education gap at the senior
officer level. These courses are designed to prepare
leaders to manage the Army enterprise. Each course
targets officers serving in critical assignments within
the institutional Army, known as the generating force.
The first course, Senior Leader Seminar Phase I, began
in September 2011 and has graduated approximately
eight hundred post-Military Education Level 1 officers
and senior civilians.20 In March 2014, the U.S. Army
War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership and
Development piloted the second course, Senior Leader
Seminar Phase II, comprised of brigadier generals and
promotable colonels.21 It has twenty-eight graduates
from the three sessions conducted thus far.
46

In November 2013, based on the success of the two
Senior Leader Seminars, the Sergeant Major of the Army
directed the development of a similar program for newly
selected nominative-level command sergeants major. The
Executive Leader Course is for those who will serve as senior enlisted advisors at one- and two-star level command.
At the time of this article’s publication, the course had met
twice and produced thirty-eight graduates.
All of these courses help shape the Army culture by
creating cohorts of senior Army professionals who can
guide and sustain enterprise-wide change. Leadership
expert John P. Kotter warns us, however, that “new
practices … not compatible with the relevant cultures
… will always be subject to regression.”22 In the Army’s
case, the relevant cultures are muddy boots, anti-intellectualism, and egalitarianism.
Application of Schein’s