Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 33

FORCE MANAGEMENT

(Graphic courtesy of James Lowry Kennedy Jr.)

Figure 2. Percentage of Generating Authorized Positions by Component
when operations occur. OCS planning is critical but
often overlooked by leadership because of a lack
of understanding on their part, the complexity of
OCS, and a lack of ownership on the part of staffs. A
working understanding of OCS is essential for officer
development since contractors will be a part of the
total force in operations for the known future, complementing uniformed forces in myriad situations
with their specialized capabilities.
Evaluating student learning. For Academic
Year 2017, the major formative assessments of the
force-management block of instruction are three onepage discussion papers and three quizzes. The discussion papers require the students to read doctrine or
a senior leader speech and then develop a one-page
argumentative paper where they apply critical thinking to link the reading to the class subject matter. The
three quizzes test the students’ comprehension of the
classroom discussions and materials.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2016

Professional Development beyond
the Classroom
To ensure continuity of force-management skills
within the force after formal schooling opportunities,
leaders should plan professional development sessions
on force-management issues for their subordinate
leaders. Discussion topics might include the budget submission in February, budget negotiations in
Congress, or leader speeches. Leaders could invite program managers to discuss new acquisition programs
or representatives from contracting support brigades
to teach requirements determination and requiring
activity responsibilities.
A resource manager from the G8 (financial management staff section) could provide a briefing on
the budget-requirements development process, or an
FA50 officer could give a corps- or division-level brief
on the MTOE or force-management system website
(FMSWeb) training. Commanders should not forget
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