The US Navy Overhauls Training
In 2000, a specially chartered team led by retired Vice Admiral Lee Gunn took a comprehensive and critical look at how the Navy was handling training. As recounted in the July 2003 issue of the Proceedings of the US Naval Institute:The most revolutionary recommendation was to shift the Navy's training philosophy to one that holds the sailor, not equipment, as the primary customer. This means training sailors how to use equipment to successfully perform tasks rather than training them to operate equipment. For example, instead of producing a fire control system and determining training requirements from the engineered capabilities of the system, trainers would examine the tasks sailors are expected to accomplish while using the system. Those tasks would be broken into the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to complete them. Trainers would then evaluate the best methods to convey those elements to trainees.The Navy adopted a "vector model" it calls the Sailor Continuum to help in planning individuals' training.
A task force dubbed EXCEL (Excellence through Commitment to Education and Learning) was charged with implementing the review team's recommendations, including the recommendation that the Navy take a lifelong learning approach to training. The task force defined five major growth and development areas:
Professional Development — What the Navy asks a sailor to know that is directly related to mission accomplishment.
Personal Development — Includes life skills and personal areas in which sailors need competence in order to be successful. Examples: management of personal finances, physical fitness, progress toward a college or university degree.
Professional Military Education & Leadership — Covers critical thinking and other skills needed for leadership at whatever level of responsibility is relevant for a particular individual.
Certifications & Qualifications — Unit-level requirements and industry certifications that are related directly to job proficiencies. For instance, a sailor in IT might qualify for a Microsoft network certification.
Performance — Parameters that measure overall technical abilities (job-related), and personal abilities (more generalized). These data are compared to defined proficiency requirements for each pay grade as part of the process of deciding on promotion.
Each of these five development areas has its own vector for marking progress through four stages of expertise: Recruit, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master.
This Sailor Continuum represents a major change for the Navy:
[U]nlike the path the Navy took in the past — when organizational improvement was expected to drive personnel development — this process develops people to their potential and results in organizational improvement.Civilian companies can pick up some useful ideas from the Navy's vector model, especially in today's environment of flattened organizations. Employee retention is significantly enhanced when a company has something to offer in the way of career pathing. With promotion possibilities limited, defining a lateral career path based on growing mastery and growing responsibility can be a meaningful and attractive alternative.
Labels: Competencies, Military training, Professionalism
posted by Karen Nelson @ 1:08 PM
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