Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Can you write?

Let them know where you stand.  And find out where they stand by exchanging 'commander's intent' messages.

I have not seen anything like this before.  Imagine: A senior leader sends his destroyer squadron his "Commodore's Intent" and asks each of his Commanding Officers to send him 'their' intent in the form of a handwritten essay of their command intentions for the next two years.  This is a novel way of finding out if your Skippers can write and a great way for them to connect their command intentions with those of the Commodore.

Commander's Intent - A way to deal with incomplete or changing requirements

Commander's Intent is a military concept. It seems to have been first articulated by the Prussians after their defeat by Napoleon's conscript army in 1806. Commander's Intent is "the commander's stated vision which defines the purpose of an operation, the end state with respect to the relationship among the force, the enemy and the terrain; it must enable subordinates to quickly grasp the successful end state and their part in achieving it".

by Sanjay Mishra

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does it matter if the commander finds out if his COs can write. They were selected for command, and minus negligence, will be there for the duration. KNOWING if they can write is really not that important. Nice to know, but not important.

You hope they can write, but there is nothing the commander can do about it if they can't, so knowing about it is wasted focus.

Anonymous said...

Does it matter if the commander finds out if his COs can write. They were selected for command, and minus negligence, will be there for the duration. KNOWING if they can write is really not that important. Nice to know, but not important.

You hope they can write, but there is nothing the commander can do about it if they can't, so knowing about it is wasted focus.

Anonymous said...

Does it matter if the commander finds out if his COs can write. They were selected for command, and minus negligence, will be there for the duration. KNOWING if they can write is really not that important. Nice to know, but not important.

You hope they can write, but there is nothing the commander can do about it if they can't, so knowing about it is wasted focus.

Anonymous said...

Does it matter if the commander finds out if his COs can write. They were selected for command, and minus negligence, will be there for the duration. KNOWING if they can write is really not that important. Nice to know, but not important.

You hope they can write, but there is nothing the commander can do about it if they can't, so knowing about it is wasted focus.

Mike Lambert said...

I think this is the part they were looking for:

"a great way for them to connect their command intentions with those of the Commodore."

Anonymous said...

Captain Lambert,

Even as enlisted persons we were rated on our ability to express ourselves in writing, I would expect that an evaluation of an Officers writing skills should be in each of his/her FITREPs, if one is unable to communicate effectively in writing that could be a real problem. Another noticeable problem is repeating their statements over and over, which is believed to be a form of stuttering and maybe some mental imbalance.

Very Respectfully,
Navyman834