What are the Basics?
What are the Basics? Developing for Mission Command by Donald E. Vandergriff, Law Enforcement and Security Consulting
At the start of every adaptability workshop I teach, I poll my students with this question, “please take a minute to list three items, in priority of what you feel is most important, you define as constituting what everyone calls ‘the basics’?” After which I take samples from a few of the students, sometimes as many as 15 (if I have a big class). As they list their “basics.” I ask them to define each one and tell the rest of us why they think their list are important. As they do this, I list them on a white board so everyone can see the differences. Though the exercise sometimes takes up to 30 minutes, it is well worth the time of proving a point. I have done this exercise over a hundred times with cadets, officers of all ranks, non-commissioned officers of all ranks, even at the Sergeant Majors Academy, police men and women, law students, graduate students and business managers. Of a list of anywhere from 15 to 45 words of what are the basics, two are hardly ever the same, and they range from “discipline” to “marksmanship”, “wearing the uniform”, even “drill and ceremony” has been included.
Okay, if we cannot define what is the “basic,” then at least we can tell how the Army is going to implement the doctrine of Mission Command. Or, can we? …
