this is the text of an info paper I wrote for our Deputy Commandant to send to the 3 and 4 star generals in charge of Army leader education and training. It describes the motivation for and purpose of our inquiry into “the education gap of force generation”, and lays out a methodology and strategy […]
Tag: education
College, teach thyself?
My commentary from a discussion thread at the CAC blogs on the topic of General Officers education and selection. I am interested in how we improve the capability of the college to support life long learningi nour student officers (and faculty). I argue that our college should be as flexible as the organizations we are […]
Action research, personal journal entry 20090124
The first time I prepared this for an entry on our doctoral discussion forum , I constructed it inside Moodle (our discussion environment; its horrible), attached the file, pushed the upload button only to lose it in hyperspace when my Internet connection crashed. It was important enough to me to rework the piece, however and […]
Reflecting on personal learning environments: teacher as model student
At the last CTU residency, on the last day my breakthrough insight was to approach the research question on leader curriculum development at the Command and General Staff College from the perspective of giving voice to the students, who are professional military officers operating at the graduate level and fresh from combat experience in Iraq […]
A Reflection on the political process of defense acquisition
In other places , such as this discussion about acquisition reform, and Dr Paparone’s discussion of The Fallacy of Technical Rationality, we have seen commentary on the nature of the acquisition process. There is a strong case for it being political in nature. In any event, politics plays a large role in creating the process, […]
Time management: benefitting from the commute
a good friend asked for some advice on how to best use her 30 minutes of mass transit commute time: reading vs meditating vs podcasting etc. I recommend podcasting and/or audio books, because they come in bite size chunks, and there are plenty of them avail for free at the library (i have a ton […]
Reflecting on unbridled competition: a relic from the Pleistocene?
One of my fellow students posed the following question to me after reviewing some comments I made in the chapter we are co-editting re: socialism and unbridled competition: Ken, Your argument on unbridled competition looks solid, but some may disagree that it is THE cause for disharmony and mutual survival. I not sure if you […]
Transformational Leadership through Action Research
I have been convening groups of faculty and students to consider the future of our professional education in our college, and relating it to the larger issue of learning organizations and sustainability in the world. As part of this I have been considering the TRADOC white papers on Commander’s Appreciation and Campaign Design (CACD) and […]
Asking good questions vs :”knowing where you want to go” in participatory action research (PAR)
In the very beginning of a PAR (participatory action research) project, I would draw a distinction between asking good questions and “knowing where you want to go”. Going into the PAR with a preconceived notion of a certain outcome or of a preferred method of proceeding, particularly as a researcher, can lead to advocacy. It may […]
US government debt and the first rule of holes
when you realize you are in one, stop digging