Close enough to 300 followers. Time for another thread. here’s one on professional development.

Any thoughts @CharlotteBratby @TSubbie @SRDMaguire @JimmyinCyber @OpConfusion @LowEndLeader @thinkdefence

When I think about professional development I go back to my days as a subbie in Germany when the CO would assign us “PD essays”. The questions would usually be uninspiringly shit (something about asymmetric warfare, something about leadership).

Then, depending on how much effort you were willing to put in depended on how far up the greasy pole you’d climb. Or, as in our case, it was just luck whether what you wrote was what the boss wanted to hear and, more importantly, could understand.

Here’s the thing; I’m 13 years in now and not a huge amount of time away from being that CO. I have a decent education (MA level) and I’m good at writing. But I don’t think for one second I am qualified to start critiquing a young fresh out-of-uni-academic-subaltern’s work.

What is my role in their development then? A mentor; yes. Trainer; yes. Imparter of wise words of hard fought wisdom from an old bloke (aka dit spinner); yes. But academic teacher; nah!

Aside from all that, what’s it going to achieve to get them to bang out 1500 words on asymmetric warfare or “how we could have won in Afghan?” It serves minimal purpose! They’d gain more from sitting in the bar listening to dits from LEs and creating a few of their own.

I also think the demographic that these guys come from and the way their adaptable minds work - intellectually I probably stand to learn more from them! We should tap in to this.

Zuckerberg, bezos, Gates, all did stuff before the age of 30. They’d have done jack shit before 30 (strategically speaking) if they had joined the military

So I’ve been thinking of alternative PD opportunities.

1. Give me an essay title! That’s right kids, the CO is going to write you an essay. You’re a subby; I know you can write an essay, but can you critique one? If your questions shit, I’ll tell you. If it’s good, I’ll write an essay for you, and I expect you to red pen it.

Don’t just pick me up on spelling and grammar. That’s a twatty thing to do. Pull my concepts apart. Let’s inspire some debate.

2. Go viral! Come up with something that’s going to put our regiments twitter account on the map. Keep it clean mind; no racism or sexism. Old people are fair game though!

3. Again with the social media. Produce a campaign plan for the regiments social media presence. Let’s get some reach and some influence. You pick the timeframe and how we achieve. I wanna see understanding. Don’t just toe the party lines. Challenge thinking.

4. Internal debate. A private board on DC, post your most controversial opinion (Donald trumps great, Women shouldn’t be in the infantry, milk before water, doesn’t matter). Now defend yourself as the regiment rips it apart.

5. From the Adjt; “spot something that the CO does wrong in the next week, pick him up for it”. Inspired by a true story when I was a regt OpsO and had to politely mention to the CO that his TRF was on upside in my welcome interview.

Thankfully for me he was a great guy who took it the right way. I assumed it was a test. It wasn’t!

6. Social media duty. Along with the duty officer phone, they get the passwords to our accounts. Do what you want with them. The most interactions gets Monday off! They’ll make mistakes and do something stupid. Still though, it’ll probably be funny.

Those are my ideas anyway. Some slightly more serious than others. Maybe JO PD looks a lot better than when I was a subby. Who knows, maybe there’s a magic pill at ACSC they give you which gives you some creativity now?

I actually thought twice about posting this in case people stole my ideas (ha!!) but then I remembered, leaving me in charge of the portaloos is a bit of a stretch so it’s highly unlikely I’m gonna get a whole regiment!

If anyone does use any of these ideas I wouldn’t mind some feedback on success/failure. Always remember though; dont waste your subbies time with essays. It’s not relevant, they won’t learn anything that they wouldn’t want to anyway and you’re not “developing” anything!

Obviously just my opinion and happy to be told otherwise.

This got way more positive feedback than I thought it would get. Let’s see if @icsc_l or @UKACSC have anything to input

Also meant to tag @kelricho2000