Feral Jundi

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Leadership: Adaptive Leader LLC–Leadership Training By Don Vandergriff

Filed under: Leadership,Training — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 4:43 PM

Don illustrates how to use Outcomes Based Training & Education (OBT&E) and Adaptive Decision Games (ADGs) to teach and develop adaptability – shaping leaders and teams who achieve out-sized results and help continually evolve their organizations to thrive in the face of change and adversity.
Don began his work on personnel management and leader development with the question “How would John Boyd develop the kinds of leaders he saw as most effective?”

Wow, this is cool. Don Vandergriff is another outstanding John Boyd enthusiast that is actually applying his ideas to leadership training/consulting. This would be a fantastic training provider to look to if your company is looking to square away your management systems. (Or maybe your company could care less about leadership?….)

So who are Don’s clients so far? Well if you look at his client page, you will see a whole list of private and public organizations, to include the Army, Marines, and Navy SEALs. Check it out and definitely like them on Facebook or their other social networking sites they list. They also run a blog with an RSS feed. –Matt

Website for Adaptive Leadership here.

 

Adaptive Leader

Adaptive Leader focuses on helping you develop the right kind of leadership and decision making skills within your organization.
We are a world leader in the application of cutting edge Outcome Based Training and Education (OBT&E) having worked with the British Council, Johns Hopkins University, Wells Fargo, United States Army, the U.S Navy Seals, the Baltimore Police Department and many other large innovative organizations.
Our unique OBT&E model can be applied to a wide variety of areas to encourage rapid learning and extremely fast team cohesion. The process enables participants to develop leadership skills, moral courage and decision-making skills in a safe but pressured environment. All our workshops are completely interactive with participants fully engaged throughout.
Our unique application of the “After Action Review” tool allows us to craft customized Adaptive Decision Games based on a client’s own market place experiences; meaning your leaders and future leaders can be trained with your business as the case study.

Author, Innovator and Leading Thinking on the Development of Adaptive Leaders
Don Vandergriff has been quoted as an expert on leader development, personnel management and fourth generation warfare in publications ranging from the Washington Post, Inside the Pentagon, Army Times and The Atlantic Monthly, and his ideas featured in Harvard Business Review.
Don illustrates how to use Outcomes Based Training & Education (OBT&E) and Adaptive Decision Games (ADGs) to teach and develop adaptability – shaping leaders and teams who achieve out-sized results and help continually evolve their organizations to thrive in the face of change and adversity.
Don began his work on personnel management and leader development with the question “How would John Boyd develop the kinds of leaders he saw as most effective?”

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Iraq: Foreign Military Contractors Spearhead Effort To Train Iraqi Forces

Filed under: Industry Talk,Iraq,Training — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 12:04 PM

“This is the model that Iraq is very comfortable with –low .U.S presence in uniform, a lotta contractors, and they’re getting the quality instruction, the quality training that they really need,” Lieutenant General Robert Caslen

Here is a quick story and update on some more contractor training programs in Iraq. But in this case, this is training that the Iraqis want and need.  Perhaps the Police Development Program that DoS is running should take some notes?

What is interesting is that the article listed some numbers.  Check it out.

But they left behind the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq (OSC-I), a group of about 157 military personnel under U.S. embassy authority, and some 600 civilian contractors, mostly retired soldiers.?They are working with the Iraqis on everything from training on new equipment, such as U.S. M113 armored personnel carriers and M1 Abrams tanks, to military education.

600 hundred contractors training the Iraqis? I imagine that figure includes support contractors as well, because for every trainer or soldier, there is the logistical support in the background that keeps them going. That is still impressive. But what is equally important is the public private partnership that is going on to make that happen. 157 military personnel are there, helping to implement this training and advising as well. –Matt

 

 

Foreign military contractors spearhead effort to train Iraqi forces
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Explosions throw up clouds of smoke near Iraqi soldiers with armored vehicles, who check for casualties, spot enemy forces in the desert ahead of them and then open fire.?But the blasts are only simulated artillery fire and the “enemy forces” are pop-up silhouette targets, not gunmen and vehicles.
That is just as well for these soldiers on a training exercise, as the puffs of dust kicked up by bullets downrange indicate that their aim is often off the mark.?An Iraqi company commander led his soldiers in the exercise at the massive Besmaya military base southeast of Baghdad, but it was a foreign contractor who controlled the scenario.?It was the contractor who ordered the targets raised and lowered amid the sounds made by .50 caliber machine guns on the armored vehicles and the chatter of M-16 rifles.?Contractors, who also assist soldiers in preparing for drills and with after-action reviews, are at the forefront of U.S. efforts to train Iraqi forces.?Negotiations on a post-2011 U.S. military training mission broke down last year over Iraqi reluctance to offer the trainers immunity from prosecution, and almost all American soldiers left the country last December.

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Monday, May 14, 2012

Somalia: MPRI In The News–US Trains African Soldiers For Somalia Mission

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk,Somalia — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:11 PM

This is a cool little article that mentioned the work that MPRI is doing currently in Africa as part of the ACOTA program. It just shows how important companies like this, or Bancroft Global, Dyncorp, Halliday Finch or Sterling Corporate Services are to the task of trying to stabilize Somalia. –Matt

 

U.S. trains African soldiers for Somalia mission
By Craig Whitlock
May 13, 2012
The heart of the Obama administration’s strategy for fighting al-Qaeda militants in Somalia can be found next to a cow pasture here, a thousand miles from the front lines.
Under the gaze of American instructors, gangly Ugandan recruits are taught to carry rifles, dodge roadside bombs and avoid shooting each other by accident. In one obstacle course dubbed “Little Mogadishu,” the Ugandans learn the basics of urban warfare as they patrol a mock city block of tumble-down buildings and rusty shipping containers designed to resemble the battered and dangerous Somali capital.
“Death is Here! No One Leaves,” warns the fake graffiti, which, a little oddly, is spray-painted in English instead of Somali. “GUNS $ BOOMS,” reads another menacing tag.
Despite the warnings, the number of recruits graduating from this boot camp — built with U.S. taxpayer money and staffed by State Department contractors — has increased in recent months. The current class of 3,500 Ugandan soldiers, the biggest since the camp opened five years ago, is preparing to deploy to Somalia to join a growing international force composed entirely of African troops but largely financed by Washington.

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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Funny Stuff: How To Destroy The Image Of A Nation’s Fighting Soldier– Pregnancy Simulator Training

Filed under: Funny Stuff,Military News — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 11:42 AM

This is funny, but is also disgusting. This is the kind of training you do not video tape, and you do not promote or write about. Because now any current or future adversaries are laughing at our soldiers because of this. This does not project an image of fierce, frightening killers that will locate, close with and destroy the enemy. lol
It is my view that an enemy and future enemies should fear our soldiers. They should fear going to battle against our military because our military is deadly and efficient, but also frightening in image. It is the psychological edge that we should seek to gain, and posting videos of our soldiers being ordered to conduct ‘pregnancy simulator training’ does immense damage to that image.
Either way, laugh your head off and pass this around, because the US military needs to learn the hard way why they should not do this kind of thing and allow it to be video taped. –Matt

 

Soldiers don fake belly, breasts to better understand pregnant troops’ exercise concerns
Soldiers don ‘pregnancy simulators’
By SETH ROBSON
February 16, 2012
The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training.
This week, 14 non-commissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers.
Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York.
Developed by the Army in 2008, the course includes aerobics classes, pool sessions and classroom studies on the physiology of pregnant women. The NCOs learn special exercises for pregnant women, who shouldn’t push themselves too hard or participate in high-impact activities such as snowboarding, bungee jumping or horse riding, York said.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Company Spotlight: Triton International And The Somaliland Coastguard

Filed under: Company Spotlight,Maritime Security,Somalia — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:17 PM

There have been several measures of success. First, in 2010 alone, the Triton-trained Somaliland Coastguard captured, prosecuted, and jailed more than 120 pirates. Officials in Somaliland have said that pirates rarely cross into their waters from renowned pirate havens in the region due to the Coastguard’s reputation for intercepting them. Second, as a result of these measures, the World Food Program considers Berbera a safe port for the delivery and distribution of food aid destined for the region. Finally, the Coastguard has also intercepted vessels intending to conduct IUU fishing.

There are two great articles below and be sure to check them out. The first one is written by the CEO of Triton International describing their training program for the Somaliland Coastguard and the second article is more recent and describes the cost effectiveness of the program.

The thing to emphasize here is that this company is providing a much needed service, and anything that can professionalize the navies and coastguards in Somalia to do this work will only help in the overall strategy of reducing piracy.

On the other hand, the danger of professionalizing these forces is that they leave the coastguard and go on to be pirates themselves. Still, something must be done, and as long as the Somaliland paymasters keep paying the troops and keeping them happy, they will stick around.

As to the company Triton and how much business they are getting, I am not sure. Maybe some folks from the company would like to come up and talk a little about how they are doing? The below information was about as much as I could find and bravo to them for a job well done training the Somaliland Coastguard. Check it out. –Matt

Triton International logo.

 

Thanks to Nic for providing the photo.

Skulls and Crossroads
November 18, 2010
by Simon Jones
As the skiff approached the bulker, and moved down the flank of the vessel, the crew came to the railings and watched the men, their presence a familiar sight in the Gulf of Aden yet, unlike other skiffs the crew had seen on their regular transits through these waters, and to the crews relief and frequent reassurance, these skiffs were not an attack from pirates, rather the bulkers security escort into the port of Berbera by the Somaliland coastguard, the maritime police force from the breakaway republic in the north west corner of Somalia.
Different Recent History
Somaliland has always maintained its difference and distance from the rest of Somalia, from the colonial period of the British protectorate, brief independence in 1960 and when the attempt to unite with the rest of Somalia failed; during the bloody and destructive civil war, resulting in their withdrawal and the re-establishing of their independence in 1991.
Declaring themselves the independent Republic of Somaliland; a status that despite the total lack of international or UN recognition, has resulted in Somaliland’s 19 years of self governance, independent democratically elected leaders, their own constitution, currency and passport system. In a country that has received little or no International aid or relief support, the ability to protect your borders is essential; when you have 860 Kms of Gulf of Aden coastline, containing ruthless pirates from the neighbouring country – it’s critical.
The Coast Guard
The Somaliland coastguard was established in the first few years of the new millennium from the maritime wing of the Somaliland police service following a rise in smuggling, trafficking and piracy. Its command structure was built on Somaliland veterans of the Somali Navy. Based in the economically strategic port town of Berbera, with their coastline split into three sectors and a total of 14 Coast Guard stations located along the length of the coastline, which are manned by just under 400 Coast Guard personnel.

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