...restraint must be established in the amount of mandatory training passed down to the force. Instead of making lower lev- el leaders decide which mandatory training or direc- tive they will ignore (but still report 100 percent com- pliance), leaders at the strategic level must shoulder the burden of prioritizing which directives are truly required...
...Restraint also needs to be introduced into the rampant use of an officer's integrity for frivolous purposes. Too often, the Army turns to an officer's integrity to verify compliance of minor concerns instead of other means such as sampling or auditing. For example, requiring all officers to attest on their OERs that they have initiated a multi-source assessment and feedback (MSAF) in the last 3 years probably has the well-intended purpose of socializing the force to 360 degrees feedback. But the unanticipated outcome has been the diminution of the gravitas of an officer's signature as rated officers, raters, and senior raters dismiss the requirement as an administrative nuisance rather than an ethical choice...
Lead Truthfully.
leaders at all levels must focus on leading truthfully. Leading truthfully dismantles the facÃŒ §ade of mutually agreed deception by putting considerations of the integrity of the profession back into the decisionmaking process. Thus, at the senior level, leading truthfully may include informing a political appointee that while bath salts are a scourge to American teens, the problem may not merit Army-wide mandatory training until some other topic is removed. Leading truthfully may also include tolerating risk by striving for 100 percent compliance in all areas, but being satisfied when only 85 percent is reported in some. Leading truthfully may also involve brutally honest reporting from subordinates who risk being labeled malcontents or slackers because of their candor...
..leading truthfully changes the culture gradually and will only be effective if embraced by all leaders, not just a token few.
The Army profession rests upon a bedrock of trust. That trust continues to be treasured and guarded, but an alternative ethical reality has emerged where junior officers are socialized into believing that pen- cil-whipping the stats and feeding the beast are not only routine, but expected. This alternative reality is a place where senior officers romanticize the past and convince themselves that they somehow managed to achieve their station in life without tarnishing their own integrity.
Unfortunately , the boundaries of this parallel ethical universe are slowly expanding into more and more of the profession. Ethical fading and rampant rationalizations have allowed leaders to espouse lofty professional values while slogging through the mire of dishonesty and deceit. The end result is a corrosive ethical culture that few acknowledge and even fewer discuss or work to correct. The Army urgently needs to address the corrupting influence of dishonesty in the Army profession. This monograph is but one small step toward initiating that conversation and perhaps stimulating a modicum of action.
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