My friend Jon recently honored me by asking if I would occasionally contribute to this forum.  I have never blogged before, so as I peck away I feel a bit like the Moliere character who was pleased to learn that he was speaking prose.

For my maiden entry, I offer up some thoughts on training, based upon 25 years of active duty military service–things that I have seen, heard, read, or done.  It occurs to me that, with some modification, what follows might be applicable to training in many other fields as well.   This hardly represents  the last word on the subject and I don’t necessarily expect everyone to agree with everything here, but I hope people might think about this and even attempt to capture their own thoughts on the subject.

1. The best form of welfare for the troops is first class training–Rommel

2. All training must be assessment-based.

3.  It thus follows that evaluation is a critical step in training management.  Unevaluated or poorly evaluated training is worthless–a waste of time at best and positively harmful at worst if it reinforces bad habits.

4. Hard work and enthusiasm don’t automatically equal great training.  They are necessary but not sufficient conditions.  Trainers must know their stuff.

5.  Leader training should be an organization’s top training priority.  Good leaders can carry less than well-trained organizations; weak leaders will bring down the best units.

6.  Senior leaders must be prepared to underwrite mistakes in order to encourage prudent risk taking; however, never send unprepared leaders out to practice on live subordinates.  Rule of thumb–four days of trainer prep and one day of good training is better than five days of lousy training where unprepared trainers flounder.

7.  In other words, quality over quantity.

8. Good after action reviews/critiques are essential.  However, no organization ever improved simply because it conducted a good critique.  Go back and do it over.

9. Practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.

10.  Build progressivity into training: Crawl, Walk, Run.  No football team scrimmages on the first day of practice.

11.  Safety and realistic training are not antithetical.  There is nothing safe about going into combat untrained.  Train realistically and safely.

12.  Most soldiers/students/people forget what they hear, remember what they see, and know what they do.  Try to make your training “hands-on.”