I echo the voices of many of my fellow officers when I say that I want to place training before administrative tasks. Yet, many of us get beaten by the bureaucratic mess that is “Big Army.” Try as we might, we can’t quite get a good battle rhythm that frees up enough time for our soldiers to work on their craft. They are constantly tasked out for details from Battalion, Brigade, and Division. Luckily, there is a way to guard time for soldiers to train and fulfill taskings from higher echelons. It is difficult, and requires communication and support from your Battalion, but ultimately it can work.
Caveat – Accepted at Echelon
First, none of what I will suggest works if you, the company commander, try to go it alone. This is a plan, or outline, that you can mold to your unit’s situation and present to your Battalion Commander, Executive Officer, Command Sergeant Major, and S3. If they don’t back you, or don’t understand what you are trying to do, it won’t work. So, once you have a battle rhythm you think is good, present it to them, persuade them to help you accomplish it, and remain a team player.
First Things First
The concept is this, the first thing soldiers do every normal day is some MOS specific tactical training. Make it a priority by making it the first thing they do after PT. This is the most likely time your teams, squads, and platoons will be together. It is usually before higher echelon tasks begin poaching your soldiers. This is prime time, so dedicate it to your primary duty, which is tactical training.
Next, your First Sergeant, your Executive Officer, and yourself all commit to protecting this time and withholding the trickle of taskings until training is complete, which I would choose to be after lunch. As taskings arrive from higher echelons, hold onto the information until your units completed their training. The afternoons are for administrative tasks, and an after lunch-formation is a perfect time to put out that information and other “go home” criteria.
This is where you must communicate and coordinate with your Battalion leadership. They must understand that your soldiers will not be pulled from their morning training to fulfill a same-day tasking. The wrong way to implement this is to put your head down and ignore their requests. The right way is to inform them of your intentions, that your company is unavailable for same-day morning tasks but are willing and able to do the tasks that must be complete in the afternoon. This communication will prevent a lot of unnecessary tension.
Weekly Predictability
Your standard weekly battle rhythm should then go as follows. Monday is for maintenance, administrative tasks, meetings, and other office work. Friday follows a similar pattern of office work, such as inspections, After Action Reviews, and counseling. Personally, I liked having some sort of morale booster event, whether it was an early release, special PT event that is more enjoyable, or some other tradition that signals the end of the week and builds unit cohesion.
Tuesday through Thursday is where the training priority battle rhythm takes hold. On each of those days, the expectation after PT is to not show up at the office. Units post what they are doing and where they are doing it in advance. Leaders should observe training first, rather than go to the office. Personally, I would give Team Leaders Tuesday, Squad Leaders Wednesday, and Platoon Leaders Thursday. They had between the first show time after PT, until lunch to train their unit as they saw fit. Leaders could observe, but the dedicated unit leader had the right to train their unit without micromanaging. They did not need to fill the entire time, administrative time began when tactical training ended, but they were authorized to use the entire time.
Routine Things Routinely
By doing it this way, leaders are constantly developing their soldiers and are responsible for their training. Training can be all kinds of things and almost any length. On a day where we have pre-planned taskings to do, a Team Leader can give his soldiers a map and have them plot one point. That would count! They did a tactical thing first, and because it took so little time, we as a company could still fulfill a pre-planned tasking from higher. Or, on days with less to do, a Platoon Leader could practice crossing his entire platoon through a Linear Danger Area, or other Standard Operating Procedures. Essentially, there are almost limitless things for professional soldiers to practice. This includes equipment familiarization, to battle drills, to classroom instruction, to everything else.
There is even an opportunity for Company training in the form of Tactical Exercise Without Troops (TEWT) on Tuesdays as the Team Leaders train. This frees up your squad leaders, platoon leadership, and company leadership to work your own SOPs and communication PACE plans.
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The bottom line is that soldiers need to train more, and we as commanders must make that happen. This battle rhythm is a starting point to correctly prioritize training and taskings. You get the training you want and need while remaining a team player. It empowers junior leaders to take charge of their units, giving them a dedicated morning to plan and execute. Training can be simple or complex, 20 minutes or three hours. Do the tactical training first thing in the morning. Show that it is a priority, and you will have a highly trained, cohesive company. The results will speak for themselves.