What do you find has the greatest positive or negative impact on Command Climate Surveys?

2016-02-01T08:48:22-05:00

I have seen CCSs go up and down for various reasons including time in the field, deployments, leader changes, etc. What are your experiences for why the Command Climate is improves or degrades?

Response by MAJ Rene De La Rosa made Feb 1 at 2016 9:25 AM

2016-02-01T09:25:36-05:00

The incoming chain of command wants to know the issues, so that they can work them. This is not a condemnation of the previous commander, but sometimes we find that they did not know. When a commander is in charge of 200+ people, there are bound to be things that are overlooked, hence the command climate survey. By being proactive (and having individuals being forthright), this is one way to find out the burning issues in the street.

Response by SSgt Dan Montague made Feb 1 at 2016 9:37 AM

2016-02-01T09:37:33-05:00

I hated that damn survey. All it takes is a couple of short timers with bad attitudes to bring on an investigation.
**When is the last time you saw a Black officer have lunch with a blue alien in the chow hall without telling Fred Flintstone they were meeting?
a. several times a week
b. 3 times a week
c. I was invited
d. you hate your co because he is a meenie head?

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 1 at 2016 10:11 AM

2016-02-01T10:11:23-05:00

The last one I saw was a complete mockery. You never saw such a tap dance and minimizing of the issues at hand. I was embarrassed, and damn near walked out of the room.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 1 at 2016 10:20 AM

2016-02-01T10:20:56-05:00

They can be a good resource for the new CDR coming in IF a couple of things happen:
A. They are honestly filled out by the Soldiers
B. The issues(if any) are addressed, and action taken on them. Dont tap dance and BS around issues.
The last few Ive sat through were "interesting". Usually first words out of their mouths are "if you see or have a issue bring a possible solution with you", you do that and then the tap dancing starts...

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Feb 1 at 2016 12:10 PM

2016-02-01T12:10:27-05:00

As a systems type, aka learned a lot about modeling and surveys, I hated the surveys mostly because they're so poorly crafted. Doing things by numbers and curves about perceptions at best give you misleading trends. Not asking the right questions causes you to make changes, invariably for the worse. Case in point. NAVFAC had surveys for years that would spend about the first third on stuff the bosses get pounced on and the last third about you. So all the EEO touchy feely stuff was up front and you were relegated to the end. Nowhere are there questions like "What departments in your organization seem to be doing well?" "Doing worse?" "Why?" These types of probative questions can reveal much but require actual work to sift through. The open ended comment section were mostly a bitch session that you couldn't correlate to anything because no probative questions were asked. So our survey in the Northwest had all sorts of Asian EEO San Diego Headquarters problem centric stuff which was pretty much non relevant. It screamed how we didn't matter up north and was clueless of our demographics and the problems that can come from it.

The next stupidity is different commands got compared to each other. You didn't want to be in the lower third overall as that tended to shorten careers. Didn't matter the demographics, quality of life, schools, etc. were vastly different. Different things drive morale at different locations once you get past the actual caring and effective leadership stuff. So the lower end commands weren't the desired ones by officers chasing stars which can be a good or bad thing depending.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 1 at 2016 2:52 PM

2016-02-01T14:52:54-05:00

I have seen a lot of these during my career from unit all the way up to Air Force level and what it boils down to is who is it going to. The ones I have done in my unit I have seen the change but the higher up it goes the less we see the change.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Feb 1 at 2016 5:06 PM

2016-02-01T17:06:16-05:00

When a Command Climate Survey becomes "go home criteria" on Friday at 1600, you can expect a lot of straight lines on the answer sheets....

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 1 at 2016 10:16 PM

2016-02-01T22:16:33-05:00

CCS.......

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 1 at 2016 10:35 PM

2016-02-01T22:35:19-05:00

I like that you can select questions directly dealing with issues you know the units had. Overall I think it improves climate. When I took command that was big seeing I knew there has previously been a suicide and sexual assault issues. I find junior enlisted soldiers have no problem telling you the good bad an ugly on an anonymous survey. My 1sg and I gathered the unit up and went over the results and had a very constructive sensing session for about an hour. I had another one to reevaluate my initial one from when I took command. I reused questions with a lot of feedback from the initial to check progress and added some based on the short answer comments on the last page. There's always going to be those soldiers that don't take it seriously, but there were good concerns brought up that were pretty quick fixes , i.e.; no religious services after the Chaplain retired, totally wasn't something I even thought about for months and it was an easy fix to get interested Soldiers a bible study in the mean time. I like the feedback personally.