Posted on Jul 20, 2016
How U.S. Army Basic Training Turns Diverse Groups into Teams
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RP Members do you agree that the US Army or any of the Service Branch Basic Training or boot camps turns Diverse Groups into Teams. Your thoughts and comments are welcome!
I can tell you it did for my platoon with C-2-3 at Fort Lenoardwood, MO back in 1975!
We know that diverse teams are more creative and productive than homogenous teams, but how do you get individuals who aren’t alike working together smoothly? As I’ve seen from teaching over 960 recruits as a basic-training company commander in the U.S. Army, people from various backgrounds struggle to discover shared interests during the early stages of team building. Inclusion is one thing, and integration is something else entirely. I’ve found that people with disparate life experiences often require help from their leaders to see and develop common ground.
I can tell you it did for my platoon with C-2-3 at Fort Lenoardwood, MO back in 1975!
We know that diverse teams are more creative and productive than homogenous teams, but how do you get individuals who aren’t alike working together smoothly? As I’ve seen from teaching over 960 recruits as a basic-training company commander in the U.S. Army, people from various backgrounds struggle to discover shared interests during the early stages of team building. Inclusion is one thing, and integration is something else entirely. I’ve found that people with disparate life experiences often require help from their leaders to see and develop common ground.
How U.S. Army Basic Training Turns Diverse Groups into Teams
Posted from hbr.org
Basic Training
Branch
Diversity
Team Building
Teaching
Edited >1 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 21
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Interesting COL Mikel J. Burroughs I was in D-1-3 at Fort Leonard Wood from November 1974 to January 1975.
In my company we had trainees who were given a choice of prison or the Army and another trainee who married his wife when he was 15 and she was 14. The Vietnam War had not officially ended by that point and we wore the same OD uniforms that the Army had worn for a decade.
By the end of the training cycle, some had been weeded out and we had gone through corporal punishment for others mistakes yet we were become soldiers and were prepared for the next phase which was 12B combat engineer training.
LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Christopher Mueller Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) CSM Charles Hayden SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT Forrest Stewart SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert Hawks SGT Robert George SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
In my company we had trainees who were given a choice of prison or the Army and another trainee who married his wife when he was 15 and she was 14. The Vietnam War had not officially ended by that point and we wore the same OD uniforms that the Army had worn for a decade.
By the end of the training cycle, some had been weeded out and we had gone through corporal punishment for others mistakes yet we were become soldiers and were prepared for the next phase which was 12B combat engineer training.
LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Christopher Mueller Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) CSM Charles Hayden SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT Forrest Stewart SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert Hawks SGT Robert George SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
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LTC (Join to see)
Funny how that was one of the quesioned asked at the MEPs station questionaire was if you were told by a Judge to enlist in the Army instead of serving time?
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs
LTC Stephen F. I wore the OD Green uniform when I went through in May of 1975 and they actually had a day where they asked anyone if the wanted to leave on a Chapter and there were several that lined up and were gone the next day. One of my DI actually got into a fight with one of the trainees when the trainee took a swing at him - it wasn't pretty! Interesting time my friend!
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It does work. Breaking you down then building you up and seeing that being part of a team that does good things and having a sense of purpose!
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By the time everyone is broken down and built up again we were all more similar than different. At that point our shared goals made us easier to form into teams.
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