I suspect this is going to be a "what would you say you do here?" meeting.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
I suspect this is going to be a "what would you say you do here?" meeting.

That would take a while for 800 participants.

You know who is likely freaking the Hell out right now?

Colonel Jenny Colegate, USMC.

She’s CO of MCB Quantico.

Can you imagine figuring out FO housing, protocol, security, and a myriad of picayune details any one of which can become a block to promotion.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I'm not former military, but I suspect Pete is going to take a play out of Corporate America's 1990s downsizing playbook and utter the phrase "look left and look right, those people won't be here in 2 years"

Officers get annual evals by the officer above them. Officers depend on those evals for promotions and assignments that will prepare them for advancements.

It's very easy to titrate. And if you're somewhere in the middle and report back, "I honestly can't think of anyone that I should remove from my command." You're self-identifying yourself to be pushed out. It's a command to identify the bottom 20% of your performers directly underneath you. I imagine this is more geared to middle echelon and not to the officers in charge of enlisted troops.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I'm not former military, but I suspect Pete is going to take a play out of Corporate America's 1990s downsizing playbook and utter the phrase "look left and look right, those people won't be here in 2 years"

Officers get annual evals by the officer above them. Officers depend on those evals for promotions and assignments that will prepare them for advancements.

It's very easy to titrate. And if you're somewhere in the middle and report back, "I honestly can't think of anyone that I should remove from my command." You're self-identifying yourself to be pushed out. It's a command to identify the bottom 20% of your performers directly underneath you. I imagine this is more geared to middle echelon and not to the officers in charge of enlisted troops.

That works if your 1 stars and above are the caliber of personnel that Sec War trusts to reshape the military. If they're a bunch of DEI warriors with Powerpoint medals then they'll clean house on different process.

Latest Washington Post report says it will be a sort of pep talk.

quote:

Originally posted by HighRoadRover:
Latest Washington Post report says it will be a sort of pep talk.

I wonder what else it could be.

Although something that Shaka Zulu did to determine whether his warriors had obeyed his command to toughen their feet by going barefoot all the time comes to mind. He held an event in which groups of men were required to dance in an area where thorns had been spread on the ground. Anyone who flinched or acted like a thorn hurt his feet was pulled out and executed on the spot. I’m not sure what a modern equivalent would be, but it would probably be worth watching.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:...
I wonder what else it could be....

Death!? or Bunga Bunga?

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

Officers get annual evals by the officer above them. Officers depend on those evals for promotions and assignments that will prepare them for advancements.

It's very easy to titrate. And if you're somewhere in the middle and report back, "I honestly can't think of anyone that I should remove from my command." You're self-identifying yourself to be pushed out. It's a command to identify the bottom 20% of your performers directly underneath you. I imagine this is more geared to middle echelon and not to the officers in charge of enlisted troops.

That works if your 1 stars and above are the caliber of personnel that Sec War trusts to reshape the military. If they're a bunch of DEI warriors with Powerpoint medals then they'll clean house on different process.

Game it out in your mind. You’re a DEI hire yourself but, like most DEI hires, you’re not self-aware of your incompetence. You expect to actually be retained. You have a mandate to identify the bottom 20% of the people below you. You might have a preference for other incompetent DEI hires but do you get rid of the competent people in favor of your incompetent people? How will the performance of the remaining people below you reflect on you?

You’re not going to get by with claiming your people are incompetent; it’s your job to keep them competent and deliver on the metrics.

There are private corporations that do have a policy of weeding out their bottom performers. You either move up or you move out.

You're missing the point - Sec War will decide if he wants to even read the 1-stars and above identification of the bottom 20%. If he doesn't trust them, their ranking the bottom 20% is meaningless and he'll use a different process to shape the leadership into the war fighter image he wants.

quote:

Originally posted by HighRoadRover:
Latest Washington Post report says it will be a sort of pep talk.

Im not too trusting of WaPo.

I’m imagining the pep talk more along the lines of:

“Listen up, damnit! Either you’re in, and you’re in ALL THE FUCKIN’ WAY, or you’re FUCKIN’ OUT!”
Now here’s what we’re going to do!”
[brief rundown of the direction the U.S. Military is going]
“You don’t like it? Well, there’s the fuckin door!”

There might be less than 10 retiring come Monday morning.
Some others might have to learn the lesson the hard way.

And it all could have been taken care of over the SIPERNET.

I thought Trump was for smaller more efficent government.

quote:

Originally posted by HighRoadRover:
Latest Washington Post report says it will be a sort of pep talk.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
You're missing the point - Sec War will decide if he wants to even read the 1-stars and above identification of the bottom 20%. If he doesn't trust them, their ranking the bottom 20% is meaningless and he'll use a different process to shape the leadership into the war fighter image he wants.

I don’t see your point anywhere in your post that I responded to. Being you’re not a veteran, I was explaining the normal process of how officers move up to stay in or they get pushed out.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I'm not former military, but I suspect Pete is going to take a play out of Corporate America's 1990s downsizing playbook and utter the phrase "look left and look right, those people won't be here in 2 years"

You think everyone he called to that meeting are all on the same level? No. Everyone there reports to somebody else there and their senior levels report to the joint chiefs of staff.

Everyone makes their list as I explained to you and then the Reduction In Force starts at the top. You get RIFed because you’re incompetent and not aligned with the administration’s values? Then you get cut and whoever replaces you gets to review your list and make their changes to your list.

Hegseth is not going to review their lists at all. He’ll give them his vision and intent so that there’s no “telephone game” happening. He has his list and those on his list to stay will take over the duties of those who don’t get to stay. Then those on Hegseth’s list who gets to stay will already have their lists plus they’ll review the lists of the ones who left whose duties they’re taking over. And so it goes.

I would assume for the possibility that on the lists made by the people who stay, they also identified the top performers who can be promoted to take over the spots of people who left if necessary.

This is similar to what happens in corporate life also.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Being you’re not a veteran, I was explaining the normal process of how officers move up to stay in or they get pushed out.

Yes, you've explained normal ad nauseum and appear have been posting on the assumption that the normal process will address Hegseth's transformation goals in his desired timeline.

I've been posting with the philosophy that what Obama and Biden have done to the military the last 12 of 16 years is not normal. They have politicized the hell out of it, implemented DEI, culled the officer ranks, etc. My understanding is that most 1-stars and above have been top 5% their entire career, but what criteria makes up top 5% for fast promotion changed with Obama. Hegseth's stated goal is fundamental transformation to leaner, more lethal force so I have not been posting with the assumption normal process would be followed.

I've been involved in fundamental transformations 3 times in Corp America and normal process was set aside for two to three years.

I am old school Army; enlisted in '97, retired in '23. 100% the Commander has every right, at any time, for any reason to order his subordinate(s) to report (Period).

I saw some weird, non war-fighter stuff happen during the BHO era and then twice as much during the Vice President Biden administration like supposed junior leaders questioning Captains and Colonels... Made no sense to me, I recon equal parts:
- Everyone always gets another chance and a trophy generation
- Never indoctrinated in the hard facts of a real conflict with a "Near-Peer enemy"
- Forget the mission and effects on the battlefield are more important than the man

Hats off to the CIC and SECWAR. "Ever Forward"

quote:

Originally posted by Speedbird:
I am old school Army; enlisted in '97, retired in '23. 100% the Commander has every right, at any time, for any reason to order his subordinate(s) to report (Period).

Yep. The arguing about how flag officers supposedly work, or the comments about the cost and doing it over zoom.

We have a leader in that position for the first time in a long time. Let him lead how he wants. When is the last time you saw a Secwar or DNI out at morning PT with 10th Group, or Seal Team 2, or 1st Battalion Second Marines?

In my experience in corporations, incompetent leaders generally favor and promote incompetent subordinates.

Incompetent leaders generally think they are competent, and favor people that have similar personalities and behavior. But some punish the competent and drive them away because they know the boss is incompetent and the boss knows they know and hates that they know. Also the competent are a competitive threat and they might overshadow the boss if allowed to exercise their true potential.

I've seen the worst of this among female managers of technical areas that they lack competence in. The catty vindictiveness come out and they engage in reputation destruction behind your back. Jordan Peterson was 100% correct about this.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
it all could have been taken care of over the SIPERNET.

An 800 person Zoom Conference= Cluster Fuck.

You can't size some one up in a Zoom Conference. There is no equal to actually meeting and personally interacting with people.

It's a Face to Face meeting.

SecWar want's to see yer War Face...

While yuu have a point, we're dealing with professional military flag and senior field grade officers. There is almost nothing unknown about them given their decades of documented performance, or lack there of. If this is a face to face so the SECWAR can get a first impression it's a bit of a waste of time. As others have said, SECWAR probably already has his short list of who gets to sit after this round of musical chairs is through.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
it all could have been taken care of over the SIPERNET.

An 800 person Zoom Conference= Cluster Fuck.

You can't size some one up in a Zoom Conference. There is no equal to actually meeting and personally interacting with people.