From the Green Notebook

Unlock Your Potential Through Journaling

Lessons in Efficiency from a Literal Gatekeeper

David Greggs

I recently visited a major amusement park with my daughter and received a lesson in efficiency while we waited in line for a ride on a hot day. The park was not very crowded, so we had the place to ourselves for the most part. We made our way through the mostly empty, long queue and finally reached the boarding area. As we headed down the last few stairs, we could see the plastic log ready to take us down a watery drop and relieve some of the summer heat. 

The plastic log was there, it was empty, it was ready for us, and we were ready to get in. But, we were stopped in our tracks. Two things stood in our way: First, a small chain with a simple snap hook latch. Second, a distracted teenage employee. 

Reframing Suicide Prevention: A Call for Modern Solutions in the Army

by Paul J. Ellis

As a Brigade Command Sergeant Major (CSM), I experienced the devastating loss of five Soldiers to suicide over a 30-month period. One moment, in particular, stands out. The Brigade Commander and I were heading to the chapel to conduct a memorial for a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) who had tragically lost his life while doing what he loved: leading a training exercise. He was hit by a civilian car, a heartbreaking accident that left our brigade reeling. As we approached the chapel, my Commander received a call that another one of our Soldiers attending the Basic Leader Course (BLC) had just committed suicide. The Soldier belonged to the same company as the NCO we were memorializing.

Each loss felt like a blow not just to our Brigade but to my soul. Each loss left a feeling of deep sorrow, confusion, and weighty responsibility. In those moments, the weight of our losses felt unbearable. Yet, I had to maintain my composure for the formation and the Command Team, even as the grief and confusion threatened to overwhelm me. These experiences have driven me to reflect deeply on the Army’s current approach to suicide prevention, and I’ve come to realize that it is inadequate for addressing the complex challenges our Soldiers face today.

Weaponize the Neurodivergent

by Dr. Katy Davis, Lt. Col. Erik Davis, and Lt. Col. Nick Frazier.

While the US Army hit its recruiting goal for 2024, the target is much lower than previous years, and following a deficit of 25,000 recruits from the previous two years One principal challenge is the shrinking pool of potential recruits. Estimates suggest only 23%-29% of Americans can even meet the current requirements, and the trend is continuing downward. While no service wants to lower the standards to meet their goals, such a dire outlook demands we relook at which barriers to entry are truly justified. The military’s misinformed restrictions, which automatically ban neurodivergent recruits, should be the first to go.

When neurodiversity is embraced, the strengths and talents that come with differently wired brains can be tapped as assets. This should not come at the expense of unit cohesion and military discipline, but as the tools of warfare shift, the military needs to capitalize on neurodivergent people. 

Revitalizing Resilience Training to Prevent Army Suicides

by Major General Windsor S. Buzza

Since 2009, the U.S. Army’s suicide rates among all soldiers have exceeded age-adjusted national norms by an average of 20%. In my current role as the Chief of Staff for U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), I have read through every suicide incident report that has been generated by my command—a command that encompasses hundreds of thousands of Soldiers across the United States. Each incident report is a reminder that there is more we can do. While representing only 64% of the total Army population, Soldiers at the rank of Staff Sergeant and below account for 77% of the suicides. They are most often Caucasian males in combat arms specialties, 21-29 years old, and they have not deployed. These soldiers have easy access to a personal weapon and have experienced relationship, finance, behavioral health, or legal issues. 

Many of these soldiers often lack the emotional intelligence and maturity, self-awareness, resources, and resiliency needed to effectively self-correct during life’s hardships. The Army traditionally relies on unit-level leader engagement to address Soldier behavior issues. While company-level leaders may have the intuition to recognize when their Soldiers are upset, they do not have the professional expertise to identify the underlying behavioral health issues nor the requisite life experience to provide effective counsel. If the Army is to address suicide rates more effectively, especially in these target demographics, we must cultivate a culture of leaders who ardently practice and support resiliency training, we must reinvigorate the Master Resilience Training program, and we must link Soldiers with available resiliency resources beyond their unit-level leaders.

The Critical Role of Presence in Leadership

By Command Sgt. Maj. Brian A. Hester and Master Sgt. Katie Smith

Presence is undeniably powerful. As a Soldier with 34 years of experience, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of a leader’s presence. Traditionally, this presence has been associated with physical proximity. However, in today’s Army, a leader of drone operators and artillery strike forces may find themselves geographically detached; due to this constraint, the concept of presence needs to evolve. Effective leadership now requires a balance between physical presence and the ability to project your bearing, influence, guidance, and accountability in a dispersed or even digital environment. 

When effective, presence demonstrates a leader’s willingness to share in the experiences of their subordinates and allows for timely observation, intervention, and feedback. Moreover, it provides a platform to model desired behaviors and engage in meaningful dialogue which reinforces values, standards, and expectations, resulting in stewarding the Army profession. Ultimately, the way leaders adapt their approach to match the ever-evolving character of modern warfare will shape the future of our Army.

Adaptive Problem Solving: Leadership Tools for the Modern Battlefield

by Chris Duncan

Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine represented a paradigm shift for the way the world fights wars. For the units who were activated on an Immediate Response Force (IRF) deployment to Poland in anticipation of this threat, the shockwaves from the invasion were felt especially poignantly. For the last twenty years, our Army had fought a counterinsurgency (COIN) fight, working eventually out of well-established bases and on a semi-regular deployment schedule. Russia’s actions brought the gruesome reality of large-scale combat operations (LSCO) back into stark focus in the public eye, especially for our military leadership. Instead of counterterror operations in which one side held massive fire and technical superiority, we needed to prepare for long, stalemated battles along massive fronts between near-peer competitors and leading to hundreds of thousands of casualties. The new way of warfare opened in 2022 was a culture shock to military leaders at all echelons. Adaptive problem solving is now the most important skill for leaders at any level.

Check Out the Military Review’s Series on Professional Military Writing

By Rebecca Segal 

In every job we serve, we learn. Whether you’re journaling to sort through your thoughts or crafting an article to share best practices, writing is an important part of the growth process. At FTGN, we focus on sharing those reflections.

If you’ve wanted to learn how to craft an article or help somebody else to do so, Military Review and The Harding Project teamed up to bring you answers. This week, Military Review published a series on military writing, capturing everything from its history to its ‘how-to’. The authors come from across the Army writing enterprise, bringing a diverse set of experiences, and there are forwards written by both the Chief of Staff of the Army and Sergeant Major of the Army, underscoring the importance of writing to the army profession. There are articles on topics ranging from how professional writing can save lives to how to write a dissenting opinion successfully to how to write a speech.

Staying in Touch: How to Make Networking a Little Less Awful

by John Goetz

It was a normal Monday morning as I opened my Outlook inbox to review the emails received over the weekend. As the messages populated, an unexpected wave of excitement washed over me as I zeroed in on one name. A former commander of mine had reached out, sharing a picture of us taken long ago and asking how I was doing. Normally, slogging through weekend emails can be a daunting task, but this was different. In their message, they took a genuine interest in what I had been up to over the last almost-decade: life changes, assignments, all of it. As I scrolled down, I realized this message was actually a continuation of the previous emails we had shared over the years—dating back to the original time I sent them the photo of us, nine (yes, nine) years prior.

This conversation reopened a line of communication between us, allowing us to reconnect and learn what happened in each other’s life. In today’s world, nine years is an eternity—over that time, we had both been creating professional, personal, and social worlds of our own. By the simple act of just reaching out and staying in touch, we brought those worlds back together with just a quick message. 

Three Football Books On Leadership

“There is no substitute for victory.” -General Douglas MacArthur

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” -Vince Lombardi 

While baseball is America’s pastime, football is America’s game. Since the beginnings of American Football, the sport intertwined with the American Military and served as an analogy for battle, tactics, operations, strategy, and war. Indeed, Walter Camp, considered the father of American Football, served as the U.S. Navy’s athletic director during the First World War. In fact, a generation of our military’s World War II leaders played football in college and even coached teams during the interwar period, including Dwight Eisenhower, James Van Fleet, and Omar Bradley. Because of the strong connection between football and leadership philosophy, this article will analyze books by and about some of the best NFL coaches. This article will highlight the common leadership themes of each, including the loneliness of command, the importance of leadership philosophies, talent management, and leading with knowledge.