On November 11 of each year, citizens of the U.S. recognize our veterans of military service by honoring them for Veterans Day. I, like many Americans, believe our military, for more than 200 years, has been instrumental in protecting the way of life we cherish. The protection of social and religious freedom is what many believe makes our country great and what helps make our global society what it is today. It's my opinion, they are phenomenally prepared for their profession because they are the best trained. And there is much we can learn by understanding what makes training and education of military personnel so great.
First of all, training and education of military personnel follows a similar path of our civil education system. All U.S. citizens are provided the opportunity to matriculate through the public system together. Then, if they choose, they can elect to go to a public university, a military academy, or one that provides a mixed program of military training and general education. Schools such as The Citadel, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M and a few others provide both for civilian and military tracks within the same student body.
But it's the Federal Service Academies - Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard - that provides what is respected by many as the best leadership training available. Without looking very far, we can find some of the top professionals in their respective fields who state that they learned the most important skills of their craft from the military academy and while serving in the armed forces. Skills that carried over into the public sector and business world.
Several that come to mind are, Fred Smith, Founder and Chairman of Fedex, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University, and Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State. Fred Smith, a graduate of Yale University, once stated that he learned the skills he learned while serving in the Marines, to build one of the most powerful logistics companies in the world. His claim was the Marines understood better than anyone how to efficiently integrate land, air and sea to transport product around the world quickly and effectively.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Hall of Fame basketball coach at Duke University, has been outspoken that his leadership skills were first learned at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY. Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has actually founded the Coach K Leadership Conference to allow him to spread the his principles to business leaders and executives.
It's also interesting to me to understand the importance of what the military terms, "mission critical" training. I have always believed that traditional corporate training models utilize a supply based philosophy to training. They create a curriculum of courses, make them available through open enrollment to employees, allow them the opportunity to take what they believe is good for their career, and then seek to evaluate the value that training provides to the business. The element this strategy leaves out is whether that training has anything to do with what that employee truly needs to be successful. Mission critical training is all about providing training designed specifically for the task at hand.
One last observation which I think is interesting. More and more training companies are now bringing military-based training strategies and programs to the corporate sector. Companies like Raytheon manages the largest military training contracts in the world. General Physics provides a vast array of logistics management support and training to the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. RWD has provided for years lean
training to military service organizations. Afterburner, Inc. provides leadership and performance training, using principles and techniques of America's fighter pilots training. And there are many more examples very similar to this.
More than anything, on this day, I'm very proud to say that I'm a part of this profession. I'm proud to say that many of the most talented professionals I know in the training industry are US Veterans, and I'm proud to be an American. Happy Veterans Day!
And as always, I welcome your opinion. Please feel free to comment below or send them to dharward@trainingdustry.com.
Editor's Note: Raytheon Professional Services (RPS), General Physics (GP) and RWD are sponsors of TrainingIndustry.com.
