Challenge & Selection

The tool that I chose to use for my challenge was visualization, particularly because I thought it was a  good answer to the what works question for my example.  When I was in the National Guard, I attended  a course called WLC, or Warrior Leaders Course, which was for soldiers who were either in a team leader  position, or ready to be put in that position.  Part of the course was to successfully teach a short class to  a group.  I chose to teach the basics of how to flank an enemy position as a squad, since I had spent my  last two years as an infantry fire team leader while I was still serving on active duty, and I had a lot of  training on the topic.  Flanking as a squad involves breaking the squad into two separate parts, and it is  critical to be aware of the position of the other half of the squad.  Using visualization allowed me to  show the group everything they needed to see in order to perform the maneuver successfully.

Application

This class was open to any MOS, or military occupational specialty, not just infantry, so while everyone  knew what flanking was, we did not all have the same type of training.  The whole class was moved  outside and broke up into groups, and each person in the group would take a turn giving their lesson.   Each group had a course instructor observing, who would quiz the rest of the group after each lesson to  ensure that it was taught successfully.

To begin, I had everyone gather around me and went over some basic points, outlining what I was going  to cover in my instruction.  I drew in the dirt what was essentially a grid, marked an area in the middle to  represent an enemy position, and broke a stick into pieces to represent each member of the squad.  The  squad was made up of one squad leader, two team leaders, and a few soldiers in each team, usually  seven to nine people total.  Before flanking, the squad would be moving together until they locate the  enemy position, and at this point the squad leader might make the decision to flank on the position.

The next part of my instruction demonstrates why visualization is a great tool to teach something like  this.  On the squad leader’s call, one team would pick up and move either to the left or the right, and get  on line as a team perpendicular to the team which had stayed put.  I grabbed the sticks from one team,  and moved them as I explained to the group what was happening and why.  Once the sticks were in  place, I explained how the two teams would coordinate their movement with each other, and each team  would move towards and beyond the enemy position, and then regroup afterwards.  Using the  visualization tool by moving sticks over a grid worked very well to get my point across to the group, as  they were all able to watch it happen, and see all the moving pieces involved in the maneuver.

Insight & Approach

In retrospect, if I were to go through the same exercise again, there is at least one thing that I would add  to the way I taught my lesson.  As I put the sticks in their places on the ground, I would have the others  in the group line up in the same way instead of just as a big huddle around me.  I think having them  follow the movement of the sticks as I moved them through the flanking maneuver would help simulate  what it is like to coordinate the movement of the two teams, and it would also help to ensure that  everyone continues to pay attention.  In addition to getting everyone involved, I believe that seeing the

others in the group directly in front of them would make it very clear why the movement has to be  coordinated perfectly, due to the friendly soldiers moving through their field of fire.

