Army Training Network Interactive Training Doctrine, "How to conduct a training meeting."
Training doctrine recognizes the need for training management to be routine and predictable. Army Doctrine Publication 7-0 and Field Manual 7-0 demonstrate the routine, cyclical nature of training management in the Training Management Cycle. The Training Management Cycle involves the process of prioritizing training, planning and preparation, execution, and the evaluation and assessment of training. When training is approved, it is resourced and protected from un-forecasted and non-mission-essential requirements that detract from training. Approved and protected training provides predictable training schedules for leaders and Soldiers. The Training Management Cycle supports a predictable sequence of events to enable effective training management.
Long Range Planning and Training Guidance
Unit training management begins with a training plan. Commanders and their staffs use the guidance from higher headquarters to identify priorities, training tasks, and events in which the higher headquarters requires participation from subordinate organizations. The higher commander establishes the training priorities for his echelon and approves the subordinate commanders’ training priorities to ensure they support the higher echelon’s training focus. Working in concert, the nested long-range training plan helps commanders predict what subordinates will need to train throughout the year. This predictability allows commanders and staffs to anticipate resource requirements and effectively manage coordination for those resources.
Short Range Planning and Preparation.
Throughout the year, company and battalion level units conduct weekly training meetings as a primary part of the training battle rhythm. Company training meetings are the center of gravity of unit training management. During these weekly meetings, company leaders synchronize and coordinate training efforts in support of the commander’s annual training guidance. Training, and only training, is discussed to maintain focus, direction and purpose.
The T-week format provides an outline for predictably planning and coordinating training.
Through these meetings, units continuously monitor and manage training in the short-range planning horizon (Weeks T-6 to T). This period just before training event execution is the culmination of long, mid, and short-range planning and preparation. During this period, final training event preparation and resource coordination is made, resources are received, and rehearsals are held. Company training schedules are approved and published at T-6.
Company commanders conduct training meetings at the same time and day each week to provide predictability and preparation time for subordinate leaders. Reserve units typically conduct training meetings monthly. Successful training meetings include discussions on the following:
- Training proficiency overview
- Training conducted the previous week
- Company leader development planning for training events
- Mid-range planning and preparations
- Short-range planning and preparation
- Commander’s short-range training guidance
Training meetings address specific resources required, and the status of requested resources, to support upcoming training events.
Training Schedules and Six-week Lock-in
Training schedules are a mechanism to ensure predictability and effective training management. Commanders develop training schedules no later than six weeks prior to training execution. The company commander signs, and the battalion commander approves, the training schedule to lock-in training expectations. Once approved, the training schedule is effectively an order to subordinate elements to execute the training as scheduled. The published training schedule is disseminated to Soldiers and posted in the company common areas.
To enable predictability and consistent quality execution, events codified in a training schedule should not change, although some changes to approved training are unavoidable. To limit changes and maintain predictability, substantive changes between weeks T-6 and T-4 require the battalion commander’s concurrence and approval. Requiring higher commander approval protects subordinate’s preparation time. Actions such as certifying leaders and preparing administrative and scenario orders begin once the training is locked in. Changing training in an unpredictable manner impacts the preparation activities.
Changes to the training schedule require progressively higher levels of approval closer to execution.
Evaluation, After Action Review, and Assessment
Evaluation of tasks in training is another way to ensure predictability in training management. To start, the evaluation relies on training to a known standard. Training and evaluation outlines (T&EOs) provide the known, predictable standard toward which Soldiers prepare and train. The T&EO is a training outline that identifies, step-by-step, what Soldiers and units must do to successfully execute the task. Knowing what is expected, and having evaluators maintaining the standard, provides predictability in task execution during training.
Another action Soldiers should anticipate in training is the After Action Review (AAR). The AAR occurs following the execution of training. During the AAR, Soldiers and leaders discuss how well they performed training and what needs to improve. Used in coordination with T&EOs and other inputs, AARs inform the commander’s assessment of unit proficiency. Commanders manage unit training to achieve a stated proficiency in prioritized tasks which in turn provides higher commanders predictability in a subordinate unit’s readiness for combat or more complex training.
The assessment brings us back to the beginning of the Training Management Cycle, which supports a predictable sequence of events in unit training management. The commander identifies the prioritized task and directs the unit towards a specified proficiency. Throughout the cycle, the unit knows the commander’s expected outcome, providing subordinates predictability on what to train, how often, and to what proficiency. Effective training management relies on the commander’s ability to predictably focus training of individuals, squads, and platoons toward a single goal.
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