The Eighth Army Value

“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.” George Washington, First President of the United States of America.

Discipline is the figurative glue that binds together the seven Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. Discipline is the supreme value that transforms the hallowed seven Army values from mere concepts into tangible actions.  An undisciplined force, no matter how talented they are, is bound to fail.

The ability to develop and execute training plans in an environment filled with competing priorities and seemingly endless tasks is a clear indication of a unit’s discipline; disciplined units will continue to thrive in highly competitive environments, whereas undisciplined units will falter and rapidly lose the initiative. Disciplined units constantly nest their training within regulatory guidance and their commander’s intent, whereas undisciplined units allow themselves to be distracted by tasks that seem important but hold little value in the context of the unit’s overall mission. This ultimately causes undisciplined units to only complete enough of a task to maintain minimum capability, as they are simply checking the proverbial “box” and not executing tasks that drive them further toward their overall purpose.

How a unit manages their training program is one of the best indicators of a unit’s discipline and is also an excellent opportunity for leaders to reinforce discipline in their organizations. Battalion commanders conduct training meetings with their company commanders every week or bi-monthly, depending on battle rhythm. Company commanders propose their training plans out to Training Week (TW)-11 for the battalion commander’s approval. Within TW-6, company commanders and their subordinates are not authorized to significantly modify the training plan (i.e. cancel training) without explicit approval from the battalion commander. The training generally occurs, but not nearly to standard nor with the number of participants briefed.

Why does this happen? Everyone was aware nine to eleven weeks prior that the training was going to occur.  We had ample time to properly resource training with supplies and trainers and to de-conflict other tasks and distractors to allow for training to occur.  It happened because individuals, leaders, commanders, and staffs did not forecast requirements in advance of their training. When it’s time to train and a unit hasn’t identified Soldiers who will become medically non-deployable during training, leaders are faced with a difficult choice: allow soldiers to miss training to maintain their deployable status or train and risk the readiness of the unit. Lackluster planning results in poor training or no training at all, neither of which are ideal conditions.

This is directly related to discipline; we didn’t do what we said we were going to do six weeks ago because we didn’t prepare. We didn’t prepare because we weren’t disciplined in our planning and we didn’t follow the 8-step training model. Our training suffered as a result of our indiscipline.

A lack of discipline within a unit has a terrible trickle-down effect. Entire units devolve into undisciplined mayhem where Soldiers never have predictability and consequently never put in the effort to prepare. They believe that the training calendar is merely for show, if they even know their unit has a training calendar, and they are thoroughly demoralized by their subpar performance resultant of their lack of preparation. The Soldiers on an individual level will not trust their leadership and will feel purposeless, as training that could significantly increase their professional performance is continually cancelled or delayed to address issues that could have easily been identified prior to training.

 As a collective force and as individuals, we must commit to being disciplined in everything we do. One of the greatest ways a leader displays discipline is through their ability to adhere to their published priorities to provide predictability to their subordinates. Discipline to priorities enables subordinates to take disciplined initiative towards the commander’s vision and reassures subordinates that their actions are contributing to a meaningful mission.

Disciplined leaders foster disciplined subordinates, and disciplined subordinates combine to create disciplined units. Disciplined units are capable of fighting in any condition, anytime, and anywhere because they are well-trained and committed to the seven Army values. Disciplined units become well-trained because the leaders in that organization follow a thorough planning process that allowed them to anticipate requirements well-ahead of training execution. Discipline, in conjunction with loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage, are the principles that enable leaders to plan the way ahead for their units and provide their subordinates with purpose, direction, and motivation.

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