Beyond Experience - Educating Coast Guard Officers for the Demands of Professional Excellence

This monograph examines the current state of Coast Guard Professional Military Education (PME) to identify areas for improvement to ensure Coast Guard officers have the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities to operate in an increasingly complex and dynamic post-9-11 environment. First, the monograph explores the history and culture of the service, including internal and external factors, to show their influence on the service's preference for the experiential model of learning and education. Then the monograph examines current policies, requirements, and institutional issues, including service, joint, and departmental competencies. This section also includes a holistic review and summary of several recent Coast Guard studies on core competency gaps in junior and mid-grade officers. The first section of the monograph concludes with defining the "desired state" of Coast Guard officer competencies in context with current strategic policy and vision on professional development. The monograph then analyzes information presented in the first section using Systems and Obstruction Analysis techniques described in Jamshid Gharajedaghi's book Systems Thinking. Systems Analysis is used to indicate the structural, functional, and procedural issues in the Coast Guard's training and education system that may be preventing change towards the "desired state." Obstruction Analysis is used to identify the social and behavioral impediments within and external to the Coast Guard that may be hindering change. The analyses show the complexity and inter-relatedness of the issues that continue to allow competency gaps at the mid-grade levels and to prevent improvements to the officer PME system. Five solution areas are discerned from the dual analyses: knowledge, advocacy, plans and policy, resources, and culture. The monograph concludes with proposed solutions in all five areas. The monograph recommends multiple systemic changes which, if implemented simultaneously, would close existing core competency gaps in the officer corps and improve service, joint, and interagency professional competence at all levels. The proposed changes would also gradually move the Coast Guard away from an experiential-based PME system which is not meeting the professional development needs of the officer corps towards an objective-based system which would.