A great activity for Cadet Conference / Encampment / Unit-level

[Michael Sidman]

The Global Leadership Program (GLP) is a hands-on leadership lab that takes real world events, modified for an age-appropriate audience, to multiple virtual countries that then react to these events. Cadets have the ability to develop or enhance the following key traits:
 Communication skills - working within a country, each participant fills a role that requires effective communication, defining a strategy, and using these critical skills in a dynamic and challenging environment.
 Decision making capabilities – as the real world does not provide unlimited time to review an unlimited amount of information, the time limits in the GLP scenario help develop making decisions based on available information and intentions.
 Higher level and strategic thinking - a critical skill set that is a challenge to develop are higher level and strategic thinking skills. The goal is to provide a foundation for critical thinking that will lead to enabling wise decisions.
 Analysis skills – Understanding the information presented, and working to get the information that each time may not have is part of what is used for analysis skills. How to respond to inquiries from other participants and reviewing an existing strategy are essential for future leaders of our nation.
 Leadership Development – The ultimate challenge, working within a defined structure to help deliver exceptional results.

The GLP lab activities are also known as "scenarios", and focus on issues including political leadership to influence change, risk management issues, resource management issues, information security, and the larger consideration of reacting to situations that one does not have complete control over. Each lab activity, or scenario, will have multiple "situations" that build upon each other. In other words, what happens in the first scenario could have implications in the last scenario.

Cadets are placed into leadership roles, ranging from President to Diplomat, with Rules of Engagement and Rules / Responsibilities common to all countries. Public speaking, be it within the team, between other virtual countries, or as part of the formal press statement that is part of each situation.

The activity requires a minimum of 16 participants, plus a required "moderator", typically filed by a Senior Officer. The activity requires a minimum of 2 hours of time, but can scale to several hours. The moderator's responsibilities are to prepare the event materials, provide the reading of the scenarios in the GLP, managing time during the activity, and completing the activity. Additional Senior Officers can be applied for evaluating the teams for further professional development via taking feedback into a CAPF 50, or for enhancing the activity by appropriate-level questions asked during the multiple press conferences that each country provides, or both.

With 1,800 participants in field trials within TXWG, MIWG, ILWG, INWG, and OHWG, the GLP provides an exceptionally high approval rate of approximately 99.9%, based on surveys of participants collected. Further, the GLP contains references that are in line with CAP's Drug Demand Reduction efforts and supports both retention and recruiting.

Please contact the author, Major Michael Sidman (michaelsidmancap@gmail.com) or Major Steve Jones (stevejonescap@gmail.com) for additional information.

[Paul Creed III]

Having seen first-hand the GLP in action several times, I can say that this is a wonderful leadership activity for cadets.  :clap:

[Toth]

Sounds kinda like Model United Nations in high school

[Michael Sidman]

Similar concept, but tuned for CAP.  Maj Creed has seen it multiple times.