Command Performance: New Technology for Assessing Direct Leadership Abilities

In the future, relatively junior leaders will face broader responsibilities. To predict and guide more rapid development of command leadership ability, it is necessary to know what personal attributes and experiences mold it. We will construct a novelbattery of accurate, objective direct-leadership assessments to predict performance in real world settings. The centerpiece is a command situation simulator, Command Performance. This simulated environment for direct-leadership performance adapts two newscenario-based leadership training and assessment technologies: Think Like a Commander discussions among senior officers, and Tacit Knowledge for Military Leadership interpersonal command skills of platoon, company and battalion leaders. CommandPerformance will be a 3midway measure¿. its data related both to potential predictors among the extensive background information on USMA graduates in BOLDS, and to performance in real world settings such as led-unit results and NTC transcripts. A uniqueand critical capability of the project is Latent Semantic Analysis, a machine learning technology that accurately simulates human understanding of ordinary text discussions, verbal reports, recommendations, and transcripts, along with powerful data miningfor predictive background variablesWhen fully developed, Command Performance will be offered by Knowledge Analysis Technologies directly to the Army as an ADL enabled leadership assessment and prediction technology. It will also be suitable for adaptationfor use in other DOD branches, corporate leadership training, and educational applications such as business and public administration. The latter commercial applications will be developed and marketed by joint ventures between Knowledge AnalysisTechnologies and one or more of the distance education and corporate training organizations with whom we have now or will develop arrangements. The partner's and their client's knowledge of content will be used to adapt the system, and the partner's marketreach to commercialize it profitably and for wide social benefit. The LSA-based data mining and analysis techniques for personnel and student records that we develop may also find commercial application. Finally, Command Performance, coming originally inlarge part from an environment intended for training rather than assessment as such, will adapted fopr that use as well and commercialized through the same channels