Leveraging Human Assets: Interpersonal Skill Development Program
Abstract
As the requirements of U.S. Army missions fluctuate from conflicts to peacekeeping and nationbuilding efforts, Soldiers confront complex cultural situations and are often in delicate positions that could be politically explosive. Interpersonal performance can be a critical component of success in these situations. Interpersonal skills have been listed as one of the critical skills for future force Soldiers, and interpersonal performance is extremely important for success in special operations areas such as Civil Affairs (CA) or Special Forces (SF) that work closely with indigenous populations. Despite the importance of interpersonal performance there is little emphasis on related skills in individual training or once the Soldier reaches the unit. In part this is likely due to the scarcity of tools available to provide training in this area. Creating tools for assessing, developing, and tracking interpersonal performance would be useful to counter this dearth. The goal of this project was to develop a DVD-based interpersonal skill training program that would facilitate performance in current missions. Civil Affairs (CA) was selected as the target population due to the importance of working with indigenous populations in the accomplishment of their mission. Two of this project's goals are to apply existing social cognition research to interpersonal skill development and provide accelerated, commander-controlled interpersonal skill training using automated tools that can be used anywhere in the world, whenever needed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA481855
Entities
People
- M. M. Wisecarver
- T. D. Carpenter