Captain Malik Douglas
L100: Exam Case Study
July 5, 2015
The return to the 56th Armored Brigade Combat Team (56th ABCT) as the Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO), has afforded me the opportunity to integrate back into my old unit and reacquaint with great soldiers and officers. The 56th ABCT recently returned from a challenging fifteen month deployment in Afghanistan and is now experiencing additional challenges in their RESET phase. These challenges have brought forth morale issues, potential ethical issues and a vacuum in leadership that has caused the Division Commander to lose confidence in his ability to effectively command the brigade and he informed me that I am immediately taking command of the brigade. My assessment of the 56th ABCT Brigade’s Afghanistan mission, strengths and weaknesses of the officers and senior noncommissioned officers and the report provided by Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL), I have determined that there are significant challenges and changes that are needed within the organization. To address the challenges of the unit and to rebuild a cohesive and successful unit, I will utilize the Kotter Model to examine …show more content…
After I conducted a review of the CALL report, I determined that the 56th ABCT performed well, but faced significant challenges to sustaining success and effectiveness.2 CALL reported that the brigade has significant issues of an implied weakened command structure, training challenges and manpower and a poor command climate with espirit de corps unit rituals that progressed to sanction