1. Adjutant General School Captains Career Course
SHOW SLIDE: Title Slide
Concrete Experience (10 min): The concrete experience serves as a trigger of experience and knowledge, as a focusing mechanism for the lesson that follows, and as a support for teaching new content.
NOTE: Have students take out a piece of paper to write on. Tell them to recall a time in their life where they or someone they knew used poor discretion in the workplace or where gossiping led to negative consequences. After giving students a moment to recall a memory, break them up into groups of Have each group share their stories amongst themselves and then develop a list of three rules to separate harmless small talk from gossip. Have each group share the three rules they developed with the class.
This concrete experience is designed to get students thinking about the importance and value in understanding one of the key attributes of the Adjutant, discretion. The adjutant is often privy to the commander’s private conversations and unfiltered thoughts, making it critical for the adjutant to be wise in their discretion in order to maintain the trust of the commander.
Publish and Process (10 min): This phase is student-centered and instructor facilitated.
The “publish” portion is a short discussion on how group members felt during their experience of generating data. This phase focuses on the group dynamics during the exercise and NOT intended to be a discussion of the content generated. This can be kept short; once the group moves to “process,” they will likely continue to add to “publishing” type information. Do not let the group jump straight to content. When well facilitated, publishing is a good method to relate a discussion of interpersonal communication and group dynamics to the broader topic of leader competencies described in ADP/ADRP 6-22, Army Leadership.
The “processing” phase now allows the group to talk about the data they generated. Discussion and questions are directed toward making sense of the data for the individual and the group. Since the CE questions for each group are the same, one technique for discussing information may be to go back and forth to see if the groups had different answers or have one group provide their answers to all questions and then move on to the second group and then contrast/compare.
Questions the instructor can use to assist the publish and process phase:
What negative consequences did you see when you have experienced poor discretion or gossiping in the workplace?
How did you feel?
Has anyone had a similar or different experience?
How did it make you feel when someone shared information about you that you intended to be private?
Did this change the way you felt about them? How so?
Evaluate the Role of the Adjutant
June 2018

2. Terminal Learning Objective
Action: Evaluate the Role of the Adjutant
Conditions: In a classroom environment, given access to FM 1-0 Human Resources Support, ATP G-1/AG and S-1 Operations, applicable readings, and awareness of Operational Environment (OE), variables, and actors.
Standards: Students will meet the standards when they are able to describe:
The function of the Adjutant.
The Adjutant’s typical duties.
Building and maintaining relationships within the command.
Key attributes of the Adjutant.
SHOW SLIDE 2: Terminal Learning Objective
NOTE: Review the TLO.

3. The Adjutant Key Attributes What does an Adjutant do? The “help”
The goal of a successful Adjutant should be measured in the overall effectiveness in linking the commander’s vision and intent to the optimal employment of the human capital to execute it.
What does an Adjutant do?
The “help”
Based on commander’s needs
Minimizes mission distracters
Trust
Empathy
Discretion
Key Attributes
Building Critical Relationships
Commander
CSM
Executive Officer
Primary Staff Officers
Company Command Teams
Other HR Professionals
SHOW SLIDE: The Adjutant
Adjutant’s literal translation means to help and the role the Adjutant plays is unique, based on the needs of the commander. According to ATP 1-0.1, para 3-25, “When the role is properly executed, the adjutant minimizes mission distracters, allowing commanders to better concentrate their efforts and decision-making on core mission objectives.”
Initiate a discussion with the students on what function they believe the Adjutant plays in an organizations and how the Adjutant minimizes mission distracters.
Building Critical Relationships:
Break the class up into six groups and assign each group a critical relationship to discuss ( Commander, CSM, Executive Officer, Primary Staff Officers, Company Command Teams, and other HR Professionals). Give groups 5-10 minutes to research and develop a short brief on why they think the relationship is important and how the adjutant can work to build that relationship. One students have developed their responses have each group, in turn, brief their response to the class. Take time to discuss each groups answers as a class.
Key Attributes:
After the discussion on building critical relationships, transition into a discussion on the key attributes. Ask students to define each of these attributes in their own words. After going over the meaning of the words, initiate a discussion on why the attributes of discretion, empathy, and trust are identified by regulation as key attributes of the adjutant. Questions to consider:
Why do you think these attributes are identified as the key attributes of the adjutant? Do you agree? Why or why not?
Do these attributes interrelate?
How does each of these attributes apply or impact building critical relationships?
As the Adjutant you will often be privy to the commander’s private conversations and unfiltered thoughts. How do you know appropriately apply discretion?
Are there situations in which you should share insights into how the commander operates?

4. General Duties Duties of the Adjutant Commander’s calendar
Correspondence
Social functions
Ceremonies
Protocol
Rosters
Orders
Profiles
Administrative data
Cup & Flower Fund
FRG
SHOW SLIDE: General Duties of the Adjutant
Initiate a brief discussion on each of the possible duties of the Adjutant. The instructor should utilize student’s experience in serving in the role of Adjutant and be prepared to share their own experiences in the position. The goal is to steer the discussion to a conversation on the varying responsibilities and duties of the Adjutant, particularly focusing on how these duties depend on the needs of each particular commander.

5. Dual role, or one and the same?
The S1 and the Adjutant
Dual role, or one and the same?
SHOW SLIDE: The S1 and the Adjutant
ATP 1-0.1, para states, “The adjutant is not a separate position or billet in an organizational structure but rather the dual role an individual fills. The function of the adjutant should not be confused with certain routine or specialized duties which may be performed.” But what does this really mean? Is the role of the Adjutant inherent in the duties of the S1? Does this role steeped in tradition distract from the performance of S-1 duties?
Initiate a student led discussion on their thoughts and feelings about the role the Adjutant plays in an organization. Suggested questions:
Do you see the role of the Adjutant as a separate position? Explain why or why not.
Do Adjutant duties distract from focusing on personnel readiness?
What have you done in your previous assignment(s) to balance these roles? Were they successful? What would you do differently next time?
Photo taken from Wikipedia <
The role of the adjutant goes beyond a set of additional duties assigned to the S-1 based on tradition or expediency.

6. Terminal Learning Objective
Action: Evaluate the Role of the Adjutant
Conditions: In a classroom environment, given access to FM 1-0 Human Resources Support, ATP G-1/AG and S-1 Operations, applicable readings, and awareness of Operational Environment (OE), variables, and actors.
Standards: Students will meet the standards when they are able to describe:
The function of the Adjutant.
The Adjutant’s typical duties.
Building and maintaining relationships within the command.
Key attributes of the Adjutant.
SHOW SLIDE 2: Terminal Learning Objective
NOTE: Review the TLO.