Week 4 – LRC, HELPS, Briefing

Academic Assessment 2

Assessment 2 occurs early in the week and is very similar to the first one.  From what I saw whatever score a person got on the first test they’ll get about the same on the remaining two tests.  Also try not to stress if you review the test and find out you failed, as a lot of questions are given back (I failed my first assessment by one question and ended up getting about four questions back).

Leadership Reaction Course (LRC)

Leadership Reaction Courses (LRC) are the highlight of this week (and the entire program in my opinion).  These are Initial Leadership Opportunities (ILO) in which one person will be in charge of leading a team of 5 through an obstacle.  These obstacles can be climbing over walls, going through tubes, creating bridges to traverse water, etc.  Similar to TBEX, make sure you understand the problem, and make sure your team understands the problem.  Come up with a plan and execute.  If your teammate gets a penalty, hold them accountable (tell them not to do it again).  You will learn of your flight’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as have a fun time.

Homeland Expeditionary Leadership Problem Solving (HELPS)

HELPS is basically your practice for Warrior Expeditionary Leadership Problem Solving (WELPS.)  HELPS are ILOs that will again put you in charge of solving a problem, but your expeditionary skills will be put to the test.  A lot of this will involve compass reading as well as pace counting, so I recommend determining which people in your flight are confident with it.  Confidence in general will be key for these leadership problems, as you will occasionally navigate to the middle of a field and you’ll have to be confident enough to say that’s where you should be.  The best thing you’ll get out of this is a chance to use a compass and pace count, as it will be extremely helpful during WELPS which is a Graded Leadership Position (GLP.)

Briefings

This week will be the first briefing you’ll have to give.  The briefing will be based on the bullet background paper you completed, so you shouldn’t have to put too much additional work into this, just coming up with slides and practicing.  The biggest thing for the briefing is making sure you don’t time bust.  If you don’t present within the required time allowances, you automatically fail.  It’s not the end of the world, as the second briefing is the one you get graded on, but it’s a bummer.  Use this first briefing to learn how to perform well on the second one.  This includes putting together the PowerPoint slides, making creative transitions, using the proper verbiage, etc.

Peer Feedback

On the weekend you will have your first peer feedback.  This is where your flight will get together to discuss what they think of the other members of their flight, good and bad.  I found this super helpful in learning my weaknesses and figuring out what to focus on for the remainder of the course.