Shaping the UK's Helicopter Force Post-Afghanistan
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Shaping the UK's Helicopter Force Post-Afghanistan
Air Vice Marshal Carl Dixon shares his thoughts about how the United Kingdom’s Joint Helicopter Command is preparing to conduct contingency operations following the closure of the Afghan campaign.
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When Air Vice Marshal Carl Dixon became the fifth commander of the United Kingdom’s Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) in April 2011, he wanted to continue to improve the structure of helicopter availability: “When I took over I looked at the issue of helicopter provision and associated areas including the training, engineering and support components, as well as what the aircraft were being used for in theater.” JHC was founded in 1999 to unify battlefield and air assault helicopters operationally from the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force, the Royal Air Force and the Army Air Corps (AAC).
Dixon reflected on the arrival of USMC in Helmand Province as an opportunity for JHC to improve its cooperative relationships: “We professionalized how we worked in a NATO context with the United States Marine Corps in theater,” he explained. The quick development of a peer relationship then secured the delivery of an integrated effect across Helmand. “As far as the soldier is concerned, there is a seamless look and feel to who is doing the flying, which is a real win,” he said.
Dixon reflected on the arrival of USMC in Helmand Province as an opportunity for JHC to improve its cooperative relationships: “We professionalized how we worked in a NATO context with the United States Marine Corps in theater,” he explained. The quick development of a peer relationship then secured the delivery of an integrated effect across Helmand. “As far as the soldier is concerned, there is a seamless look and feel to who is doing the flying, which is a real win,” he said.
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There's an awful lot of "buzz" words and management speak in that article. I work as a Consultant and can't help but find it amusing that Carl Dixon revels in many of the phrases we used to use with such abandon in civvy street (and that are now being dropped in favour of more plain English).
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WTF does 'professionalized' actually mean?
I looked it up in the OED and it doesn't exist.
Surely British VSOs should be talking in English!
I looked it up in the OED and it doesn't exist.
Surely British VSOs should be talking in English!
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Did not the Prime Minister recently verbalise that as a means to effect transformational change in communication of its strategy all governmental departments were to formalise and implement, without facilitating cange event programmes, a reduction in the utilisation of said management speak. Did I say going forward!
Its a shame for this sort of language hides what is probably an important and worthwhile message. But when I see it, I can no longer be arsed to listen or read.
I long for the day when such crap is recognised for the muppetry that it truly is.
Its a shame for this sort of language hides what is probably an important and worthwhile message. But when I see it, I can no longer be arsed to listen or read.
I long for the day when such crap is recognised for the muppetry that it truly is.
Last edited by TomJoad; 7th Aug 2013 at 13:25.
Sadly that is exactly the type of jargon-loaded nonsense that gets people promoted nowadays
No real understanding of how to achieve quality training, especially for newbies - just a vague idea that blobbing it up so one sortie has 2 or 3 trainers each vying for primacy and student focus must somehow be more efficient and therefore promotion-earning!
No real understanding of how to achieve quality training, especially for newbies - just a vague idea that blobbing it up so one sortie has 2 or 3 trainers each vying for primacy and student focus must somehow be more efficient and therefore promotion-earning!
Er... It does exist in sociology and has been in use for at least 50 years - Vollmer and Mills, 'Nuclear Technology and the Professionalization of Labor' (in an American publication) dates to the early 1960s. The word, in essence, means the process of transforming a skilled profession so that it is at the highest level of competence.
To be honest, I think I'd rather he use 'professionalize[d]' instead of the alternative, which'd look like
we embarked upon a transformative process of socializing NATO doctrine within our knowledge community so that we ensured the maintenance of the hierarchical divide between the knowledge-authorities within our professional space to create appropriate organizational closure
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AHA! So it's Spam sociological B/S!
While you can make something better, you can't make something more professional. It either is professional or it isn't.
The word 'professionalize' does not exist in English so I stant by my (amended) point. Britsish VSOs should talk English rather than some sort of Spam management-speak gobbledygook!
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we embarked upon a transformative process of socializing NATO doctrine within our knowledge community so that we ensured the maintenance of the hierarchical divide between the knowledge-authorities within our professional space to create appropriate organizational closure
"our knowledge community" - pants
"hierarchical divide between the knowledge-authorities within our professional space to create appropriate organizational closure"
Ok I may be thick here but when I see the word between I'm looking for two things ie between a and b? So please between the knowledge-authorities" and what? Or have I missed something! I'm sorry but that sentence has been so obfuscated that any sense in its purpose has been lost. It is as the youth say an "epic fail'. That's why thistype of management double speak has had its day - it's a busted flush, it fails to communicate
Last edited by TomJoad; 7th Aug 2013 at 14:53.
Tom, sorry - that's a typo on my part.
The definition, as I understand it, is that professionalisation creates a divide between the 'knowledge-authorities' (I think normal people might use, say, 'experts') and 'outsiders' (i.e. the non-experts). I edited that bit but left 'between' in there. I think the fact that I missed it despite reading through says something about the sphincter-tightening lack of clarity in that sort of language, since it isn't instantly jarring if you have just written - or, in effect, thrown a series of words onto the page - it...
A cynic (why, yes, that might be me) might suggest that the use of obtuse language like that is to create a divide between sociologists and the rest of us.
ExAscoteer - sorry, but it does exist in English, since sociologists use it widely. It may not be in the OED, but there are a lot of words that aren't in the OED, hence the excited articles in the Telegraph telling us which words have been added and sometimes which words have been dropped. If a word is in use, it exists. Whether it should be in use, or should exist is another issue...
The definition, as I understand it, is that professionalisation creates a divide between the 'knowledge-authorities' (I think normal people might use, say, 'experts') and 'outsiders' (i.e. the non-experts). I edited that bit but left 'between' in there. I think the fact that I missed it despite reading through says something about the sphincter-tightening lack of clarity in that sort of language, since it isn't instantly jarring if you have just written - or, in effect, thrown a series of words onto the page - it...
A cynic (why, yes, that might be me) might suggest that the use of obtuse language like that is to create a divide between sociologists and the rest of us.
ExAscoteer - sorry, but it does exist in English, since sociologists use it widely. It may not be in the OED, but there are a lot of words that aren't in the OED, hence the excited articles in the Telegraph telling us which words have been added and sometimes which words have been dropped. If a word is in use, it exists. Whether it should be in use, or should exist is another issue...
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Tom, sorry - that's a typo on my part.
The definition, as I understand it, is that professionalisation creates a divide between the 'knowledge-authorities' (I think normal people might use, say, 'experts') and 'outsiders' (i.e. the non-experts). I edited that bit but left 'between' in there. I think the fact that I missed it despite reading through says something about the sphincter-tightening lack of clarity in that sort of language, since it isn't instantly jarring if you have just written - or, in effect, thrown a series of words onto the page - it...
A cynic (why, yes, that might be me) might suggest that the use of obtuse language like that is to create a divide between sociologists and the rest of us.
The definition, as I understand it, is that professionalisation creates a divide between the 'knowledge-authorities' (I think normal people might use, say, 'experts') and 'outsiders' (i.e. the non-experts). I edited that bit but left 'between' in there. I think the fact that I missed it despite reading through says something about the sphincter-tightening lack of clarity in that sort of language, since it isn't instantly jarring if you have just written - or, in effect, thrown a series of words onto the page - it...
A cynic (why, yes, that might be me) might suggest that the use of obtuse language like that is to create a divide between sociologists and the rest of us.
As for 'is it a real word or not debate", I always thought that one of the great strengths of the English language was its ability to accommodate new words so I have no great difficulty with proffessionalisation /professionalized - would not be my choice but used in isolation I can decipher the intended meaning. What I take issue with is the need to use such words; this particular excerpt could easily have been written in a clearer style.
There is another thread currently running entitled "‘Who Are These Defence Chiefs” in which, amongst other things, the questions is asked about how can we have made such a mess of Defence Procurement and Through Life Support. I believe that part of the answer lies in two decades worth of pervasive management speak. Any idiot can write a paper and convince any other idiot about the merits of a new system when the true meaning is hidden by such nonsense. We convinced ourselves that we were masters of the universe, sat back and fell in love with what we had written without actually questioning or understanding its meaning. Sorry I ramble – hobby horse!
Last edited by TomJoad; 7th Aug 2013 at 15:58.
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sociologists use it widely
Enough said really.
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There's an awful lot of "buzz" words and management speak in that article.
Are there some clearly definable mid-to-long-term planning issues which share common ground between the services and, if so, what are they?
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The point...
...is not really the management-speak of the senior staff per se, but more that a very sensible idea (that a large number of us at the OCU level have been pushing for for a while now) is looking like it might be adopted.
Implementing it will be tricky, and will require a change in both the mentality and manning levels at 60(R), but it would have great benefit to the front-line training system if it all works as envisaged.
Either way, nice to see a refreshingly 'new' view being put forward from the top, even if it is clouded in the usual manage-twaddle.
Implementing it will be tricky, and will require a change in both the mentality and manning levels at 60(R), but it would have great benefit to the front-line training system if it all works as envisaged.
Either way, nice to see a refreshingly 'new' view being put forward from the top, even if it is clouded in the usual manage-twaddle.
I was scheduled to go to a JHC briefing this year.. On the evening before there was a bit of a get together of various interested parties, Two of the JHC personnel spoke formally for only a minute or so each. That was enough for me to scrub round the next days arrangements as I would not be able to put up with that phraseology all the morning
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 9th Aug 2013 at 09:23.
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Good to hear there are so many who are sure they could do a better job. What a shame they never got to run JHC, what a better place it would be. Maybe the reason was too much emphasis on what was or what wasn't in their personally approved dictionaries?
Have to say, I've always had a lot of time for Carl Dixon. No matter what you may think, he's actually a straight-talking SH pilot first and foremost. He doesn't take prisoners among those who hide behind B/S; he can smell it a mile off and I've seen many a Lt Col or Col (and equivalent) squirm under questioning. A good man to have in charge.
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Or rather they resisted the fashion to use clichéd jargon and chose a different path. By the time I was in my third staff appointment I considered myself rather proficient at the old management waffle - even took some pride in it. But then I became so scunnered (annoyed ) with it; the duplicity, the emptiness - not just in the management speak but in the whole change management madness. The ability to spin words to hide the reality had been elevated to doctrinal level. I mentioned it before but when somebody asked me where we were on the "transformational staircase" I realised that my talents would be better employed elsewhere. Rant mode off.
But the simple fact remains that there'll be some 84 RAF helicopters (by my sums) looking for a mission after Endex on the North-West Frontier....
Please correct my sums, but won't it be:
38 x Chinook HC4/4A
8 x Chinook HC5
14 x Chinook HC6
24 x Puma HC2/2A
Please correct my sums, but won't it be:
38 x Chinook HC4/4A
8 x Chinook HC5
14 x Chinook HC6
24 x Puma HC2/2A