The Changing Work Style of Headquarters Investigation: Problem Quotas Are Gone, Steps to Resolve Difficulties Are More Concrete
In early summer, a tense skills assessment for electrical-duty positions closely aligned with actual combat conditions was underway at a professional training ground of a certain Rocket Force unit. Reporters on the scene observed that the officers and soldiers taking the assessment briskly completed tasks including circuit fault diagnosis and other course items.
Not far away, Staff Officer Zhang from the unit's headquarters stood holding an investigation-effectiveness feedback form, observing the officers and soldiers training while bowing his head to take notes. Reporters noticed that the form clearly marked every time node in the new training ground's lifecycle—from project initiation, site survey, and construction through acceptance inspection—with the final column, "Usage Feedback and Improvement Suggestions," still blank.
"Today is the first time this training ground has been put into use since its completion. I'm here to see what areas still need improvement and refinement," Staff Officer Zhang said. He noted that headquarters cadres of the brigade now do not consider their work finished once they discover a problem during grassroots-level investigations; instead, they continuously track progress on improvements after discovering a problem, and only consider the matter closed when the problem is thoroughly resolved and the officers and soldiers are genuinely satisfied.
The unit's leadership told reporters that previously, upon receiving assignments to conduct investigations at the grassroots level, some headquarters cadres believed that if they did not uncover a sufficient number of problems, their work would appear ineffective. They therefore went down to the grassroots level with problem quotas in hand, placing their work emphasis on finding more problems rather than on resolving difficulties for the grassroots.
A company-level commander of the unit shared the same feeling. He recalled: "Back then, as soon as we received notice that higher headquarters was coming down for an investigation, the first thing we had to do was hold a meeting to sort out a list of problems to provide to the headquarters for reference. Everyone repeatedly weighed how many problems it was appropriate to raise—too few and we feared appearing not to take things seriously; too many and we feared causing trouble for the headquarters." He candidly acknowledged that this kind of investigation skimmed the surface, making it difficult to discern the actual situation while also adding considerable burden to the grassroots.
As political rectification training (政治整训) continued to deepen, entrenched work-style problems were continuously corrected. At a special thematic discussion session organized by the unit, headquarters cadres engaged in discussion and analysis around the questions of "why conduct investigations, what to do during investigations, and how to conduct investigations," quickly reaching a consensus: the original intent of investigations is to ascertain the actual situation and resolve difficulties, and once that starting point is deviated from, one falls into the formalism (形式主义) of emphasizing traces over results and process over effectiveness.
The clarification of ideological understanding brought about changes in action. The unit's Party committee decisively improved the evaluation standards for investigation work, strictly prohibiting the advance setting of problem quotas during investigations, and explicitly stated: measuring the quality and effectiveness of investigations cannot rely solely on the number of problems discovered, but must look at whether problems have been thoroughly resolved, whether officers and soldiers are genuinely satisfied, and whether combat effectiveness has been improved.
Following Staff Officer Zhang back to the headquarters office building, reporters saw the electronic screen in the lobby scrolling through a public display of investigated problems and their resolution status, listing 8 problems collected during recent investigations, with each problem clearly marked with the responsible section, completion deadline, follow-up responsible person, and current progress.
"This is the power supply support problem at the field training site that was identified during last month's investigation; procurement of portable power generation equipment has now been completed," Staff Officer Zhang said, pointing to one of the problems as he briefed reporters. He explained that in order to ensure every problem collected through investigations has a resolution and every matter receives a response, the unit has established a closed-loop implementation mechanism of "collection—assignment—supervision—closure," specifying that problems discovered during investigations must be categorized and assigned within 24 hours, that responsible sections regularly report progress on resolving difficulties, that the Party committee conducts centralized reviews monthly, and that formal closure is only achieved after passing a grassroots officer and soldier satisfaction assessment.
While conducting a sustained on-site investigation at a certain battalion of the unit, Staff Officer Zhang followed training throughout the entire process—from emergency deployment and communications liaison to emergency response and incident handling—and discovered problems including poor coordination and linkage at the coordination junctures. That evening, he coordinated and organized a consultation among battalion and company backbone personnel and relevant headquarters sections to produce an optimization plan. "The problem quotas are gone, and the steps to resolve difficulties are more concrete. This results-oriented, pragmatic investigation (唯实问效的调研) has given us a genuine sense of the change in headquarters work style," a company commander of the battalion remarked with feeling.
During the interview, reporters learned that a tactical training ground at a certain battalion of the unit was too small in area, making it difficult to conduct some course items and affecting the improvement of combat-realistic training levels. Previously, because the coordination required multiple levels and construction investment was large, renovation of the training ground had proceeded slowly. Now, with the transformation of headquarters investigation work style, this problem has been approved as a project, listed as a key construction project for the unit's annual plan, and is about to begin construction.
"Whatever concerns preparation for war and fighting, no matter how difficult, must be handled well." The unit's leadership stated that they will continue to consolidate and deepen the results of political rectification training, continuously improve investigation work mechanisms, and drive the high-quality development of the force with a pragmatic and capable work style.