Leaders and Officers of a Rocket Force Unit Conduct Rigorous and Substantive Investigations to Strengthen Work Style

Leaders and Officers of a Rocket Force Unit Conduct Rigorous and Substantive Investigations to Strengthen Work Style——

"Do More Work That Benefits the Long Term"

■ PLA Daily Special Correspondent Li Yinghong

Deep in a dense forest, an equipment training assessment was underway in full intensity at a unit of the Rocket Force. New operators of a certain battalion fixed their eyes on their screens, moving with practiced ease, and passed the assessment without difficulty.

"Using this set of simulation training equipment, operational procedures that originally took three months to master can now be mastered in one month." Battalion Commander Zhang eagerly introduced this to a Party Committee Standing Member who was observing on site.

Three technological innovation results put into training use, more than ten young backbone personnel moving into key positions… Since last year, the battalion has seen marked growth and progress in its talent pool through this Standing Member's meticulous assistance in the spirit of "teaching a man to fish."

Last year, this Standing Member was assigned to provide paired assistance (挂钩帮建) to the battalion. When he first arrived, Battalion Commander Zhang, as was customary, reported on the battalion's basic situation and talent inventory, and honestly described some of the real difficulties the battalion faced in building its talent pool.

"Frankly, I never expected these problems would receive attention and be resolved by higher levels," Battalion Commander Zhang admitted. In the past, the organs had also conducted several rounds of inspections and assistance work; some leaders would come, listen to briefings, look over materials, give a general direction for resolving certain contradictions and problems, then remind everyone to "ensure implementation" before leaving. But as for exactly how to do it and what results were achieved, very few ever followed up.

What he did not expect was that, that very evening, the Standing Member came to find him with a problem list covered in dense annotations, asking one by one about the bottlenecks and work details in building the talent pool.

"You just need to point us in the right direction, and we'll work hard to implement it," Battalion Commander Zhang quickly said.

"Assisting and building at the grassroots level cannot be done as an absentee landlord (甩手掌柜)—just listening to briefings and looking at materials will never get you to the real situation or solve real problems." The Standing Member waved his hand, his tone sincere. "We must do more work that benefits the long term."

During their exchange, he brought up an assistance experience from his early years—at the time, when he went down to a grassroots company, a soldier put forward a suggestion for improving training equipment. After hearing the briefing, he thought the idea was good and instructed the grassroots unit to give it strong support. He later learned that, for various reasons, the grassroots unit had only offered verbal support and taken no concrete action. By the time the soldier left the unit with regret upon completing his service, the innovative "golden idea" had never been realized.

Every time he thought of this, the Standing Member still felt ashamed and self-reproachful. In the course of deepening political consolidation training (深化政治整训), he reflected and analyzed that behind the pattern of "loud thunder" in verbal emphasis and "small raindrops" in actual implementation lay, in fact, a floating work style (作风漂浮) in assistance work and insufficient sense of responsibility. "Talent cultivation, as the foundational project of unit building, must be done with the utmost rigor. Leading cadres must absolutely not take the lead in going through the motions or engaging in armchair strategizing (纸上谈兵). For this work that lays foundations and benefits the long term, I must personally guide it step by step and see it through to the end."

Early the next morning, the Standing Member led organ personnel deep into squads and platoons, talking with officers and soldiers to take stock of the talent pool and real difficulties.

Learning that First-Class Sergeant Major Squad Leader Duan had many innovative ideas but lacked the time and platform to realize them, he immediately brought such contradictions to the table and conducted special research on how to provide support for personnel with specialized skills. He then led everyone in listening to opinions from each individual, clarifying needs item by item, settling on the spot the arrangements for time, venue, and funding support, and backing backbone personnel in establishing an innovation group. Several months later, Squad Leader Duan's simulated training equipment innovation was successfully realized.

During that period, officers and soldiers in the battalion clearly felt new changes: those with ideas dared to speak up, those with ability had a platform, company and battalion commanders were increasingly proactive in discovering the special skills of officers and soldiers, and several other innovation proposals put forward by officers and soldiers were also on the verge of being realized.

"No matter how difficult things are, if the cadres take the lead, it won't be difficult." What moved Battalion Commander Zhang even more was a profound transformation brought about by one training after-action review.

During one training exercise, Company Launcher Commander Xiao Ma suddenly froze up, disrupting the rhythm of collective training. During the after-action review, the Standing Member learned that Xiao Ma was a directly recruited officer (直招军官) who had graduated in automation, with a solid theoretical foundation but lacking practical experience—whenever he got his hands on actual operations, he was prone to "bubbling up" (冒泡, i.e., making mistakes under pressure).

"I thought the specialty matched, but I didn't expect the gap between theory and practical operations to be so wide," Xiao Ma said, face flushed, during the reflection.

What no one expected was that the Standing Member also promptly offered his own reflection: "Xiao Ma's problem has a certain degree of commonality and tendency among the directly recruited officer group. In the past, I made multiple visits to the grassroots for investigations yet never discovered or paid attention to this, which shows that my investigative work style is still not rigorous and meticulous enough, and I have not put in sufficient effort to squat down and go deep."

These words moved the cadres and backbone personnel present, and everyone proactively reflected on their own attitude and work style problems.

"Cultivating young cadres does not mean you can wash your hands of it once they are placed in the corresponding professional position." The Standing Member then led several battalion and company commanders in a thorough analysis, identifying problems in new cadre cultivation such as coarse planning, absent mentorship, and insufficient rotation. In addition to proposing the formulation of "growth roadmaps" for officers and soldiers and the implementation of position rotation, he also decided to pilot a dual-mentor assistance mechanism, having theoretical mentors teach technical backbone personnel and having technical backbone personnel guide command cadres.

Soon, a first-class sergeant major in the company became Xiao Ma's master. Xiao Ma followed the veteran squad leader to learn practical operations and train skills; his shortcomings were filled in bit by bit, and he distinguished himself in multiple major tasks.

A few days ago, the Standing Member came to the battalion again to conduct investigation and a "look-back" (回头看), re-examining and refining some earlier grassroots-building measures. He told the battalion commander: "Although this work may not be conspicuous for the time being, as long as it is needed for combat readiness and warfighting, we must do it with undivided attention and in a down-to-earth manner."

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Deep Cultivation Requires "Four Seasons of Effort" (四季功)

■ A Party Committee Standing Member of a Rocket Force Unit

Looking back on this paired assistance experience, my deepest takeaway is this: to strengthen the grassroots and lay foundations, one must first rectify the view of political achievements (政绩观), set aside the desire for personal gain, and do more work that lays foundations and benefits the long term.

At the outset of the assistance work, a comrade advised me: focus on training scores and equipment rectification—these show results quickly and are easy to make shine; talent cultivation is slow work and can be pushed back.

Frankly, I had my hesitations before. Administrative work changes fast and is visible; talent cultivation shows results slowly and has a long cycle, and working at it for a while may not yield visible results. But as political consolidation training continued to deepen and the study and education campaign on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements (正确政绩观) continued to unfold, I came to a clearer understanding: building a unit's talent pool is not a "political achievement project" (政绩工程) but a "foundational project" (根基工程), and it must absolutely not be turned into a short-term, fragmented "half-finished project" (半截子工程).

Late one night during an investigation, I found a newly appointed political instructor still working overtime, organizing a capability analysis table for all the officers and soldiers in the company, with special skills, shortcomings, and cultivation recommendations marked in dense detail. Seeing this, I was deeply moved: having just taken up the post, being able to settle down and take stock of the unit's talent inventory like this is a good thing.

Thinking carefully back, when I myself was transferred away from a grassroots command position, I had clearly handed over to my successor all matters such as training plans and equipment inventory, but the situation regarding talent development was somewhat vague. Reflecting afterward, I felt: administrative work is urgent and must be handed over clearly, while talent cultivation requires sustained long-term effort—precisely because it shows results slowly and has a long cycle, it is all the more necessary to ensure a proper handover.

Urgent matters cannot wait; slow work cannot be rushed. After that, I led everyone in advancing the establishment of a "talent handover checklist" (人才交接清单) system, incorporating basic talent information, growth plans, and cultivation progress into the mandatory handover content for commanders; we promoted the normalization of talent investigations, organizing quarterly talent situation analyses; and we incorporated the results of talent-building efforts into cadre evaluations, turning "latent achievements" (潜绩) into quantifiable and traceable "visible achievements" (显绩).

Assistance work is not a "gust of wind"; deep cultivation requires "four seasons of effort." Talent cultivation is work that lays foundations, benefits the long term, and builds staying power. We should have the ideological self-awareness of "success need not be achieved on my watch" (功成不必在我), cultivate the talent soil without pause through all four seasons, and provide solid talent support for the cause of strengthening the military.

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Assistance Work Requires a Good Work Style

■ Chief of the Human Resources Section of a Rocket Force Unit

As an organ member who participated throughout this paired assistance work, what moved me most and what I learned the most from was the Party Committee leadership's hands-on, rigorous, and meticulous investigative work style.

In the past, individual organ members conducting grassroots investigations would engage in a cursory, superficial approach (走马观花)—giving advance notice, setting the route, looking only at "bright spots," hearing only "good words," then coming back and flipping through materials to cobble together an investigation report. Frankly, at first I also thought this way of doing things was efficient and effort-saving, with nothing wrong with it.

During the deepening of political consolidation training, the section also organized multiple rounds of comparative self-examination, identifying one by one such problems as "verbal emphasis, light on action" and "prioritizing visible achievements, neglecting latent achievements." But in my subconscious, I still felt that the Human Resources Section is primarily a functional unit, and whether the grassroots talent pool is built well or not had no direct bearing on us. But following the leadership through the entire investigation and assistance process made me understand that talent work is closely connected to every aspect of unit building, and we must resolutely correct habitual thinking in selecting and employing personnel, path dependency in the cultivation chain, and deviations in the view of political achievements.

In the most recent assistance "look-back," this leader emphasized: "Just because a system has been established does not mean talent will automatically emerge. Nurturing trees into a forest cannot be done with a rush for quick results; it requires dynamic follow-up and sustained accountability for results." I wrote these words in my notebook, and I also wrote them in my heart.

This year, we have continued to improve our work style, adjusting the talent database in response to grassroots feedback and suggestions to achieve quarterly dynamic updates, with growth progress and bottleneck shortcomings recorded without omission. The Party Committee has made clear that assistance "look-backs" should be conducted regularly, and that the results of talent-building efforts should be simultaneously incorporated into the quarterly evaluations of battalion and company commanders, so that those who have put in hard work and achieved real results in talent cultivation receive the recognition they deserve, and so that "deep cultivation of the talent soil" becomes the conscious action of Party member cadres at all levels.

It is easy to grow one tree well; it is difficult to cultivate a whole forest well. Going forward, I must sustain the good work style forged through deepening political consolidation training, turn a momentary "spring rain" into "irrigation through all four seasons," and provide greater support for talent seedlings to grow into "fine timber" (嘉木).

(Compiled by Li Yinghong)