Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Performance Achievements | No Briefing Boards — Straight to the Training Front Line
A certain Army brigade's Party committee organ changes its inspection and supervision methods — No Briefing Boards, Straight to the Training Front Line
■ Weng Binqiang, PLA Daily Special Correspondent Liu Yihan
Some time ago, an organ supervision team from a certain Army brigade went to the grassroots level to conduct inspection and supervision work. When the group arrived at a certain company, the garrison had made thorough preparations — in the most prominent location, several briefing display boards had been neatly arranged.
Unexpectedly, after getting out of the vehicle, the supervision team members went straight to the training front line, checking equipment status, observing tactical movements, and asking about training details, while also exchanging words with officers and soldiers during training breaks.
Watching the organ supervision team disappear into the distance, Private Wang, who had been waiting beside the display boards, was somewhat bewildered: in the past, a display-board briefing was an indispensable part of receiving an inspection. He and his comrades had therefore put considerable effort into producing the boards, revising them repeatedly. Yet these carefully crafted boards had attracted none of the supervision team's attention.
"The erroneous orientation of 'better to speak well than to do well' must be resolutely corrected!" Afterward, one member of the supervision team revealed the reasoning. According to him, since the launch of study and education on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance achievements (树立和践行正确政绩观), the brigade Party committee had differentiated among Party committee leaders, organ Party members, and grassroots Party members, conducting self-examinations to compile lists of problems and organizing thematic analyses. "In the past, when conducting research, we rarely went down to the front line — we were accustomed to requesting materials and listening to briefings." A statement by one organ cadre sparked heated discussion among officers and soldiers.
"Looking at materials and listening to briefings may seem like a quick way to grasp the situation and improve work efficiency, but in reality it distances one from the grassroots." Huang, a staff officer in the brigade's organization section, frankly acknowledged that this also causes some battalion and company cadres to develop a mistaken impression — that it is better to put on a good show during briefings and presentations than to pursue real results in work and training.
"What those above favor, those below will pursue to an even greater degree (上有所好，下必甚焉)." After deep reflection, the brigade Party committee's leading group reached unanimous agreement: when the "weather vane" of the Party committee organ's inspection and supervision work goes off course, it will degenerate at the grassroots level into "competitions in materials" and "display-board contests." This not only increases the burden on officers and soldiers, but also breeds the unhealthy tendency of formalism (形式主义) and fosters the deviant practice of falsification and deception.
In response, the brigade's Party committee organ promptly changed its inspection and supervision methods, with organ cadres going deep to the front line to "see with their own eyes," discovering problems face-to-face and providing on-site guidance and correction.
With those above setting the example, changes became immediately apparent. Across the brigade's battalions and companies, officers and soldiers' attention has further returned to training for combat readiness: the phenomenon of cadres and backbone personnel laboring over every word to polish materials has decreased, while time spent on research and training around key and difficult subjects has increased; less mental energy is spent pondering "how to present things well," and more is devoted to thinking about "how to do things well"...
A few days ago, when the brigade's organ supervision team arrived unannounced to inspect a certain company, the company's officers and soldiers were conducting equipment operation training according to plan. On the training ground, there were no display boards, no briefings — only proficient operation and close coordination... Upon leaving the company, the supervision team commented: "Your practiced skills and high spirits are the best briefing of all."