Seeking Truth from Facts, Working with Real Effort: An Army Brigade Rectifies Formalism (形式主义) in Its Work
An Army Brigade Rectifies Formalism (形式主义) in Its Work—— Headquarters Staff Sit In on After-Action Reviews; Grassroots Troops Hold Nothing Back
■ PLA Daily Special Correspondent Zang Qianwen
"Road" repair succeeded; the hastily constructed military road opened to traffic smoothly… Not long ago, a certain Army brigade concluded a realistic combat training exercise. Officers and soldiers organized an after-action review on the spot, with headquarters staff who had come to inspect the work sitting in as observers.
"Every instance of 'jamming up' during special-situation handling is a warning signal about our actual combat capability…" Staff Sergeant (Second Class) Chen Wei of a certain company was unaffected by the presence of the headquarters observers and spoke frankly about his own shortcomings in battlefield adaptability. Officers and soldiers vied to speak, laying out problems without concealment and drilling straight to the root causes. For a moment, the scene was thick with the "smell of gunpowder."
In the past, when faced with headquarters personnel, grassroots officers and soldiers always adopted an inspection-reception mindset, deliberately showcasing highlights and achievements; situations like this one—unvarnished, self-exposing of wounds—were rarely seen. Thinking of this, the reporter could not help but glance curiously at the headquarters cadres, who were listening attentively and occasionally jotting something down in their notebooks.
After the review ended, the reporter found an opportunity to ask the company's cadres and backbone personnel what was on their minds: "Your training also had quite a few highlights—why didn't you take the chance to show them off in front of the headquarters cadres?"
"Achievements won't run away if left unspoken; problems will get out of hand if left unaddressed." Company Political Instructor Zhou told the reporter that before taking up a grassroots command position, he had been a headquarters staff officer. After one exercise concluded, he went to a paired-assistance company to attend an after-action review. Perhaps wanting to make a good impression on the headquarters, that company spent more time on achievements and highlights and less on shortcomings and deficiencies. Afterward, some veteran soldiers reflected that the after-action review had become a formality—conducted hastily and sloppily—and that problems exposed during the exercise had not been promptly sorted through and reflected upon, nor had lessons and results been effectively distilled and summarized.
Since the sustained deepening of political consolidation training (政治整训), the brigade party committee has resolutely rectified formalism in its work, advocating that headquarters cadres conduct less pointing-and-inspecting and more on-the-ground investigation, "sitting on the same bench" as grassroots officers and soldiers; drawing on opportunities such as paired-assistance work to broadly collect the needs and opinions of officers and soldiers, establishing ledgers and applying targeted measures.
On this point, Staff Sergeant (Second Class) Zuo Jin of a certain company shared an experience with the reporter. Earlier, several operators had come to him to report a problem with a certain type of equipment starting slowly; after checking, he could not find the cause.
One day, Zuo Jin ran into Assistant Officer Lu from the brigade headquarters, who was stationed at the company for assistance work. In the course of their exchange, Zuo Jin raised his puzzlement. Assistant Officer Lu, drawing on his own experience carrying out missions in high-altitude areas, offered a hypothesis and immediately contacted the brigade's equipment maintenance and technical office, borrowing the relevant device to verify it.
The root cause of the malfunction was found. Alongside his relief, Zuo Jin began to worry: would this make Assistant Officer Lu think the company's equipment maintenance was inadequate, and lead to criticism? "As it turned out, I was overthinking it at the time. Not only did Assistant Officer Lu not do that—he also disseminated the relevant repair experience across the entire brigade." Zuo Jin said, somewhat sheepishly.
"Don't be a 'nominal passerby'; don't engage in nitpicking. Focus all thought and energy on solving real problems and truly resolving them." The brigade's leadership told the reporter that today, the brigade party committee's resolve to follow through to the end and demand real results has grown stronger; headquarters staff going deep into the grassroots and taking root at the front lines for research has increased; and officers and soldiers' awareness of striving for excellence and pursuing the highest standards has intensified.
As night fell, in the brigade headquarters building, many cadres were studying improvements to training plans based on the opinions and suggestions raised by officers and soldiers at the after-action review; in a certain company's meeting room, officers and soldiers were engaged in lively discussion of the day's training mistakes and progress… Since the sustained deepening of political consolidation training, the atmosphere of seeking truth from facts (求真务实) and working with real effort (真抓实干) has grown ever stronger throughout the brigade. Everyone is thinking in the same direction and pulling in the same direction, steadily driving the brigade's combat effectiveness upward.