Wednesday 14 September 2011

PIPS - 34 YEARS LATER

The Programme in Problem Solving has its birth 1 year after Independence of Papua New Guinea. It was designed by an officer of the Royal Australian Army Education Corps (RAAEC). In the years before that time, he had been advocating Mastery Learning within military Education and Training.

So he had been sent to the fledgling Joint Services College to put his advice into action. But there was great difficulty ahead in the name of Australian infantry officers. When the Problem Solving strategy was made known, the Australian infantry officers dived for their foxholes.

They had the view that education officers should have nothing to do with decision making training. It was believed that education officers had difficulty even in tying their shoe laces. When the Programme in Problem Solving surfaced, there was general opposition.

The infantry attitude was that they had decision making sewn up for training of officer cadets. First locate the enemy and send the scouts ahead. The platoon commander decides on a frontal attack or an out flanking move. So the platoon goes into attack mode. That was the key to all decision-making. Silly people.

This was the total extent of knowledge of infantry officers though all of them had never been to war.The Vietnam War had finished only 3 years before and the military could not muster a Vietnam veteran to train PNGDF officer cadets except the Quarter Master.
Infantry skills would be of no use in the skills of checking mess monies, planning a stock take and breaking up pay as paying officer. But the military appreciation was the holy of holies.

They would not be able to teach the techniques of stores accounting and security of stores. First send the scouts into the Q store. You decide on a frontal attack. You work out Enemy Forces and Own Forces. Place your machine guns in key positions and have a forward scout hiding in the Quarter master's cupboard. Silly soldiers.

But PIPS went on. There was no formal acceptance of the programme at the Joint Services College thanks to mean minded infantry advisors and lazy education officers.

But the programme continued with a number of PNGDF education officers until they retired. Today the people to remember PIPS are the remaining officer cadets some of whom are senior officers. On meeting with them in later years, the advice is that the only training message they can still remember comes from PIPS.

Recall the book "The Cry and the Covenant" biography of Dr Semmelweiss who discovered germs in puerperal disease of women in childbirth. All the doctors of the mid-1800s stated it was rubbish. Disease was caused by the vapours.

Hence the name Malaria which means "bad air". Dr Semmelweiss promoted his work through student doctors. Then germs became commonly accepted when young doctors became senior doctors. The Programme in Problem Solving has long been accepted by officer cadet students who are now senior officers.

Two of the exercises that stay in their minds are as follows:

CHECKING THE TANK. At Igam Barracks, there was a tank on the mountain. Water was pumped from a well at the bottom of the mountain. Each night, the duty officer had the task of checking the pump. If the engine was running, the duty officer returned to the duty room and recorded his check in the log book.

If the engine was not running, there were two possibilities. The engine was broken down or the tank was full and the normal cut-off had occurred. The duty officer went to check the tank. If full, the engine had routinely cut off. If emptying, the engine was broken down. The duty officer had to contact the engineer, return to the duty room and record the situation in the log.

This was the start of operational checking for PIPS. It showed checking in a flow chart form. For the first time, the officer cadets had experienced a flow chart. There were many more in the program.

Go to the pump.
Is the engine running?
If yes, go back to the duty room.
If no, go to the tank on the mountain.
Is the tank full?
If yes, go to the duty room.
If no, go to the maintenance engineer.
Then go back to the duty room.

The tank exercise is the icon of PIPS. It showed the officer cadets a logical checking process that enables a decision maker to think an issue through. Today, many such officers with computer experience, will know much more than that on flow charts.

If you want more on the tank at Igam Barracks, please click below. It was the introductory exercise to the Tok Pisin course at the RAAF School of Languages in Melbourne, perhaps to the present day.

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: TOK PISIN TREE (1)
24 Aug 2011 ... TOK PISIN TREE (1). (68 patterns + 21 basic exercises)  Pisin Tree
 (64 patterns) I found that learning Tok Pisin by myself was very ...
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2011/08/tok-pisin-tree-1_24.html
USE OF A PERSONAL DIARY. The Programme in Problem Solving PIPS was part of the course in Administration. So planning became a key focus on the programme. The officer cadets were urged to buy a small pocket diary.

Into this book, went the weeks of the college year, exercises and other key dates. In the fortnightly tests, the last question for 5 marks asked " Would you be able to attend a meeting in Lae on the 24th July". The diaries would come out. For 5 marks, they would respond they can not attend as they will be on Exercise Painim Birua.

Use of a diary has become a trade mark of graduates of the PIPS Programme. Over the years, several officers proudly produced their diaries when we met on the street.

Use of a diary was the key to planning. It taught the officer cadets not to rely on memory but to record personal details with phone numbers and appointments. Then we check.

Over the years, I became known as Captain Double-check or Captain PIPS. I have passed the address of this blog to several old friends in the PNGDF.

Several former officer cadets reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and above. PIPS still lives even if only in the hearts of former officer cadets and soldiers they have influenced. I hope it lives again.

One senior officer stated that PIPS was the first course in the nation to promote Time Management. Another said that the checking techniques have been a key to his own professional practice.

There should have been no problem between the infantry and education officers on tactical and administrative training. The tactical side focuses on the military appreciation. Administrative training has more of a focus on
the techniques of accurate decisions relating to checking, double-checking, fault finding and planning.

We can not plan a stock-take by considering enemy forces and own forces. Different horses for different courses.

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Post script: The crunch came a decade later during the Bougainville conflict on an advanced combat course planned to be run for PNGDF officers by Australian infantry officers.

Right or wrong, there was refusal of the PNGDF officers to take part on a course run by Australians once PNGDF officers found they had no combat experience. But Australia has to be involved in combat. Vietnam was becoming a distant war.

Australia had the right idea in accepting PNGDF officers for the year long training at Australian Staff College at Queenscliff. The New Zealand Defence Force has sent quality infantry officers for return postings to PNG.

They would serve in training and then come back as Defence Advisors. All came to the RAAF School of Languages to become proficient in Tok Pisin.

The officers who went to PNG with a polished approach to training were RAAF education officers. They had spent 4 weeks of quiet indoctrination on the Tok Pisin course at Point Cook. You will never guess who their teacher was.

ADMINISTRATIVE DECISION MAKING SKILLS WILL REINFORCE TACTICAL SKILLS.

Officers and soldiers do not have to be running around the jungle all the time. They have to come home and work on a military base. Then the administrative decision-making skills take over.

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