How do we make the Line of Departure as indispensable as the dog tags every Soldier wears? Success in this effort means every Soldier knows Line of Departure is their go-to for professional development. As an interim goal, we aim to 10x weekly users from 500 to 5000 users per week over the next six months.
To get there, we turned to you for ideas—and the results were both inspiring and practical. We asked for clear and novel ideas to help promote Line of Departure. Two rounds of judging by a range of partners evaluated each submission based on their creativity, feasibility, and ability to scale Army-wide. Our winners are:
“Leveraging the Army’s Social Media Network to Amplify Line of Departure” by Maj. Ryan Crayne.
“Every Soldier Knows Nick—Now we need to introduce them to Line of Departure” by Capt. Walker Mills.
“Read, Write, Publish: Bringing Line of Departure into Army Classrooms” by Staff Sgt. Charles Hayworth
We’re pleased to have received 45 entries from a range of contributors. The submissions came from 26 officers, 11 non-commissioned officers, 6 civilians, 1 CW2-–and one private first class! By individual ranks, captains submitted 12 ideas, while majors submitted 9, and staff sergeants 7. These folks also brought an almost perfectly normal distribution of experience in the Army ranging from less than a year of experience, to our median submitter who had 11-15 years, and a handful of folks with more than 20 years of experience. This range of Army experience led to a range of ideas on promoting the Line of Departure.
From leveraging social media to integrating into military education, your ideas reflect one unifying goal: making the Line of Departure a weekly touchpoint for Soldiers across the Army.
Social media, podcasts, and an app
Four ideas emphasized the importance of effective social media. Ryan Crayne’s winning post offered an effective plan to stitch together the Army’s disparate accounts that we’re excited to implement, as the Line of Departure’s own social launches on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Podcasting also has promise. Three ideas explored how podcasts could capture attention from those who listen more than they read. While you can listen to each article on Line of Departure, there’s currently no way to subscribe, so this idea definitely has merit. However, this space is crowded as centers of excellence, our friends at MWI, and the NCO Journal all have podcasts.
Others emphasized their desire to tailor what content they receive from the Line of Departure–and then to receive push notifications. Fortunately, Army University Press is hard at work on an app with push notifications due out this spring. Hopefully this app will satisfy those who suggested weekly emails (like we do here at the Harding Project) and SMS messages.
The unit’s role
Units could also play an important role in promoting the Line of Departure. We’re wary of adding requirements for our busy units, but know that many units as those on staff duty or CQ to read and write, while targeted outreach may also raise awareness across the Army to select populations like captains, privates in basic training, and junior leaders.
Several others suggested publishing leader development classes. We see each article published as the kernel of a class or leader development session. If you do this, think about submitting a post on how you turn articles into effective leader development sessions.
Gamification
Five posts suggested gamification of the Line of Departure as a way to drive views. While gamification ideas are exciting, they require significant development resources. We’re logging these for future consideration as our platform grows.
While not exactly the same, the annual DePuy Writing Competition remains the best way to have your writing recognized alongside the various “pen” awards at the Army’s schools.
Military education
Military education and professional development were also ripe for ideas. Hayworth’s article argues for aligning prompts and publishing top PME papers. This builds nicely on the requirement to cite military journals that we’re implementing across NCO PME, but there’s certainly more room in this area. We encourage the Harding Fellows–located at each center of excellence–think hard about how they integrate with instructors and the classroom.
Other ideas emphasized individual self-development as needing reform. We hope that by making the Army’s journals more accessible, we’ll reinvigorate self-development as more folks take a minute to read and write.
Photo courtesy of The Army Times
The grab bag
Some of my favorite ideas didn’t fit neatly into any of the above categories. These included Mills’ (and others) ideas about leveraging the Army’s information technology systems to bring the Line of Departure to every computer’s desktop and bookmarks. Another cool idea was a digital scavenger hunt. As development capacity increases, we’ll consider a digital scavenger hunt as a way to welcome users to the site.
So what’s next
We appreciate everyone’s hard work on these submissions. We’ve got great ideas–and now we need to prioritize and implement. Our first efforts will focus on social media and getting the Line of Departure on every computer in the Army. These ideas both have huge, immediate reach for relatively low cost. We’re also excited to roll out an app this spring which will help push notifications of new articles.
Simultaneously, SFC Blood is starting his outreach tour to posts across the Army to highlight how the Line of Departure can help the Army solve problems today. If you're a division-level unit interested in having him come, send him an email and we’ll see what we can do.
The Line of Departure thrives on your engagement. Whether you're turning articles into leader development sessions or brainstorming the next big idea, we want to hear from you. Share your success stories or new ideas with us.