Leadership Reaction Course

As I have previously shared, I spent six years on active duty in the U.S. Navy - three years as a pediatrics resident at Naval Medical Center, San Diego and three years as a general pediatrician.  During my first year of residency training, I spent just over a week at Fort Sam Houston (specifically, Brooke Army Medical Center) and Camp Bullis in San Antonio, Texas at the Combat Casualty Care Course (C4).  One of the week's highlights was the Leader's Reaction Course (see an example here), an obstacle course consisting of a series of ten, increasingly complex and physically demanding stations designed to test the participants' ability to work together as a team and think under pressure.

Apparently the concept for the Leader's Reaction Course (LRC) was developed by the German military in the 1920's as a method to help select future army officer candidates.  Following World War II, the British Army adopted the LRC for their own officer selection program.  U.S. Air Force Colonel Russell V. Ritchey became interested in the LRC after seeing into action at the Royal Air Force Academy and was later instrumental in bringing the LRC to the Squadron Officer's Course at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.  By September, 1953, the Army designed and built their LRC at Fort Benning, which was used for the first time by the Officer Candidate Class of 1954.  Since that time, the LRC concept has been used throughout the military, and it is now even used for leadership development and training in the corporate world.

The LRC uses several different scenarios.  Facilitators first give a briefing and set of instructions to teams, who then have a certain amount of time to complete the scenario.  As one example, in my own experience, our team was told that we were Prisoners of War and had to escape by crossing a moat and then climbing over the wall.  We were told that we could not talk during the scenario, as talking would alert the guards to our presence!  We had to build a "people bridge" over the moat and then work as a team to get everyone over the wall (we failed on the first attempt).  

In another scenario, we had to use a set of boards of various lengths to carry ourselves and our equipment over a mine field (see the picture below for an example).

Incidentally, there are a few medical schools that have adopted what is called the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) process in lieu of the more traditional 1:1 interview format during the application and selection process for admission.  The MMI apparently does a better job at assessing an applicant's critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. I know that some medical schools have incorporated a problem-solving skills station, similar to the some of the stations used in the LRC.  Moreover, these schools generally require applicants to work together in small teams.  

Whether used for leadership selection or leadership education and development, I've found that the LRC and similar obstacle courses to be a fun and engaging way to learn how to work together in teams!  I suspect that this method will become more commonly used outside the military (see the MMI as one quick example) in the future, particularly as organizations invest more resources in leadership education and development.