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Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Pereira of the Republic of Singapore Air Force has seen an improvement in his men's morale since storytelling was introduced there in 2008. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
By Jermyn Chow , DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT
IT COULD be a story of a dangerous mission overseas, or a recollection of a particularly challenging training exercise.
Commanders in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are being taught how to tell such stories well - in a bid to better reach out to and motivate their men.
Colonel Sukhmohinder Singh, who oversees the training of SAF's commanders, said today's soldiers are more questioning.
'They no longer want to just listen... they want to understand the rationale behind what they do,' he told The Straits Times.
'When you just command and tell, the other person doesn't have to think, he just has to do. But how do you excite him? How do you get to his emotion and not just his cognition?' added the head of the Centre for Leadership Development in the Safti Military Institute.
Since the start of this year, commanders in SAF training schools and institutes, such as the Officer Cadet School and Infantry Training Institute, have been taught storytelling techniques.
Stories centre on the SAF's seven core values, such as 'care for soldiers', 'leadership' and 'professionalism'.
Pointers for SAF commanders - from third sergeants to majors - include how to start a story with an emotional point of view, when and how to marry facts and emotions, and how to extract a lesson from the story.
'When you try to talk about technical and tactical things, it's hard to get people going... humans don't connect to a lot of facts alone but they connect to the story related to the facts,' said Col Singh, 53, who has served in the SAF for 35 years.
About 30 per cent of national service enlistees enter command and leadership positions, such as specialists and officers.
But Col Singh was quick to add that commanders will still be strict taskmasters during training: 'We are still a hierarchical organisation that deals with life and death... that (discipline) will be something we never throw out.'
The Centre for Leadership Development started exploring storytelling in 2007 as part of a new way to groom commanders to communicate effectively with their men.
Other methods taught include getting commanders to pen their reflections after training, setting individual goals, and giving one-on-one coaching advice.
Storytelling was piloted in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) in 2008 before it was phased into SAF's training schools this year.
Such moves are paying off for commanders such as Military Expert 4 Joseph Pereira, 51.
'I see a lot more pride and effort put into their work, they are more eager to do things and take the initiative to carry out their tasks,' said the chief warrant officer of the RSAF's Air Defence and Operations Command.
Air force weapons instructor Tan Chwee Leng, 35, said: 'I used to always wish that conversations and stories I had with my seniors during coffee breaks and happy-hour sessions would drag on longer.'
The regular, who has served 14 years, added: 'I can still remember stories that were told to me more than five years ago and I repeat some to my juniors.'
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