Second Sea Lord’s roadshow, led by Vice Admiral James Burnell-Nugent himself, has played to around 600 senior Naval personnel in a bid to explain his vision for the future of the Divisional system.

Aimed at command team level and supported by Commander-in-Chief Fleet’s Personnel division, the presentation attracted an audience which was predominantly Lt Cdr level and above.

And for Commanding Officers unable to attend, including those abroad, a taste of the presentation was available through a 12-minute video, in which Admiral Burnell-Nugent laid out his personal thoughts on the critical importance of the Divisional system in the generation of operational capability.

The main themes of the roadshow were:
• Operational success primarily comes from people
• The Divisional system is the Royal Navy’s most potent mechanism for helping people achieve their best through good leadership
• Knowing and caring for members of the division should be the top priority
• It is not enough merely to complete tasks without also developing individuals and encouraging teamwork
• Leadership performance and future potential must be principal indicators of suitability for promotion
• Leadership is the primary role of all in authority.

And these themes were boiled down to four golden rules, or the principal duties of a DO: know your division, command your division, lead your division and manage your division.

The Admiral wants to see a greater involvement of Leading Hands and Petty Officers in the daily management of junior ratings.

Examples of such involvement include the provision of written inputs in the reporting process for junior rates, giving Leading Hands a semi-formal role, and where possible the duties of the first reporting officer for RORRS reports on junior rates should be delegated to Divisional Senior Rates, so long as they are at least two ranks senior to the subject of the report.

In order to help upgrade the system, enhanced support for the Divisional Officer (DO) is envisaged – including the provision of more than one Divisional Senior Rate (at CPO or PO level), exercising greater delegated functions, the streamlining of RORRS procedures, training at unit level in listening skills, renewed emphasis on coaching, and a new Naval Personal and Families Service website giving better visibility of divisional/family-related information.

The simplification of the RORRS reports includes a range of measures, chief among them being the reduction of 11 different sorts of routine reports to just two – annual and interim (although ‘special’ and ‘CW’ reports will remain.) This will take effect from July 31 this year.

The practice of ‘aligning’ the top 30 per cent of promotion candidates in any particular rate and branch (Section 5b of RORRS Record 3) is abolished, and the move to annual reports for all will markedly reduce the practice of ad-hoc calls for additional promotion reports.

Annual reports for all will also remove the difference in reporting dates between Junior Ratings who have passed for the next higher rate and those who have not – for example, from 2005 all Abs will be reported on at the end of January.

Other changes to reporting dates are planned – for example, all POs to be reported on at the end of May 2005 onwards, and all LHs at the end of March, to accommodate Air Engineering Branch development work and produce a better spread throughout the year to ease the load on reporting officers.

All ratings will receive a full report – at present, certain sections are omitted for those not passed for the higher rate, causing some confusion.

Admiral Burnell-Nugent is keen that the review brings a renewed emphasis on leadership, described as the “primary role of all in authority.”

Future appraisal reports will require specific comments on the leadership skills and potential of all superior officers (that is, Leading Hand and above), and promotion boards are already using leadership performance and potential a principal indicator of suitability for selection.

The DOs course is also being re-orientated as a function of leadership rather than administration.

There is also a renewed emphasis on ‘walking the patch’ – knowing the people and building up trust.

‘Table-top’ sessions twice a year, in which Commanding Officers and heads of department will coach less-experienced DOs, are also planned.

There are wider aspects to the review. Existing professional courses will highlight leadership content, ensuring that leadership is not regarded as a distinct subject to be taught in isolation, and there will be visiting ‘divisional tune-up’ teams available for support.

These measures are intended to shift the perception of the Divisional system away from being all about administration, paperwork and bureaucracy, and will reaffirm the prime roles of the DO as being leadership and pastoral care – which will all help improve the operational capability of personnel at all levels.