Challenging Assumed Constraints

Summary: This U.S. Army NCO Journal article examines how senior military leaders can challenge assumed constraints that limit team performance. Written for noncommissioned officers, military educators, and government leadership professionals, it recounts a recruiting office led by 12 NCOs and a team that challenged expectations.

Readers will learn ways to recognize groupthink, question longstanding assumptions, and encourage critical and creative thinking. The author describes a two-person recruiting team that transformed a historically unproductive high school into its area’s most productive school. He recommends brainstorming, reframing problems, and Socratic questioning to build a culture where personnel can challenge conventional views. As Sgt. Maj. Joseph W. Frost III writes in NCO Journal, “Leaders can drive meaningful change through critical and creative thinking.”