Guided Conversations About Leadership: Mentoring with Movies and Interactive Characters

Think Like a Commander – Excellence in Leadership (TLAC-XL) is an application designed for learning leadership skills both from the experiences of others and through a structured dialogue about issues raised in a vignette. The participant watches a movie, interacts with a synthetic mentor and interviews characters in the story. The goal is to enable leaders to learn the human dimensions of leadership, addressing a gap in the training tools currently available to the U.S. Army. The TLAC-XL application employs a number of Artificial Intelligence technologies, including the use of a coordination architecture, a machine learning approach to natural language processing, and an algorithm for the automated animation of rendered human faces. Leadership Development Leadership is difficult to teach, even for people. While there is evidence that some are born with an aptitude for leadership, the traits and skills needed to be an effective leader are often learned only by experience. This holds true across a diverse set of domains, including the corporate world, sports, firefighting and the military, which is the focus of the project described in this paper. Given that the military needs to develop a large number of leaders, it is imperative to find ways to accelerate the development process using whatever means possible. The U.S. Army defines leadership this way: Leadership is influencing people – by providing purpose, direction, and motivation – while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization. (FM 22-100, 1999, p 1-4.) To date, most of the Army’s computer-based training systems for leaders use constructive simulations, which create an environment where commanders can practice mission planning and tactics. While these skills are necessary, they focus on the tactical and technical aspect