This story, by Danny Zwerdling, a fabulous NPR reporter, address how the US Army is trying to change its toxic leadership system. My questions: Is this just one step to a trauma-informed system? Could the US Army benefit from adopting the Sanctuary or Risking Connection model? And did researcher Dave Matsuda examine the ACEs of people who committed suicide?
Top commanders in the U.S. Army have announced publicly that they have a problem: They have too many "toxic leaders" — the kind of bosses who make their employees miserable. Many corporations share a similar problem, but in the Army's case, destructive leadership can potentially have life or death consequences. So, some Army researchers are wondering if toxic officers have contributed to soldiers' mental health problems.
One of those researchers is Dave Matsuda. In 2010, then-Brig. Gen. Pete Bayer, who was supervising the Army's drawdown in Iraq, asked Matsuda to study why almost 30 soldiers in Iraq had committed or attempted suicides in the past year.
"We got to a point where we were exceptionally frustrated by the suicides that were occurring," Bayer says. "And quite honestly feeling — at least I was — helpless to some degree that otherwise good young men and women were taking their lives."
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/06/259422776/army-takes-on-its-own-toxic-leaders
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