Cohesion Assessment Team: A Multidisciplinary Unit Assessment Grounded in Army Doctrine

The Cohesion Assessment Team (CAT) provides battalion and brigade command teams with actionable insight into the climate of their unit and the presence of certain harmful behaviors. This assessment, initiated by the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army and initially managed by the Headquarters Department of the Army's People First Task Force, employs a framework from the Center for Army Professional Leadership to structure data and findings.

This manuscript describes how to conduct a CAT assessment. To start, two battalions within the same brigade are selected or volunteer for observation based on various metrics. Data are collected from multiple sources including (1) army metrics, such as promotion rates and Uniformed Code of Military Justice actions, (2) subject matter expert in-person observations and interactions, (3) discussions with battalion and brigade staff, (4) survey data from approximately 90% of the soldiers in participating units, and (5) targeted interviews, focus groups, and listening sessions. Onsite data are collected and synthesized with the survey results within a week. Results are presented to battalion and brigade command teams. Briefs highlight key elements of the unit climate that should be maintained or improved. In addition, summarized results are presented to progressively higher echelons of leadership, culminating with the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army for consideration of army-wide changes.

The CAT focuses on providing leaders at brigade and below with relevant and actionable information to help inform their internal decision-making to improve their unit's climate. This capability is distinct in many ways, including its non-attributional systems focus and its methodical approach to quickly collecting and triangulating multiple data points. Additionally, the CAT helps leaders identify areas under their control that will impact unit climate, similar to the feedback that training events provide on unit readiness. Army leadership deemed the CAT pilot a success, and responsibility for future CATs was transferred to the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in October 2022.