ONE ROOF
‘reorganization,’ ” McCarthy said. “It’s like deck chairs mov- ing around. In the private sector—and this is important—it’s restructuring. Te commands will still stay there. Tere are aspects or roles and responsibilities within those commands that may go over here.”
Tis is where McCarthy’s business acumen, his relationships on Capitol Hill and his knowledge of the process come in handy. At an appearance at the Brookings Institution on Feb. 8, he said that the Army is keeping Congress informed because some of the restructuring that the Army is envisioning may require leg- islation. “You’re now getting into where we’re deliberating at the senior level to the final end state, what it’s going to be,” he said.
CHANGING ARMY CULTURE Te changes envisioned also include a major culture change.
“Normally,” McCarthy said, “when you want to make a change in life, if it’s on your terms, it’s OK. But if it’s somebody coming and sliding a memo across the table,” that’s a different matter. To successfully make that kind of change, he said, “Ten you’ve got to get them to buy into it. You’ve got to have a conversation. You’ve got to emphasize to them why we’ve got to make the changes that we do.”
Since the fall, McCarthy has been having just those kinds of conversations. It’s important, he said, for people “to understand the rationale behind” the coming changes. “When the leader gets out and has the conversation, one adult to another, ‘Here’s where we are trying to go,’ you learn.” Tat give and take—his own education as well as that of the Army’s stakeholders—is important to McCarthy. To make change happen, he said, “you have to listen and learn. And you also adjust. It will help make the best decision possible.” As an example, he said, he’s had roundtables with the PEOs. “Tey gave me a lot of good ideas,” he said.
“When we get to the announcement” of what the Futures Com- mand will look like, he added, “it will require town halls or
roundtables” to make sure that his message is clear and people understand what he’s looking for.
CONCLUSION On the wall behind his desk, in his otherwise sparsely fur- nished office, McCarthy keeps a glass-encased M-1 Garand. Te weapon was the U.S. Army’s go-to rifle in World War II, the Korean War and saw some use in Vietnam. For McCarthy, the elegantly simple and effective semi-automatic weapon is a reminder of just how effective Army acquisition can be.
Te acquisition community, he said, does “remarkable things. What I would ask them is just to afford me the time and the patience to go through this process.” He knows that change is hard, but getting the Army into the information age is criti- cal. “When you’re making changes in big organizations, it takes time. And I know people are anxious about where we’re going.” Everyone should understand that many decisions are still to be made and should afford leadership—Esper, McCarthy, Milley and McConville—“the opportunity to talk them through the changes.”
Tat includes the S&T community, he said. He wants to see scientists and technologists working on systems that they know the Army is driving for, “and they are going to see it on their watch. Tere is no better way to incentivize somebody, espe- cially the scientific and engineering community. Tey like to study and make things, but they like to see it fly, they want to see it explode, they want to see it drive.” And McCarthy wants to see that happen.
He made it clear that he holds the workforce in the highest esteem. “We have very talented people. We have tremendous capital investment. It’s getting them all aligned. And once we do that, I have no doubt we will do really special things faster. We do special things now; it’s just taking too long.” With respect to acquisition leadership, he said, “We have been blessed. Te cross-functional team directors and the PEOs that are playing in this, they are the best we have, the best people we have.”
“It’s breathtaking how much energy comes into getting a requirement done.”
26 Army AL&T Magazine April-June 2018
MR. STEVE STARK is senior editor of Army AL&T magazine. He holds an M.A. in creative writing from Hollins University and a B.A. in English from George Mason University. In addition to more than two decades of editing and writing about the military and S&T, he is the best-selling ghostwriter of several consumer health-oriented books and an award-winning novelist.
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