SUCCESS DESPITE ROADBLOCKS
Newell, who leads a Hacking for Defense class at Stanford University, contends that continuing the U.S. military’s technological superiority requires harnessing the work of “passionate, dedicated innovators who survive by skirting the bureaucracies that would grind them down.” (Photo by Rod Searcey, Stanford News Service)
the principles of design thinking—an iterative approach to problem-solving that intentionally seeks out people with different perspectives, knowledge, skills and experience
and has
the doctrine for innovation across the force, he said.
them work
together to create a practical solution for a real-world problem—is important but does not go far enough. Te Army needs more makers and innovators on the front lines to generate a bottom- up feeder system that would help drive innovation faster, he said.
Te Army should take a look at the educational programming its contract universities provide on Army instal- lations and encourage the schools to provide more science, technology, engi- neering and math classes, as well as credentialing in 3-D printing and other advanced manufacturing systems, he said. It also needs to create “maker spaces” on military bases, Newell said, where credentialed classes are taught during the day and where a generation of innovators hang out at night to tinker on ideas in a collaborative environment.
THE ENTREPRENEUR CORPS Finally, Newell said, at the strategic level the Army needs a cadre of “Sher- pas”—people whose job is to monitor the innovation ecosystems across
the force,
searching for and solving systemic barri- ers to innovation. Te Army will need the same group to capture, write and adapt
Te work Newell recommends is indica- tive of the kinds of change in culture and policy that Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis called for in the 2018 U.S. National Security Strategy, which pro- vides the authority and guidance national security leaders need to make a signifi- cant commitment to creating a culture for innovation within their organizations.
“Success no longer goes to the country that develops a new fighting technology first, but rather to the one that better integrates it and adapts its way of fight- ing,” Mattis wrote. “Current processes are not responsive to need; the Depart- ment
is over-optimized for exceptional
performance at the expense of providing timely decisions, policies, and capabili- ties to the warfighter. Our response will be to prioritize speed of delivery, con- tinuous
adaptation, and frequent
modular upgrades. We must not accept cumbersome approval chains, wasteful applications of resources in uncompeti- tive space, or overly risk-averse thinking that impedes change.”
CONCLUSION In terms of culture change that will boost innovation in the Army, Newell warns that talk without action won’t get the Army where it wants to go.
MR. MICHAEL BOLD provides contract support to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center. He is a writer/editor for Network Runners Inc., with more than 30 years of editing experience at newspapers, including the McClatchy Washington Bureau, Te Sacramento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He holds a B.J. in journalism from the University of Missouri.
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“Culture’s an interesting thing,” he said in the Army AL&T interview. “I think that next to ‘innovation,’ ‘culture change’ is the most overused phrase out there. You can’t mandate or write an edict say- ing ‘change the culture’ and expect it to happen. You have to actually act. … One thing I tell people is, ‘You’re going to have to show me what things you’re actu- ally going to do that reinforce what that culture is.’ Tink about it: Back in the
’50s and the ’40s, when we finally said we’re going to integrate the military, what it took to change that culture. You had to force people to do things. … You can talk about it all day long, but until you actually get down into the weeds where it happens—it has to be reinforced with a set of behavior patterns. Which means you’ve got to create activities and do things that will lend themselves to that culture so that people can see what it is you’re talking about.”
ARMY AL&T
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