TWI “is good for breaking down com- munication barriers between government and industry.”


What will never break down, however, is the reality that industry must make a profit to continue operating and providing services to the government, whereas Army policy- and decision-making are driven by available public funding, matched against mission requirements.


REQUIREMENTS EYE-OPENER It was at the nitty-gritty level that Ramsey found the most fertile ground for learning at Lockheed Martin. “I’d worked with requirements before in the military, but I didn’t really understand them,” Ramsey said. “Everything pretty much stems from requirements, and you kind of know that when you’re on the Army side, but I got to see it from a different perspective … how if you’re not careful, those requirements can get out of control. … I didn’t look at it like this before.”


Each requirements change translates to a specific course of action. Specifically, Ramsey saw how many hours and how much money a seemingly minor design change could cost when a key player in an Army program management office requested the change after the require- ments had been thoroughly discussed and the issues resolved. “I couldn’t believe the Army was making a real small change to what was already agreed upon [and] that really wouldn’t affect the design but was going to change the cost.


“Requirements can change, and will change, over


time,” and the program


managers for the Army and Lockheed Martin worked through the design change, Ramsey said. “But if you’ve got requirements that you and the customer agreed to … you don’t go back and waste man-hours and people.”


WALKING HIM THROUGH Ramsey, left, and Behling discuss live, virtual and constructive training between meetings at Lock- heed Martin’s Orlando facility. (Photo by Gary Wilcox, Lockheed Martin Corp.)


BUILDING BLOCKS Ramsey and Behling developed a give- and-take that both said made the TWI experience more fruitful. For Behling, who joined Lockheed Martin in 2009 just after retiring from the Air Force, the TWI program was a new assignment, and Ramsey his first TWI officer.


“When you have somebody here, in house, you’re seeing the face, you’re seeing some- body daily. You build a different kind of relationship. Jeff and I, we have very open discussions. We’ll have teleconferences with government, and I’ll just look over at Jeff: ‘You understand, you see what’s going on here. We’ve got to do this better.’


Ramsey “shadowed” Behling for much of his TWI assignment, but did not remain in the shadows, which underscores a key point of advice from Ramsey and Beh- ling for acquisition officers entering the TWI program: Don’t sit on the sidelines.


“It’s not a classroom environment,” Beh- ling said. “You’re not coming in here to sit and watch. You’re coming in here to work. Te first thing I would tell them is, do a little homework. Come to the


assignment with a list of things you want to work on, a list of government-industry issues to resolve.”


Ramsey agreed. “Do what you can do, what they’ll allow you to do, and just absorb all that information, and go out there and do it!” he said.


Ramsey, who marked 20 years of Army service in February, plans to stay in as long as he can, beyond just the addi- tional three-year service obligation that comes with a TWI assignment. He is confident that his TWI experience will help, starting with his follow-on assign- ment in contracting.


“I think it gives me a new perspective on how the defense contractor thinks. … It will help just because I can see how they put together their proposals … how they answer those questions that the Depart- ment of the Army is looking for. So when I write the statement of work as the contracting officer, I can better put it in plain English for them to understand as well as me.”


—MS. MARGARET C. ROTH ASC.ARMY.MIL 137


WORKFORCE


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