COMMENTARY


DONE THAT BEEN THERE, EXIT INTERVIEW: CULTURE STILL EATS STRATEGY


After 40-plus years in and around Army acquisition, the big concerns about modernization revolve around culture.


by John T. Dillard, Col., USA (Ret.) I


was recently asked for some parting thoughts upon my retirement from a 20-year career teach- ing at the Naval Postgraduate School, following 26 years in the Army, serving mostly within the area of acquisition. It’s been a splendid time working in the Department of Defense all these years, with many relationships formed and maintained still. And I’m still volunteering for the


Army from time to time.


I was recently asked what my concerns were now for the future of defense modernization, and I narrowed it down to just three, with perhaps the overarching concern being about DOD’s own culture. I had been told countless times over the last five decades that “DOD culture needed to change” to facilitate more efficient and effective acquisition. Why would that be? After the first few years of being an assis- tant program manager in a major system project office, I felt I had a pretty good idea.


Folks don’t often understand or agree on what organizational culture really is. But I feel culture is best defined as: what the organization believes to be true.


Tis is opposed to climate, which is the tone or environment that leaders can most readily influence through their personal communications, their demonstrated competencies and their behaviors. Culture is more of a lasting thing in organizations. It is shaped by its internal and external reward and control systems, collective values, power structures, routines and behaviors, as well as lore or history. It was Peter Drucker, the legendary management consultant and author, who said, “Culture eats strategy


https://asc.ar my.mil 91


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