COMMENTARY
Ret.) used to say frequently to his young product managers, “Elevating issues to a higher level for resolution is not a failure on your part. Make the unreasonable ones defend their positions in front of their bosses.” With authority comes responsibility and accountability—it’s never been more true.
military and civilian acquisition professionals birthed and spon- sored by the AAE’s military deputy (MILDEP) and the Army’s director of acquisition career management (DACM).
“There are a lot of folks between the senior leaders and me who haven’t yet gotten the memo on that urgency thing.”
3. Our organic ability to modernize our forces demands educa- tion on both the requiring and acquiring sides of the DOD. Acquisition has never been “amateur sport,” and our commitment to technical excellence has never been needed more. While a new back-to-basics initiative is underway to revamp credentialing for acquisition professional training, education and experience, the train is still moving. We can’t wait for new policy and the train- ing institutions to catch up before we edify ourselves about our work and tradecraft. Te requirements side needs all the help we can give them in understanding what is doable and affordable in a given time frame. Acquisition is on the secretariat side since Gold- water-Nichols ‘86, while operational requirements are with the Army G-staff, along with resources to prioritize and get it all done.
Tese two sides of civilian- and military-led expertise, respectively, don’t have to be separated by walls; they can work together in real synergy. A tremendous partnership results when the require- ments side knows what is needed, how it’s going to be employed in battle and how many are going to be acquired; and the acqui- sition side knows the cost, schedule and performance levels of the capability to be acquired. Te library of acquisition knowledge is at our fingertips, thanks to information-age technology and the public domain. For those that want a graduate school educa- tion, the Naval Postgraduate School has education programs for
Understanding the need for more science, technology, engineer- ing and math (STEM) education, three successive MILDEPs since 2012 (Lt. Gens. William N. Phillips, Michael E. William- son and Ostrowski, plus Craig Spisak, the DACM) directed NPS to launch an interdisciplinary degree that would provide needed education in the areas of systems engineering, program and contract management for its military and civilian workforce. Since the degree was established in 2018, fully 10 percent of the military Army Acquisition Corps has been enrolled in the resi- dent 18-month program. Almost 70 civilians have done the same with their 24-month nonresident version of the degree program.
Tey graduate fully equipped to deal effectively with all possible stakeholders in science and technology, testing, logistics, finance, contract and program management. I was truly privileged to have helped these general officers get the education programs going while at NPS. Tat effort in educational reform for the Army Acquisition Corps was to help create a culture shift as it pertains to American society today, where a lack of STEM education over- all presumably has placed us behind peer threats in tech areas like artificial intelligence, hypersonics, directed energy, etc.
Drucker also once told leaders that if they were unable to effect true change of culture, “work with what you’ve got.” So all in all, I feel Army acquisition’s stage is set for the next act. Will our bureaucratic culture slow our modernization efforts? Or will our stable backbone of values and a unified vision move us, aided by urgency, decentralized authority and enhanced education? I’ll be close by and watching for what happens next. Good luck—and my colleagues are free to reach me at
dillardjohnt@gmail.com.
JOHN T. DILLARD, COL., USA (RET.), recently retired from the Naval Postgraduate School, where he was a senior lecturer in the Systems Engineering Department of the Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He also served as the technical representative for the Army’s M.S. programs in systems engineering management. Dillard managed major weapons development efforts for most of his 26-year career in the U.S. Army. He holds an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California and is a distinguished military graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a B.A. in biological sciences.
https://asc.ar my.mil
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