WORKFORCE
I’ve always believed that if you’re ever lucky enough to get into a leadership position, you need to be smart enough and secure enough to surround yourself with the best and brightest people possible.
My motivation in leaving hard-core engineering behind and moving into staff work was a desire to pursue an opportunity to do something different and to learn at a higher level about how the Army runs. I felt it was also important to bring a field perspective to the headquarters. Staff work requires a different set of skills— I thought I was well suited to it and I wanted to give it a try.
Te rewards are very different. Project engineering allows you to see the fruits of your labor. You can see the work you did in the lab, and it culminates in a product that gets tested and even- tually fielded. Staff work isn’t as immediately rewarding. When you come through the staff you have to take a broader approach, both to understanding the problems you’re trying to solve and to understanding the value that you add to the total system. But you get a chance to work on many different things and at a much higher level. Gratification comes much more slowly, but more broadly. Not getting that real-time satisfaction of results isn’t for everyone.
Our goal at USAASC and mine as the DACM is to help the members of the Army Acquisition Workforce become the most competent, well-trained and motivated professionals possible. In my role, I’ve had a chance to influence tens of thousands of lives and careers. Tat’s something I look back on fondly; I’ve been able to make a difference for individual professionals and that will always be the great highlight of my career. I’ve tried to go about it in the most thoughtful way possible, recognizing that you have to weigh many more factors when you’re in the people business, which includes policies, procedures, programs and indi- vidual accomplishments. And we’ve also recognized that decisions we make can have long-lasting impacts, generating second- and third- and fourth-order effects.
PARTY ON
Spisak poses with Dewight Wills, USAASC facilities and supply manager, left, and John Kelly, DACM senior strategic planner, at the holiday party in 2014. (Photos by USAASC)
ALL HANDS
Nelson McCouch, USAASC G2-6 division chief, center, and other members of the audience listened as Spisak’s spoke during regular USAASC all-hands meetings, this one in 2017.
https://asc.ar my.mil
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