The AALPC primes program managers for success as acquisition leaders
by Craig A. Spisak
Director, U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center
One of the imperatives for a program manager (PM) to succeed in Army acquisition is that they must own their battlespace.
Think of two concentric circles. The inner circle is what a PM is responsible for: What are the resources, what is the timeline, what are the cost effects of these factors on the program and, very specifically, what are the performance attributes that the PM is trying to get out of this particular system?
The outer circle consists of things that are outside the PM’s immediate control but could have an impact on the program: What’s going on with respect to funding on Capitol Hill? How does the test community view what’s going on? What’s happening on the resourcing side that may impact the program in the future? What’s happening in the requirements community? What is the contracting community’s view of the strategy being employed for this program?
When you can manage your internal circle and understand what’s going on around you in the outer circle, you own your battlespace. It was out of that imperative that the Army Acquisition Leader Preparation Course (AALPC) was born.
EQUIPPED TO LEAD
Lt. Gen. Michael E. Williamson, then principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and the Army director for acquisition career management, speaks to participants in the November 2016 AALPC, one of a number of initiatives designed to equip acquisition leaders with the skills to effectively manage their programs. (Photos by Michelle Strother, U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center)
OPENING THE APERTURE
Several years ago, Lt. Gen. Michael E. Williamson called me into his office. I get a program manager coming in, he said, and I ask what’s going on. And when they leave, I have complete comfort that they really own their battlespace. And then I get another one in who briefs me on their schedule. And when I ask them a question, they say, well, that’s what the test community told me: It’s going to take 12 months. When I ask why, they don’t know. They haven’t engaged with their community.
Williamson saw a great disparity among our program managers: For some, their apertures weren’t wide enough to truly prepare them to proactively influence all of the stakeholders and have better control over their programs.
To address that disparity, he said we needed to develop some kind of learning event. The result: the AALPC. The intensive five-day course is run by the Army Director for Acquisition Career Management Office. Conducted twice a year since its April 2015 pilot, it’s designed to equip centrally selected PMs, contracting commanders and product directors with the knowledge and skills necessary to address challenges they’re likely to encounter in their new roles.
The AALPC is not a briefing. Instead, the attendees operate in small groups. They have remarkably intimate exchanges and dialogues with practitioners and senior leaders from all sorts of environments on topics including leadership, effective communication, talent and organizational management, risk identification and management, and understanding a program budget. There’s a fair amount of discussion about the moral and ethical responsibilities related to leading people and programs. There are also career field breakout sessions for PMs and contracting officers.
At our most recent AALPC, in April, speakers included the Hon. Chuck Hagel, the former secretary of defense and U.S. senator; Gen. Daniel B. Allyn, the vice chief of staff of the Army; and James A. MacStravic, performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. On one day alone, seven general officers participated as speakers or facilitators.
Our thought leaders come to AALPC not only from inside DOD, but also from the defense industry, academia and non-defense-related industries. At the April course, our facilitators included a staff member of the House Armed Services Committee and representatives from Amazon Web Services Inc. and Boeing Co. We’ve recognized that if you can look at a problem through a different lens, you may be able to apply what other people have done in a different and unique way in your more traditional environment. It allows you to broaden your mind.
BUILDING THE BASE
AALPC participants Lt. Col. Frankie Cruz, left, and Lt. Col. Cassandra Forrester, center, discuss talent and organizational management with facilitator Col. Maria Schneider during a speed networking session at the April 2017 AALPC. Such sessions are designed to strengthen relationships among PMs and build a network they can tap into when challenges arise.
BUILDING A NETWORK
One of the things we do is what we call speed networking, whereby individual senior personnel rotate to multiple tables of people over the course of several hours. We also ensure that the participants in those courses are not always sitting with the same people. They’re getting exposed to and exchanging ideas not only with different thought leaders, but also with different members of their class. This allows participants to develop comfort with the people they engage with. It’s very easy when you’ve had a personal and intimate conversation with somebody to pick up the phone in the future, call them and say, “Hey, I’m running my program and I’m experiencing this challenge. What do you think? Have you experienced it?”
Williamson used the term “building your Rolodex.” Of course, no one under 35 has any idea what a Rolodex is. But the idea is to build a trust network and a knowledge network, a base of people who already have experienced a similar problem—that colonel or that GS-15 civilian who talked about this same kind of thing—and be able to reach out, pull on that resource and say, “You talked about this. Could you walk me through it so that I don’t have to travel the learning curve again?”
The big thing we often talk about in our community is that even though there’s a lot of uniqueness to what we do, there’s a ton of similarity in the types of problems we face while running our programs. Walking that PM path doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel every time there’s a problem.
CONCLUSION
We ask a lot from our AALPC facilitators and speakers. We’re asking them to engage in potentially an all-day activity. Even for the lunch and dinner speaker, it’s a commitment of several hours, and often they stick around afterward to continue the dialogue and engagement. It’s draining to participate. And we’re grateful for their contributions.
The feedback we’re getting from the participants, facilitators and speakers has been incredibly positive. Almost to a person, participants have said this is probably one of the best events they’ve attended to prepare them to take on the roles and responsibilities they are about to enter.
But the more difficult question is whether the AALPC is having a successful impact on the management of programs. That’s very difficult to measure, because there’s really no way to tell today that it’s having a net positive effect on acquisition program outcomes. But the overwhelmingly positive feedback suggests that we’re moving in the right direction.
Here’s the overarching concept for the AALPC: You can never over-prepare a leader to lead.
This article is scheduled to be published in the July-September 2017 issue of Army AL&T Magazine.
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