TWI FORCE: Training With Industry fellows gather out front of the Salesforce headquarters in San Francisco for their annual midpoint meeting, March 7-9. (Photo courtesy of the Army DACM Office)
TWI fellows travel to San Francisco to learn a business’s best practices and compare notes at midpoint meeting.
by Rachel Berry
The 2023 Training With Industry (TWI) fellows descended upon the Salesforce headquarters in San Francisco from March 7-9 for their annual midpoint meeting. The meeting is a critical part of the program, where the TWI fellows gather from across the country at one host company to deep dive that company and learn firsthand about its best business practices, as well as share their yearlong experiences with one another.
TWI is a work-experience program that provides competitively selected officers in Army acquisition extensive exposure to managerial techniques and industrial best practices within corporate America. Brian Winters, a former TWI fellow and the Proponency and Analysis Division chief in the Office of the Director of Acquisition Career Management (DACM), stewards the TWI program and attended the midpoint session.
“Over the 30-plus years that the Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) has participated in the Training With Industry program, we have endeavored to adapt the program to meet the intent of our AAW senior leaders, the changes in Army modernization priorities, and the professional development needs of our officers,” Winters said.
The schedule of events for the midpoint is developed in part by the fellow currently at the hosting company. The fellow uses their knowledge to create a midpoint schedule that includes senior leadership briefings, an organizational overview and a tour of the host facility. Past midpoints have been hosted at Amazon in Seattle and Sig Sauer in Newington, New Hampshire.
Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics and application development. Some of its software products include Tableau, Slack, Mulesoft and Salescloud. Col. Ryan Ocampo, Salesforce’s TWI fellow, designed the midpoint event schedule to ensure the fellows learned about Salesforce’s business from multiple angles. During these briefings, members of Salesforce teams shared information about the company’s business practices and corporate strategy, and also spoke on topics such as digital transformation and applying artificial intelligence.
PYRAMID TO CUBE: Peter Coffee, Salesforce’s vice president for strategic research, advised fellows to strive to have continuous transformation. One example he used was where someone started building a pyramid and halfway through decided to make it a cube. (Image courtesy of the Army DACM Office)
During the digital transformation discussion, Peter Coffee, Salesforce’s vice president for strategic research, discussed lessons learned by Salesforce to become agile and apply technological solutions to problems—a timely topic for the TWI fellows and the Army. He encouraged the fellows to “build a culture of experiments where you can move forward instead of trying to avoid failures.” Coffee also said team size can be a great indicator of agile performance. He shared that the best practice for agile teams is to be small enough to be fed with two large pizzas. This ensures everyone on the team has a defined role for the project and can really own the project. He also encouraged the team structure to include a diverse group of people who give regular feedback, celebrate team wins, and measure the results of the team. Regarding agility, he suggested avoiding the use of the term “project” as that indicates there is a beginning and an end, whereas you should strive to have continuous transformation. Coffee used powerful examples to illustrate his points. One was where someone started building a pyramid and halfway through decided to make it a cube instead.
This example was particularly resonant with the fellows who are familiar with the Army’s intent to implement more agile processes. Coffee’s guidance was to regularly engage with those who will use the product to ensure the practicality of the end product.
Later in the schedule, Jim Cavalier, Salesforce’s senior vice president, Office of the CEO, explained the corporate strategy that Salesforce uses, the V2MOM, which stands for: Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles and Measures. Salesforce uses this structure for both its corporate strategy and its employee performance program.
Cavalier explained this model ensures there is focus, alignment, transparency, agility and accountability for decisions made within the organization. Following this presentation, the fellows completed a “future-casting” exercise using the V2MOM model for the TWI program, with the prompt of how the TWI program can transform the Army. Participants were split into four teams and used a front page template as the V2MOM canvas. The facilitators used Army AL&T magazine as the publication for the activity. The headline of the paper was, “The Vision for the TWI Program,” and the subsequent stories on the front page represented the methods and measures. Notating the values and obstacles helped inform both the vision and measures of the activity. The fellows then presented their front page to the group and included industry best practices they want to bring to the Army. Discussion included transformed leaders, modernization capabilities, larger pool of industry participation and maximization of time.
Also during the midpoint event, Ocampo arranged a briefing from Raymond Gobberg and Roshan Jessani of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a DOD organization based in Silicon Valley, to discuss their unique approach to the DOD acquisition process. DIU utilizes a streamline acquisition process to rapidly develop prototypes and to field commercial solutions to address national security challenges. The process includes an initial whitepaper stating how the problem will be addressed. If the pitch is accepted, then the company will attend a Shark Tank-like session to further explain their product. In the final phase, multiple companies are invited to demonstrate their prototype, which is when the final prototype is decided. The fellows and the DIU team then had a discussion on how this organization can be expanded to other projects within DOD.
For the rest of the midpoint session, the fellows shared their experience with their partner organizations including company overviews, industry best practices, training opportunities and leadership mentoring.
Universally across the program, the fellows have a sponsor within the organization who assists them with navigating and networking within the organization. A lesson learned from many of the fellows was to find a mentor among the senior leaders early in the program, which will then open more doors and opportunities within the organization for the fellow. The fellows’ experiences range from rotating across different departments and projects to staying with one organization for an in-depth experience. Another requirement within the program is to create a training plan, with goals and objectives, to assist prioritizing developmental opportunities. These training activities vary from pre-command courses to internal training opportunities within their organizations. Most of the TWI experience is a fellow driven approach as they work to achieve their goals and objectives. Since TWI partner organizations vary across industries, including manufacturing, professional services and technology every fellow presented a unique experience.
DIFFERENT APPROACH: Col. Andra Moore presents observations from her time at McKinsey Global and looks forward to bringing efficiency work techniques gathered from her experience to the Army. (Photo courtesy of the Army DACM Office)
Lt. Col. Jonathan Talis, a fellow with Microsoft Corp., led a biweekly call with other Microsoft fellows from other services to network and learn from one another. They also created a manual for future fellows to reduce the fellowship acclimation process. Another benefit to his experience was the veteran community at Microsoft who were supportive and inclusive of the fellows. Overall, he was impressed by Microsoft’s ability to “hire well and those who have intellectual curiosity.”
Lt. Col. Benjamin Hormann, a fellow with Ford Motor Co., traveled with his sponsor, a regional manager, to various Ford plants to oversee manufacturing output. With this metrics driven approach, Hormann observed that leaders have front line or engineering experience to best lead and hit the metric goals. Hormann was tasked to lead a technology forum to bring in innovative ideas from across different sectors within Ford.
Lt. Col. Christopher Mitchum, a fellow with Moonshots Capital, had the unique experience of working closely with the company’s two founders and quickly learned the lifecycle of the venture capitalist sector. As the two founders are veterans, Mitchum witnessed how they valued companies with veteran experience and mentored these leaders as their companies grow. Through his fellowship, he had the experience of working with DIU and understanding their process from the industry side.
Lt. Col. Lendrick James, a fellow with General Dynamics, was given freedom to explore different sectors and network with senior leaders. He was afforded the opportunity to participate in mock interviews to gain experience and solicit feedback on these skills. Another experience gained was attending industry conferences to network with other companies and expand communication skills working at the General Dynamics booth.
At McKinsey Global, Col. Andra Moore was afforded a diverse range of experiences including working with retail clients, completing a negotiation course, Korn Ferry leadership coaching, and a front row seat to see how McKinsey collaborates with senior leaders in industry. Moore looks forward to bringing efficiency work techniques gathered from her experience. For example, when developing work content, she was encouraged to begin the product and then ask for feedback when it was 20 percent completed. She said this differed from her Army experience, where you usually have a finished product then receive feedback. This approach ensured the work vision was maintained, and less rework was required. “McKinsey treated me like one of their own, celebrating my promotion and created a very inclusive experience,” Moore said.
“Today we don’t just focus on industry partners that are major defense contractors,” Winters said. “Some of our most interesting and valuable industry partners aren’t major players in the DOD industrial base, but provide a unique opportunity based on their creative approach to solving problems or their leadership in their marketplace. As a result, our officers have the ability to learn how innovative and successful companies make important decisions and incentivize their leaders. On the other side of the equation, I believe that our industry partners continue to benefit from having some of our most experienced and capable AAC officers as a part of their ‘formation’ for approximately 10 months.”
The TWI program is a year-long assignment with partners across the manufacturing, technology and services industry including Deloitte, Ford, 3M, Salesforce, General Dynamics and more. Applications open in the summer and those who are interested in this unique experience are encouraged to speak with their branch manager and then assignment officer on next steps.
For more information about TWI and how to apply for the fiscal year 2024 program, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/career-development/programs/aac-training-with-industry.
RACHEL BERRY was formerly a communications analyst at the U. S. Army Acquisition Support Center office of the Director of Acquisition Career Management. She holds an Master of Professional Studies in industrial organizational psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a B.S. in hospitality management from James Madison University.
