How does a very large, very complex organization encourage innovation, especially when so much of the daily operations are based in uniformity, a strict rank structure and layers of bureaucracy? That’s exactly the question the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps is trying to answer with its new program, Dragon’s Lair. WAR ROOM welcomes Joe Buccino to give an inside look at the inner workings of Dragon’s Lair. He explains how the Corps hopes to harness diversity of thought at the problem level and speed solutions past the bureaucracy to the decision makers. It sounds similar to other Army innovation programs, but Buccino points to its Shark Tank style episodic competition that directly rewards the innovators and makes this program so successful.
Tag Archives: innovation
THE GRIT AND GROWTH MINDSET
Adversity and resilience are incredibly relevant topics in light of what’s going on in the world today. People around the world are facing challenges and adversity that they’ve never seen before and are seeking new ways to deal with it. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Jennifer Alessio to share her story of a potentially career-ending injury and how she found a path forward to not only survive but thrive. Jennifer joins podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio to discuss the grit and growth mindset. Based in the works of Dr. Angela Duckworth and Dr. Carol Dweck, Jennifer discusses how the mindset can benefit innovation, talent management, soldier development and even recruiting in the U.S. Army.
WANTED: INNOVATION TOOLS FOR AIR FORCE LEADERS
The Air Force may say it values innovation and experimentation, but despite significant efforts and “innovation theater,” we fall short. How do you do more with less? The Air Force, like most organizations, has always had to learn how to operate in an environment with finite resources. Despite a 156.3 billion dollar budget in 2019, […]
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS THE BEGINNING
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the NDEA in 1958…Although President Eisenhower shocked the K-12 education system into relevance, reforms never last forever. The link between K-12 educational achievement and socioeconomic status is quite clear, and it is in the context of the recruitment and the makeup of the all-volunteer force that Americans often think about […]
SWARM GAMING: REGAINING THE STRATEGIC INNOVATION INITIATIVE (WARGAMING ROOM)
Adversaries will deliberately create situations for which U.S. military leaders have not been educated, trained, or equipped to overcome. The United States’ enemies are smart, dedicated, and determined. They will not attack strengths; they will attack weaknesses at times and places of their choosing and seek to do so in ways for which the DOD […]
A SMARTER WAY TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN
“Be All You Can Be”, “Army of One”, “Army Strong” these are just a few of the most recent slogans used by the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in the last 40 years. The first remained in place for over 20 years. The last was 12 years running. But if the Army is going to meet […]
THE ECONOMIC DEFENSE CAPITAL FUND: A TOOL FOR THE ECONOMIC VOID
The American model of innovation has long depended on public support and funding through both the national laboratory system and university-based research that American industry has commercialized into products. For the second time in 12 years, the American federal government is likely to respond to a deep recession with massive stimulus spending to lay […]
AN ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE: INNOVATION AND TERRORIST DRONES
EDITOR’S NOTE: The current temporary theme we are using only credits a single author. This article was written by Kerry Chávez and Ori Swed. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, characters who increase in wisdom are those who ascend from the cave’s darkness (ignorance, crudeness) to the surface’s daylight (knowledge, sophistication). In early 2018, 13 […]
CHANGING OUR TOOLKIT FOR “CHANGE”
Leaders affect change at the individual, unit, and enterprise levels both in response to the external environment and internal pressures to build and sustain readiness for the next mission. For years, a common theme in military doctrine and conventional wisdom has been that leaders must lead change. If sustaining competitive advantage in a complex and […]
NEW WEAPONS FOR NEW DOMAINS? (EISENHOWER SERIES)
Getting that idea from the battlefield…back into the hands of someone who can fix it back in the states or elsewhere in the world rapidly is absolutely critical. In September of 2019 we introduced you to the Eisenhower Series College Program. Members of the Eisenhower Program began the year on the road visiting colleges and universities, […]
LOSING THE STRATEGIC “BATTLE” AGAINST THE PRC (BUT NOT THE “WAR”): PT I – EMERGING CONFLICT DOMAINS
Despite facing innovative, global rivals, the U.S. military remains a downward-directed, personality-driven organization – one that lacks the flexibility it needs to meet current threats. The word “military” conjures images of rifle-bearing soldiers being yelled at by angry, loud, older leaders, imposing their proverbial ‘my way or the highway’ versions of order. Unfortunately, such images […]
LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY: THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH LIGHT INFANTRY
It’s not that Dundas was opposed to the use of light infantry he thought it was, the pejorative term was, ‘it’s very American’ A BETTER PEACE welcomes Dr. Huw Davies of King’s College London. Huw joins WAR ROOM Editor-In-Chief Jacqueline Whitt to trace the development of Great Britain’s Light Infantry. It’s easy to call […]
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: MORE THAN JUST TECHNOLOGY
A BETTER PEACE welcomes Gail Fisher and Joel Hillison into the studio to examine the DoD’s approach towards gaining and sustaining the competitive advantage over adversaries across the spectrum of competition. The DoD has no specific doctrine regarding this topic and all too often the response to the challenge falls to the acquisition community in […]
IT’S A MATTER OF INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY
To me what intellectual leadership means is to read more and study more and be a deep thinker, and I don’t think that’s what the secretary of defense wants us to do. Words have meaning and all too often there is no common understanding of that intended meaning. When former Secretary of Defense Mattis placed […]
DITCH THE CHECKLISTS: LET’S EDUCATE LEADERS!
There’s twenty-four outcomes that you’re supposed to do, they would come in and go ‘Prove to me your assessment on all twenty-four of these things.’ The 2018 National Defense Strategy includes the following stark assessment of Professional Military Education, or PME: “PME has stagnated, focused more on the accomplishment of mandatory credit at the expense […]
THE CHALLENGES OF SENIOR LEADER COMMUNICATION
30 years ago, we still talked about deterrence a lot in this country. We still talked about nuclear weapons in this country. Today, the broader population does not, and therefore part of my job is to make sure that that becomes part of the dialogue again. What happens when an important strategic message is simply […]
WHAT THE U.S. MILITARY CAN LEARN FROM THE CHINESE DRONE STARTUP ECOSYSTEM
By relying on large platforms built by large contractors, the U.S. military lacks the small business integration that has given Chinese-based organizations an edge in UAV development. The U.S. military is at risk of missing a huge wave of innovation in unmanned aerial vehicles. The unmanned aerial system/vehicle (UAS/UAV) market has experienced intense growth in […]
PROMISE AND PERIL: THE BIOTECH SECURITY DILEMMA
In managing biotechnology, it is tempting to respond to its dangers by simply banning all research and development that involves the direct manipulation of the genes of organisms, relying instead on traditional approaches. This would be a terrible mistake. Genetic engineering and its products both threaten and benefit United States national security in core areas […]
VALUING COST-CONSCIOUSNESS IN TODAY’S MILITARY CULTURE
cost-consciousness is not simply about cutting spending. Rather, it is about reducing excess and being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense is not cost-conscious. Four years after the sequestration cuts of 2013, the Department of Defense must relearn a lesson which all frustrated dieters know well: unless desired values and […]
TRADING QUEENS
Just as a chess master with a positional advantage is willing to trade queens with his opponent, an adversary prepared to operate in a degraded electronic environment may be willing to do the same. The U.S. military’s technological advantage may also be its biggest weakness, as its reliance on technology has left it under-trained and […]