Joint Force Quarterly. Issue 90, 3rd Quarter
Abstract
How well does the U.S. military transform? When are the best time and circumstances to change how the joint force does business? In search of some answers, I came across a short but powerful article written a few years ago by two consultants to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, David Chinn and John Dowdy. They conducted a survey in December 2014 of almost 1,000 leaders and senior employees in more than 30 U.S. Government agencies and found that only 40 percent believed that their transformation programs succeeded. Even though these results do not seem heartening to those change agents among us, their research suggests how to change ones military even in a period of budgetary pressure, as was recently experienced in Europe and the United States. In fact, as of this writing, the Budgetary Control Act (or so-called sequestration) is still in force, but the Department of Defense budgetary outlook is fairly bright. So, if we needed to do some thinking when money was tight, should these suggestions not be applied as the situation improves? Lets take a minute to see if this is the case. Chinn and Dowdy suggest that real transformation can best be applied at the sharp end, or, as we know it, the tactical unit. As an example, just in time logistics has already been applied widely, and 3D printing may even further reduce the demands on the supply chain that feeds warfighting units. The authors suggest that leading through the line, instead of top-down direction, places line commanders with expanded authorities but holds them accountable. Recently, the Air Force initiated an experiment in one of its combat wings, eliminating an entire leadership layer, the group, by placing squadron commanders directly under the wing commander. No billets were lost, but the chain of command became short, with the idea of empowering those line commanders to run their squadrons with only one boss directly above them at the tactical level.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1056971
Entities
People
- John N. Shanahan
- Michael E. Mcinerney
- Michael E. O'hanlon
- Terrence J. O'shaughnessy
Organizations
- National Defense University