Defense AT and L Magazine. Volume 44, Number 4, July-August 2015
Abstract
A few months ago, I decided to ask all of our Acquisition Category I and Major Automated Information System (MAIS) program managers (PMs) to provide me with a one- to three-page assessment of the state of their programs. At the time, this was an experiment. From the feedback I received, most PMs were delighted to have this opportunity. I have incorporated these assessments into Better Buying Power (BBP) 3.0 as an activity that will continue on an annual basis. The assessments are intended to strengthen the role of the acquisition chain of command. The assessments are simultaneously sent to me, the Service or Component acquisition executive, and the program executive officer. It was, however, an experiment that seemed to make a lot of people nervous. Some of the nervousness stemmed from concerns that I was putting the PMs in an awkward position, where they might fear that being too honest with me could jeopardize their program or get them into trouble with a senior stakeholder in the Service or on the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) staff. I could understand this concern, and I hesitated briefly. However, one of the management principles Ive picked up over the years (like the sign outside my door reading In God We Trust, All Others Must Bring Data, this comes from W. Edwards Deming) is that one must drive fear out of an organization to achieve success. No fear is more crippling or dysfunctional to an organization than fear of negative consequences of telling the truth. Close behind that is fear that a new idea will be dismissed or ridiculed. I decided that any institutional fear of the consequences of an honest assessment should not be appeased; it should be confronted. There was also a concern, which I took more seriously, that the PM would have to obtain approval and go through multiple drafts and reviews before being allowed to send me an assessment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1070753
Entities
People
- Alan Estevez
- Alan Shaffer
- Allie Coetzee
- Andre Gudger
- David J. Berteau
- Farhad Chowdhury
- Frank Kendall
- Heidi Shyu
- Katharina Mcfarland
- Ken Brennan
- Kenyata Wesley
- Kevin Fahey
- Ray Wood
- Sean J. Stackley
- William A. Laplante
Organizations
- Defense Acquisition University