Cross-Functional Working Groups: Changing the Way Staffs are Organized
Abstract
Over the past several years, the Army has been drastically altering the way it organizes and fights. It is transforming divisional organizations into units of employment and brigade organizations into units of action while revolutionizing the way it thinks about and employs Reserve and National Guard forces. While these changes are critical to the ability to fight in a joint, interagency, and coalition environment, the Army must seize the momentum and continue to transform. The next area the service must address is how it organizes and aligns staffs. This article proposes a new method for organizing staff sections. In addition to building staffs around functional areas of expertise, commands need staff sections that are mission-focused and whose members have expertise in a variety of functions. These cross-functional working groups (CFWGs) would be more responsive to both customers' and commanders' needs and produce synchronized products more quickly than traditional staff sections. This article cites three examples from both peace and war where CFWGs have been successful. The following examples will clarify the working of the CFWG: the Base Camp Development Group (the G-8) in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during Operation Iraqi Freedom; the Project Management Office in Allied Joint Forces Command Naples; and the NATO Training Mission-Iraq CFWG, again in Naples.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA529420
Entities
People
- John S. Hurley