The Under Secretary of the Navy recently asked a select group of young officers to envision what their U.S. Navy would be like 15 years in the future. They discovered two things: getting input from the Navy's young leadership is the wave of the future; and even with amazing advances in technology that are sure to come, the heart of the Navy always will be its people.
Two hundred miles out in the Indian Ocean in the year 2015, a commercial airline jet lands on the U.S. Navy's newest floating support base (FSB). Lieutenant Thomas Fletcher is part of the DD-27's Delta crew and is arriving to relieve Charlie crew after four months in the Persian Gulf. Delta crew is fully ready to conduct combat operations, for they have been working as a dynamic team for the preceding six months, training with full-size ship mock-ups and dazzling multisensory simulators. Delta crew came together from a variety of backgrounds. Some recently had transferred laterally from the private sector, some came from earlier rotational crews, and some are just back from sabbatical. Lieutenant Fletcher is returning from his shore duty with Oracle and is eager to contribute what he has learned about the latest in molecular database technology.
During the turnover, the crew is able to use the facilities of the floating support base to resupply the destroyer, provide medical checkups for the oncoming crew, and give the off going crew a chance to enjoy the recreational facilities. The FSB is a limited ship-repair facility, which includes a dry dock and aviation depot.
Back on board the destroyer, Seaman Sarah Jones is settling into her daily routine as she stows her personal gear in her four person stateroom. Checking her personal data assistant, she can access the ship's plan of the day as well as her watch schedule, work assignment, and service and pay records. She also has received an e-mail telling her that it is time for her to evaluate her boss, Lieutenant Fletcher. She clicks on the review form and selects numeric scores for a variety of categories. She knows that Lieutenant Fletcher's peers and his boss are all providing input to his 360Degree Review.
Since there are only SO people on board, Seaman Jones is an integral part of the watch standing and maintenance teams. As her ship rejoins the battle group, Seaman Jones completes her watch, works out in the gym, and then goes to the galley, where she chooses from among 15 different entrees. After choosing one, she swipes her smart card to pay for the pre-prepared frozen meal that is automatically cooked and dispensed on a disposable tray. Her day ends as she climbs into her smart rack and chooses to begin the first module of her E-Naval Postgraduate School undergraduate course on the built-in touch/voice screen. Before turning in, she makes a video phone call to her husband.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the three-man bridge team of the LPD-22 is talking to an Arab merchant through the automatic voice translating bridge-to-bridge radio. Below in the combined combat information center/ engineering control station, all ship's vital systems are monitored automatically on board and by shore support. Readings are compared to benchmark standards to identify problems before equipment breaks. On the 360 wraparound tactical screen, information from the ship's sensors and satellite link portray the tactical situation. Topside, a technician is installing a new gyro that was ordered automatically at the first sign of equipment degradation and received before the current gyro failed.
On board the CVX-77, unmanned aerial vehicle operations are being conducted topside while a small fire below decks is being extinguished. The damage-control team acquired their fire fighting skills while ashore, in dynamic teams with realistic trainers. The scene leader enters progress reports on a personal data assistant and updates are displayed instantly in the control center. Expert software already has rerouted power and isolated the shorted power panel. Air operations are not affected, but the air boss monitors the damage-control ef forts while he plans for the arrival of the resupply dirigible that is bringing 1,800 tons of mail, cargo, food, and spare parts for the battle group. The dirigible brought this material directly from the United States in four days. After receiving cargo the carrier will offload other materials, including two jet engines for repair at the FSB depot.
Sitting at periscope depth off the coast, Lieutenant Bruce Schuette, who recently returned from shore duty at IBM, now is officer of the deck in the Navy's newest nuclear-powered attack submarine. While at IBM, he helped develop new software that enhances communications by means of the acoustic Internet, which he uses to communicate with the battle group. Today he has learned that critical spare parts have arrived at the FSB and will be transferred to the CVX-77. Lieutenant Schuette has coordinated an underwater transfer with the carrier. At the moment, the sub's tube-launched autonomous underwater vehicles are mapping unfriendly port entrances and checking for mines, relaying their progress back via an acoustic Internet.
Back at Camp Lejeune, the Marines are hitting the beach—only it doesn't look like D-Day. It's more like a Baja off road rally. Since unmanned submarines have cleared the water of mines and the beach of obstacles, the landing party rolls in at SO knots. Overhead, V-22s carry personnel and equipment across the beach. The landing force commander's staff is monitoring the location of all units in real time and using National Reconnaissance Office data to route forces around the enemy's strong points. Meanwhile, that same data is fed to the DD-24—which is over the horizon but can still provide fires 120 miles inland. Unmanned aerial vehicles fill the skies, providing battle damage assessments and acting as communication-relay backups.
As the Marines move inland, General Brian Buckles thinks back to the days when they said an advanced amphibious assault vehicle (AAAV) could not move 70 miles from the beach in one day. Now he has an entire Marine expeditionary unit that will be 100 miles inside enemy territory by nightfall. Small teams of Marines, connected together by superior communications and data-display computers, are making things happen on the ground, and coordinating support from naval guns and Air Force fighters. On board the DD-24, Ensign George Seedling is participating in the Marines' war game and is controlling the advanced gun, sending GPS-guided rounds over the beach while simultaneously planning a land-attack missile launch to take out enemy tanks that are heading toward a downed V-22.
As the DD-2Ts Charlie crew boards the departing commercial airline jet on the runway of the FSB and heads for home, the former commanding officer, Commander Charles O'Bannon, enjoys one last Indian Ocean sunset from his window seat. He reflects on just how much the Navy has changed since he joined. Fifteen years ago, he thinks to himself, the Navy was trying to find a way to pull itself out of the Industrial Age and into the Information Age. Fortunately, the Navy realized what its industry counterparts already knew--that people are the only real asset of an organization. O'Bannon has witnessed many fundamental changes that have encouraged true innovation and teamwork, and have allowed him and the Navy to get to where they stand in 2015, when the Navy's strength truly has become the combined intellectual capital of all its people. The most recent issue of Newsweek even ranks the Navy as one of the top ten companies in the United States. These days, the Navy really walks its walk and talks its talk.
This scenario of what the Navy might be like in the future is a segment from the final presentation of the "30Something" course offered by the Center for Executive Education at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. The first of its kind in naval history, 30-Something selected 19 mid-grade officers and challenged them to envision the Navy of 2015. Initiated and sponsored by Under Secretary of the Navy Jerry Hultin, this course was a remarkable effort to tap into the ideas and innovations offered by the Navy's "junior executives"—the future leaders of the organization. The course was organized by the director of the Center for Executive Education, Barry Frew.
Professor Frew and Under Secretary Hultin are responsible for generating much of the enthusiasm for change in the Navy through the "revolution in business affairs" courses taught to most of the Navy's and Marine Corps' flag officers and senior civilians. So far, these courses have sought to expose the senior leadership to the various revolutions in business that are occurring in the private sector brought on by the internet and the Information Age. Until recently, that effort had focused exclusively on the Navy's highest echelons; 30-Something offered more-junior officers a rare opportunity to tell the top how they would do it if they were in charge.
In addition to a wide range of required readings and team-building exercises, students were exposed to a variety of distinguished speakers. Several retired admirals who had gone on to take the helm of private firms as CEOs spoke before the class, but most of the professionals were from quite different backgrounds than the Navy: Timothy Ferris, author of 13 science-fiction novels and a Pulitzer Prize nominee; Ziad Doueiri, Hollywood film producer and prizewinner at the Cannes Film Festival; Dr. Bernie Ulozas on diffusion of innovation; Dr. Mark Eitelberg on future demographics; Mr. Steve Uzell, former National Geographic photographer and current corporate advertising executive; Walker White, chief technologist for Oracle; Dr. Frank Barrett on appreciative inquiry; and Sean O'Keefe, former Secretary of the Navy.
As the course progressed, most of the students either migrated away from the ideas they had brought with them or revisited them from new perspectives. Not surprisingly, the initial ideas were within the box. They addressed current problems and future force structure. These were mostly superficial, and did not go deep enough to address root causes. As the course progressed, however, many new ideas emerged. The ideas were varied but had one consistent theme: attracting and retaining good people. Four focus groups were established: vision, technology, logistics, and professional worklife. Even though the categories appeared to be independent and specific, the final product was presented as an integrated system.
All ideas, point papers, and the final briefing can be viewed online at www.cee.nps.navy.mil/prod03.htm. Here are some of the highlights:
Vision. This group recognized that a true vision statement with guiding principles had to be developed from the bottom up. Without the input of the organization at all levels, the vision statement would be nothing more than bulkhead art. The group's emphasis was on achieving an identity and purpose for every sailor and Marine—based on the values and beliefs that derive from our people being the cornerstone and capstone of the Navy and Marine Corps. People will want to join and stay in the sea services because they will follow a culture—not rules. The group's final briefing included the following major discussion areas and ideas:
- Turning today's rhetoric into reality
- Implementing leadership training at the individual, team, unit, and organizational levels
- Distributing accountability; redefining the role of commanding officers
- Expanding the concept of Blue and Gold crews into dynamic teams, fleet-wide
- Liberating innovation from hierarchy, unbounded by rigid rules
Technology. This group focused on the ways that technology will revolutionize the Navy from war fighting to everyday life. The Information Age generation will want to join and stay in the Navy only if they can become innovators and users of technology at every level. A step in the right direction is to stop putting good technology on bad processes. The Navy needs to shift from the cost of technology to the value of technology, and use technology to enable process change. The Internet offers great opportunities for improvement, and can become a strategic weapon. Technology's major discussion areas and ideas included:
- Making bandwidth a top priority
- Developing online centralized data bases-from personnel records to supply and maintenance support
- Creating unprecedented individual access to information; smart racks are integrated "windows from home," allowing voice and video via high-speed web access
- Creating virtual detailing, evaluations, and e-promotion boards
- Making simulator training better than the real thing; seeing it evolve into unmanned platforms
- Refining telemedicine and virtual corpsmen
- Ceasing the purchase of information technology; becoming a partner with industry, to stay current
Logistics. This group focused on giving our people the tools they need to get the job done. Many people join the Navy and are eager to perform but become disenchanted by the bureaucratic, underfunded, and sluggish nature of our support systems. Brought about by technology, "velocity" will become paramount in delivering the "right" five: right product, right place, right time, right quantity, and right quality. The logistics group's major discussion areas and ideas included:
- People-focused platforms: man the person, not the equipment
- Mobile floating support bases that replace forward-deployed bases
- Resupply airships: faster, cheaper, and more capable than Military Sealift Command ships
- Outsourcing non-core competencies, to take advantage of commercial expertise
- Intranet- and extranet-based industry exchanges for e-business direct to the user
Professional Worklife. This last group looked to change fundamentally the ways the Navy evaluates, inspires, rewards, and recognizes its people. Changes to these four areas will plant the seeds of change. These systems were designed to promote the vision group's desired culture of innovation and teamwork, while capturing the technology group's focus on redesigning these processes. The Navy must move away from a paternalistic, Industrial Age mindset toward an Information Age organization. People will want to join a Navy that offers greater equity and opportunity for both short- and long-term commitments. The group's major discussion points and ideas included:
- 360-degree e-reviews that provide multidimensional evaluations; composite scores will affect pay and promotion immediately—no more zones
- Pay for performance instead of rank or time; pay will increase with professional qualifications, education, and certifications
- Pay and retirement plans that are portable for the Information Age
- Higher pay and more choices for service members in housing, shopping, and healthcare benefits
- Replacement of detailers by "talent managers" who balance individual career choices with Navy and industry partnerships; a shift to a "win-win" instead of a "win-lose" paradigm
- Dynamic teams that replace traditional crew manning and rotations
At the conclusion of the 30-Something final brief, Under Secretary Hultin simply said, "Wow!" The audience did not know quite what to expect, but all agreed that what was presented far exceeded all expectations. All of the participants had similar assessments, too, and agreed that perhaps the most important part of the event was simply that it actually occurred. This should send a strong message to everyone that the Navy's senior leadership wants its young leaders involved in defining and building its future.
Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric, may have summed it up best: "If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside, then the end is near." People within the Navy must adapt to the ever-advancing wave of change if we are to avoid being overtaken by it. The Center for Executive Education plans to hold 30-Something courses twice a year, with the next class scheduled for spring 2001. As the graduates of this first course can attest, you do not have to be an admiral to make a difference. To visualize 2015 today is a challenge for everyone. All Navy men and women, working together, will make the difference. It's our Navy—change course, full speed ahead.
Lieutenant Commander Nystrom is a Supply Corps officer presently at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Most recently he was Third Fleet supply officer on board the USS Coronado (AGF-11).