Evidence of a Changing Culture

The culture is changing. Finally. Acquisition innovation has leveled up.  That much was evident at the 2019 Air Warfare Symposium, hosted by the Air Force Association (AFA) in Orlando 27 February – 1 March.   Innovation is no longer the secret passion of a handful of heretics.  It’s entering the mainstream.  It has its growing pains, yes, but it is on the brink of becoming–dare I say?–normal. Maybe not plentiful enough, but I am quite encouraged by the shift I’m seeing. The symposium spotlighted a couple of visionaries I was specifically looking forward to hearing as well as some surprises.  Extra bonus was running into Read More


Disrupting Leadership

Most of us in Acquisition know that queasy feeling when a new boss is coming onboard and we aren’t sure how our future will change.  Will the job change the person or will the person change the job? And of course, will we flourish under new leadership? I’ve found two truths in the case of every transition in leadership, whether at a lower level team lead or the highest in the land.  I have seldom seen much territory between these two polarities. 1.      The position changes the person.   In effect, it’s the hardened structure of the position, perhaps the bureaucracy of it, that changes the Read More


Using Tension to Create Change

Would we as Acquisition innovators be as innovative without the tension of losing ground to Russia and China? Without our fight against bureaucracy or clumsy dinosaur we’ve-always-done-it-that-way processes? Without tension in other areas of our lives, would we become content personally? Professionally? Would we stagnate? Would we find that fine line between contentment and stagnation because if we are not moving forward or we are only standing still, are we then really moving backward as surely as though we were standing in place on a 5 mph treadmill? And what spurs us to keep taking steps onward if not the Read More


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