PHILADELPHIA –
Senior leaders from the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support presented self-assessments of their organizations and collaborated to shape the way-ahead during a meeting Aug. 9 in Philadelphia.
The leaders of each directorate – including the commanders of DLA Troop Support Pacific, DLA Troop Support Europe and Africa, and union leadership – presented analyses of their teams’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. They then used the analyses to inform their thinking as they engaged in casting a joint vision for Troop Support.
The results of the meeting’s recommendations will be published in the 2019 DLA Troop Support Campaign Plan.
“An organization’s vision has to be built, from my view, from the bottom up,” Troop Support Commander Army Brig. Gen. Mark Simerly said. “That’s where you get that sense of what the team needs in order to be successful.”
To that end, Simerly asked the leaders to discuss their analysis – commonly called a SWOT analysis – with their subordinate leadership.
Several points in these SWOT analyses were common to more than one directorate, including: rotational assignments, supervisory mentoring, how information technology can best support business, and focusing on the right metrics and benchmarks to measure success.
Simerly highlighted Troop Support’s strong workforce – another common point among SWOT analyses – as key to the organization’s success.
“Some of the things that really made us great,” Simerly said, “are examples where leaders have really extended trust and exhibited risk. The good idea came from within our subordinates … who saw a need and helped jointly develop solutions.”
Armed with the SWOT analysis information, the group reviewed Troop Support’s Campaign Plan priorities, objectives and related tactical actions.
Air Force Col. Adrian Crowley, Industrial Hardware director, related the importance of this process to James C. Collins’ book “Good to Great.”
Crowley said the workforce represents the “right people on the bus” on the road from good to great, and that processes like this aid in understanding and prioritizing organizational core competencies.