Becoming a change agent in the midst of acquisition reform was the theme of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Supply Chain Integration Dee Reardon’s visit to the McNamara Headquarters Complex, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Oct. 25.
“We invited Ms. Reardon so people could gain a renewed sense of excitement about their career field and the ability to embrace acquisition reform,” said Defense Logistics Agency Energy Supplier Operations Director Gabby Earhardt.
DLA Energy is an acquisition organization with 760 employees who are in acquisition coded positions, making up 65 percent of the workforce.
The first event, an overall mentoring session, featured an informal talk show forum moderated by Earhardt. A second session focused on the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics reorganization.
During the mentoring session, Reardon shared seven points of advice based on her personal experience as a change agent.
1. Become the person and the leader you want to follow. Practice, adapt and execute what you have seen work in the past. You want to create followers. Keep in mind that good leaders start as followers.
2. Know where you want to go. Know what outcomes you want to accomplish. Be mindful of discerning where you are trying to go. If you don’t know where you want to go, the journey will be long and probably painful.
3. Horizontally integrate. In the Department of Defense, we live in vertical silos. I challenge you to stretch outside your lane and work with all your stakeholders. Think passed your job and your local organization to get to the enterprise outcome. Communicate frequently, clearly and transparently with your stakeholders.
4. Harness the power of data and don’t be afraid of it. Set the outcome, establish the baseline and harness the data, then use it to turn things around.
5. Set goals. Be specific on what you are trying to achieve. Set a target, approach the target and continually assess progress. Metrics need to tie into the desired outcome.
6. Seek feedback regularly and continually reassess. Is the pain of getting there worth the outcome? If the cost is greater than the outcome, reassess.
7. Continuous process improvements. Making progress through CPI is where efficiency occurs. Remove what is not necessary, skinny down the process to what remains. Processes in logistics reform is identifying what’s not working, taking it apart and putting it back together and testing it on a small scale.
Reardon reminded the audience that accepting change is a mindset.
“You can survive and thrive during times of change,” she said. “You just need to decide if that is what you want to do. Are you willing to change yourself, stretch and grow the followers to help get the outcome you set, not just for yourself, but for the organization? At the end of the day, customer satisfaction and warfighter readiness are the goals. Everything we do is dedicated toward that end goal.”
A question and answer period followed with participation from the outlying regions. Employees asked about managing competing priorities, career balance and motivation.
“I appreciated Ms. Reardon’s candor,” said Ditu Kasuyi, DLA Energy Acquisition Workforce Development team chief. “What resonated with me was know where you want to go based on your career destination and make adjustments to your career plan as needed.”
“If someone asks you to do something new, say yes,” Reardon advised. “Do what you need to do, to stretch and grow. Be awesome at what you do.”
Reardon serves as a principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness. She has served as a change agent over the past year within the DoD. In her position, Reardon is responsible for development of the department’s logistics strategy, overall supply chain integration, and global supply chain management policy, overseeing $90 billion of inventory and inventory management and 35 percent of the DoD workforce.