Interview with Mr. Robert Love, Director of DoD Business Transformation Agency Warfighter Support Office - Part 2 of 3
February 27, 2006
The second part of the interview with Mr. Love, Director of Warfighter Support Office, Business Transformation Agency, features lessons learned from his 27 years in the Marine Corps.
Daniel Forrester: As you reflect back on your time, 27 years in the Marine Corps, what are some of your lessons learned about major change initiatives?
Mr. Robert Love: I was thinking about that. There are so many. So how do you distill them down to just a few for an elevator talk? I think I have already talked about one and that’s to make sure that change agent has the authority and protection of the organizations senior leadership. I think that’s absolutely essential.
You need to have consistency and you can do that a number of ways. First, you need to have that consistency in your message. Whether that’s through continuity of people or institutionalization of the process, but somehow you have to have consistency within the organization.
It’s a tough concept to say that you want consistency in your message and still say you want change. I think an example of how we use it, and it’s arguable, but the Navy, for example, had an initiative where they assigned an Admiral to convert to nuclear power. The Navy made sure they had one individual who had the vision, had the authority, and was protected, for better or for worse, and ensured that the Navy was able to change. So they had consistency with their change agent to transform the organization. That’s one approach.
Another approach is that you institutionalize whatever it is you are trying to change and ensure that new people, as they come into the organization, understand the vision. So they bring in fresh ideas, but they keep this big ship of ours on course. As they rotate to new jobs and organizations, they take what they've learned with them and it becomes infectious, in a good way, to the rest of the organization. It may be a balance between the two - some people stay, some people rotate. I think that’s consistency of the message through one of the two approaches and maybe there are others.
In the government, we're also accustomed to documenting everything, and for good reason. We want to protect our taxpayer’s funds and we want to make sure that the warfighter get the best support necessary. I think one of the pitfalls of change is trying to make change a program. Change should not be a program it’s a way of thinking, it’s an environment. You want to have an understanding of change. You want to have open-minded people. But you don't want to institutionalize change and make it a program of record. That’s what we tend to do in the government.
Daniel Forrester: And that becomes the cure all versus, you're saying, imbedded in the context of the program.
Mr. Robert Love: Right. Change is an environment. It’s not a program of record, but you should have a programmatic approach to it. Programs of record tend not to be agile. So I think that’s a take away.
Messaging is absolutely essential. We tend to want to have a single message. You often hear people say, "We've got to be on the same sheet of music". I say that - you have to be in the same song book. We need a consistent message, but the way we frame that message would be different for each audience. So we need to be very careful. If I am talking to Congress, I want to make sure I have a clear message for Congress and the American people. But the terms that I use, the language that I use for Congress, would be different than the language and terms that I would use if I was talking to an infantry battalion commander. Both audiences are extremely intelligent. Both audiences are receptive. But they speak different languages and have different but complementary priorities. We need to be in the same songbook. We don't necessarily need to be on the same exact sheet of music and follow each note the exact same way. And I think that’s absolutely essential.
Let me illustrate my point. If I was in business, I would have a strategy for how my company would conduct business. But I probably wouldn't share that exact strategy with my customers. In business, my goal is probably to make a profit - getting a return on investment to my shareholders. But I probably don't want to say to my customer that I am all about getting your money and making a profit. I might want to say, "Hey, I am all about getting you the lowest interest rate," or, "providing you with the best customer service". So different messages for different audiences. The ultimate goal doesn't change just the manner in which I portray my company. Bottom-line, this company exists to make a profit by providing the best support/product to its customers.
Daniel Forrester: I know there’s more lessons to be learned, but was this late in your career when you had lots of references for success and for failure that you would have been able to come to these conclusions or did you have mentoring along the line where you said, "This is the handbook of the change agent"?
Mr. Robert Love: I think the answer is ‘yes’ to all of the above! Wisdom doesn't come with age. Wisdom comes with experience. And there are an awful lot of bright young people out there who have an unbelievable amount of wisdom. It’s not through age alone that you get this wisdom. For me personally, it’s through the experiences that I had and through the maturing of the information that I processed over time. I think that’s gotten me to this point. Mentoring was a major piece of that. I was fortunate to have a couple of people who were innovative thinkers.
Daniel Forrester: When you are in these roles, particularly logistics transformation work that you are a part of, that are a big part of your legacy, did you think of yourself and brand yourself a "change agent" or did you just act?
Mr. Robert Love: I would say I just acted. I didn't put a title on it. I was, at the time, a Marine first and foremost - and still am. I was fortunate to have a leadership who had a vision, I was given the authority and we were very fortunate.
Daniel Forrester: Would you have been able to achieve half of the outcomes that you did without the leadership gaining that alignment?
Mr. Robert Love: I don't know about the percentage, half, but it was absolutely essential that the executive leadership understood where we were going and they had feedback from us on how we were doing.
(To be continued in part 3.)