Interview with Mr. Robert Love, Director of DoD Business Transformation Agency Warfighter Support Office - Part 3 of 3
March 1, 2006
In the last part of the interview, Mr. Love, Director of Warfighter Support Office, Business Transformation Agency, discusses a different culture in the military.
Daniel Forrester: Economists, on the commercial side, look at how you drive behavior in a private sector company. There are economic incentives that you can put in front of me and in an economist’s view of the world, economics drives everything. So let’s live in a world where they get it right and you can be motivated by performance evaluations, bonuses, salaries, etc. Yet change agents in the government are people who are driven by, what I call in the paper, "a limitless sense of the good the government can do". But at the end of the day, to change behavior in the Marine Corps or to get down to the individual Marine, are there things that you have thought of as incentives that could align people towards the change you are trying to get to as economists envision?
Mr. Robert Love: There is a different culture in the military. Would a service member like to get additional pay or a medal or a citation? Sure. But for most service members, and even here in the Business Transformation Agency, the incentive really is trying to make our government better. It really is.
I would say "hokey," but my daughter is at Virginia Tech and she would kill me! The incentive really was that we had to implement specific initiatives in order to make a difference. First and foremost we knew we had to have a positive impact in terms of responsiveness to the warfighter. Second, we were concerned about being efficient in terms of saving dollars. This might be controversial, but we attempted to stay focused on improving effectiveness through efficient processes. That doesn't mean we weren't good stewards of our tax dollars - we were.
Improved effectiveness through efficiency - it was a balance. And that was really the payback. When they saw that we could reduce maintenance cycle time which would improve operational availability of a weapons system, if we could save a life, that was the incentive. So did we consider other incentives? Sure. There are awards that were given. There were citations. There were nominations. But what it really came down to was, "will this initiative improve support for the war fighter?" That was the biggest incentive for all of us.
Daniel Forrester: In your experience, could you think through any ways that you could attract commercial people to participate in this transformation conversation, except in vendor service to the government? How do you attract people who are change agents on the commercial side to give it up for a couple years, because they are not going to make as much money, but because they might tap into something within themselves as you described above. Is that something that you think about?
Mr. Robert Love: This relates to my current job. I have two bosses which is unusual, right? Although I understand that you have two bosses at Sapient and they are co-CEOs, so maybe it’s not so unusual.
Each leader brings a different skill set to the job. They talk with us, the directors, about this very same challenge - how do we attract leaders in industry to our team? How do we attract skilled people into this agency to help facilitate the DoD’s change efforts? And we've had some interesting conversations. The BTA has actually been successful in attracting people from industry into this environment. What’s interesting is that many of them are giving up productive careers and lucrative salaries. For the most part, the incentive for these people is just what we talked about - they want an opportunity to help the federal government get better. They are proud Americans who want to do their part. It’s phenomenal. But they want to know that by coming here, they really will be able to make a difference, and they won't be just another member of the bureaucracy. These people are modern day patriots in my mind. They are putting their country before their careers and their salaries, to come here to make a difference. As long as we can make a difference and we can deliver effectiveness to the war fighter, they will stay and that’s how we attract them. But as soon as it looks like we're just another bureaucracy, they will go back to industry.
Daniel Forrester: This going to be tough question but in reflecting on your time in the Marine Corps and active service, was there a single best day as a change agent that you would say you looked back on and say you saw it as a pivotal moment in your career?
Mr. Robert Love: I don't know if I could single out a 'best day'. I think the best times were to watch the expressions on young Marines and sailors faces when they understood the direction the Corps was taking - that the Corps was taking itself to a higher level. That as good as the Corps was, the leadership understood that it could always get better. The Corps was and still is the greatest fighting force and a member of the greatest fighting team in the world. To see that the Corps was willing to reinvent itself or to move to another level, to watch the expression on their faces, that, to me, was probably the best part of my assignment - to go out and brief people in the 1st Marine Division, 2nd Marine Division or wherever I was going - just to watch the expression and the excitement and energy made it all worthwhile.
Daniel Forrester: Thinking about what we are doing now in Iraq and Afghanistan, do you miss the day-to-day?
Mr. Robert Love: I think all of us retirees do. I think those of us who have served all miss the camaraderie of our brothers and sisters-in-arms. I think most retirees would probably give their left arm to go back on active duty to serve. But again, we are proud of the foundation we built that’s helping them be successful; we passed the baton on to them and they will take the Corps to another level.- just as the people that are on active duty today will do for their successors. And that is the way the service is. We build upon our past successes. Do I miss it? Absolutely. Every single day. But I don't think I'm unique. I think everyone feels the exact same way.
Daniel Forrester: One last question. Can you talk about the current role that you play and what you have learned during your short tenure in this role?
Mr. Robert Love: I will go back to the earlier conversation. We brought in some new people. Paul Brinkley and Tom Modly (Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Business Transformation and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Financial Management, respectively) who both relatively new to the government. And they brought in fresh ideas. They have really re-energized us and I find that to be refreshing, frankly. These are people that gave up so much to help make a difference. They come with tremendous insights and different experiences. They have brought a completely fresh view to business transformation and the way this department does business which I am elated about.
I wouldn't stay here if I didn't think I wouldn't be able to have a positive impact on the Department of Defense. And right now, I believe we have an opportunity. We all know there’s a period of time the door opens, it might be a day, it might be a month, it might be a year and then the door closes and then you wait for the next opportunity for the door to open again in order to make a difference.
It’s refreshing to be in this agency, frankly. I am very proud we were able to stand this agency up relatively quickly. It’s lean. It’s not a bureaucratic organization. It’s relatively flat. We are investing our time, our money and our efforts on the warfighter. I am excited about it. I think it’s tremendous and the next year or two are going to be really exciting for this agency and the DoD. We are constantly being told we've got to focus on a revolving series of actionable objectives so that we don't get caught up in a lot of unnecessary activity. We want to institutionalize the vision contained in our transition plan, without becoming programmatic, and we will do that by having near term objectives that will keep us moving forward on for the next 10 years. We can't just say that this is a one year effort. Then it becomes a program which brings us back to the beginning of our conversation. This is not a program. This is an environment for change.
Daniel Forrester: Thank you Colonel Love for your time. We look forward to coming back to speak with you.