CIWT Hosts Domain XO/OIC Team-Building, Off-Site Meeting

Photo By Glenn Sircy | 180508-N-XX139-0006 PENSACOLA, Fla. (May 8, 2018) Capt. Bill Lintz, commanding officer of the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) welcomes CIWT domain executive officers and officers in charge to a team-building, off-site meeting. The three-day CIWT event was designed to provide the attendees a face-to-face opportunity to participate in Navy and domain-centric discussions, review strategic priorities, propose command initiatives, training, team-building events and engage with CIWT directorates and guest speakers. (Photo by Glenn Sircy / Center for Information Warfare Training Public Affairs)  

PENSACOLA, FL, UNITED STATES

05.10.2018

Story by Glenn Sircy 

Center for Information Warfare Training

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) hosted a domain-wide executive officer and officer in charge team-building, off-site meeting May 8-10.

All around the fleet, commands large and small routinely assemble at offsite locations to take a step away from their day-to-day work to stimulate innovative ideas, synergy and creative exploration, invaluable insights and build team spirit. When commands invest their time in an off-site meeting, they have the opportunity to separate the daily grind to better focus their teams. It also provides an opportunity for team-building activities and social interactions that indisputably build stronger teams.

With a geographically diverse command of four training commands and two detachments, fostering and maintaining regular and unfiltered communication is of paramount importance to CIWT. Therefore, the three-day CIWT event was designed to provide the attendees a face-to-face opportunity to participate in Navy and domain-centric discussions, review strategic priorities, propose command initiatives, training, team-building events and engage with CIWT directorates and guest speakers.

The attendees included Lt. Cmdr. Phillip Hickman, Jr., executive officer of Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Corry Station; Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Michalowicz executive officer of IWTC Monterey; Lt. Cmdr. John Connally, executive officer of IWTC San Diego; Lt. Cmdr. Anthony "Eric" Dobson, executive officer of IWTC Virginia Beach; and Lt. Cmdr. J. Austin Maxwell, officer in charge of CIWT Det. Goodfellow Air Force Base.

"The meeting was a great opportunity to bring the CIWT domain XOs and OICs together, and not only learn from one another, but build a more solid domain team," said Cmdr. Jeffrey Buschmann, CIWT's executive officer. "Collaboration, creativity, and coordination are more critical than ever before, and solid teamwork is essential to achieve anything of real significance. Through our face-to-face, collaborative discussions and teambuilding events this week, I feel we've molded together as a stronger team that will work more effectively, benefitting the entire CIWT domain."

Events over the three-day span included domain support-services discussions with CIWT’s directorates that included total force manpower (N1), special security office (N2); training (N7), financial resources management (N8), technical support/logistics management (N9), Navy Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL), and the Language, Regional Expertise, and Culture (LREC). Additionally, the attendees had discussions with CIWT’s command master chief, legal, chaplain, climate specialist, evaluations officer, career counselor, knowledge management, casualty assistance calls officer, and public affairs officer.

Other activities included a dinner hosted by CIWT’s executive officer, group luncheons, a guest speaker presentation, and it wrapped up with a CIWT executive officer’s panel discussion.

As the guest speaker for the evening dinner, Capt. Ryan Bernacchi, a former commander of the Blue Angels, discussed building trust within command teams.

“A command culture that fosters trust will enable that command to reach beyond good, and achieve great, said Bernacchi. “Trust is fragile, and must be nurtured. It must be re-earned daily, from the skipper and from each member of the team. At its core, trust requires integrity and selflessness, but it also requires competence in the execution of one's duties. Mistakes are going to happen to be sure, and when they are owned - it builds credibility and enhances trust. But trust is also action - it's walking the walk, and putting your team mates and the mission above yourself. When that becomes cultural - the normal behavior of a command - special things will happen."

During the executive officer’s panel discussion, the attendees shared how they felt this off-site meeting was beneficial to help them better understand the inner workings of the CIWT domain, build stronger stakeholder relationships, brainstorm new ideas, open better lines of communication and to bond together as a stronger team.

“The CIWT domain’s synergy is one of our greatest asset and trust, cooperation and effective communication are the key to our success,” said Connally. “I’ve participated in many off-site meetings in my 28-year career, but I feel this one has better armed us with the necessary tools to help elevate our teams’ overall productivity and motivation of delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services.”

CIWT is one of the largest of the NETC learning centers with four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan. Training 22,000 students every year, CIWT delivers trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services, enabling optimal performance of information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians and officers in the information warfare community.

For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training organization, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/cid/, http://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/CIWT/, http://www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT, or http://www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

• Date Taken: 05.10.2018
• Date Posted: 05.10.2018 16:44
• Story ID: 276609
• Location: PENSACOLA, FL, US