So we have about an hour allocated to
do a keynote address . And I've seen
many of these keynote addresses and
typically what any of us might expect
to hear from the keynote is an
illumination of a vision of
platforms , of capabilities that we
might be seeing coming our way .
Oftentimes the audience will sit back
and digest . Here's where we're going .
So that's not going to be this keynote .
Mhm . I'm going to role model what
we're gonna talk about here , which is
some learning , some risk taking . But
when I look around this room I see
strong enlisted representation I C . J .
O . S . Department heads Ceos and
Commodores . I see people have talked
to people from our program offices and
our program managers . I see people
from Op Nav , from the bureau , from
the Marine Corps , from our Warfighting
developmental centers and we have key
industry partners here and key leaders
from industry . So our discussion this
morning instead there's gonna be all
about how we actually work together to
make the theme of the symposium , the
force of the future . How do we make
that real and resonate ? How do we work
together to drive that ? I want to talk
about how we're gonna work together to
drive readiness today and to drive the
lethality we need tomorrow to create
decisive overmatch the force of the
future for the future . Fight is what
we're gonna talk about for 60 minutes
next slide . So of course our
conversation is going to emphasize the
centrality of the rotary wing community
as dana was just highlighting to this
fight . The centrality to the
distributed maritime operations
strategy . Damo , it's the shift from a
Csg centric fight to a fleet centric
fight . Both GMO and the joint
warfighting concept . Value distributed ,
multi access , multi domain operational
art . And that context creates
tremendous rotary wing community ,
opportunities to contribute and drive
to that lethality in the key elements
of how we shoot , how we maneuver , how
we resupply and how we defend .
So in this departure from a more
typical keynote , I want to share with
you some of the journey of learning
that we've had over the past 3-4 years
in responding to the strategic
competition imperative to drive to a
more ready navy in a more lethal navy .
Go to the next slide . So it shows up
there and read we're going to deep dive
and we're gonna have an opportunity for
some Q . And A . At the end we'll be
thinking about as I talk about what we
learned , what it means for each of us
in the , in the seat you're sitting in
to work collaboratively to make the
force of the future real and we're
gonna follow this with the force of the
future panel with a flag panel with the
captains of industry panel . But I'm
going to give you some context of how
we can work together to make all of
this real and the
reason I want to take this time with
you is because I want to scale this
learning , I want to scale this
learning . So all of us here can bring
velocity to the warfighting outcomes
that we're talking about . So this is a
call to action for the leaders in this
room to lead and that means that's you .
And I can tell you as you heard from
the two previous speakers up here ,
there's no better place to be , there's
no better place to be if you want to
contribute to something as important as
this next live . So here's the
framework of the conversation . I'm
going to take us to urgency and
opportunity presented by the evolving
military competition context . The
momentum we've built over 3.5 years of
transformative learning and then the
key leadership takeaways the golden
this learning that we will leverage
together to make the force of the
future real . Next slide . Let me start
with some very brief context and this
group well understands the trajectory
are pacing , threat of china has been
on across the elements of capacity ,
capability , tech development ,
industrial base , potential civil
military fusion and we're all aware
that the chinese leadership is not only
demonstrating those elements of
capability , capacity , but a stated
intent , clearly stated intent to
become the world's preeminent military
power . Next slide . So this strategic
foundation slide again , part of a
quick recap upfront some context . This
outlines the guidance to the force for
addressing that challenge . It sets the
demand signal for exceptional execution
of training and learning . The key
message at the top the tri service
maritime strategy advantage at the sea ,
this talks about a fundamental shift in
our competitive context from two
decades of primarily supporting forces
ashore in the violent extremist
organization fight and for the Marine
Corps partners here for the fight
assured the transition from that to a C
control navy , a power projection navy
against a potential competitor . That's
an economic peer competitor . It's a
fundamental shift in the intensity of
our competitive contact and it drives
the urgency and the opportunity . I'm
going to talk to you about to change
from status quo , performance and
status quo . Leadership , behavior at
the next level down on the left , you
see the scene as navigation plan . This
is the commander's intent , specific
objectives to move out and execute with
speed . I'll amplify those in a minute
below that . Further to the left , the
knave plan implementation framework .
This provides the structure to execute
that direction , the structure to test
our self talk that we're actually
driving to a more ready navy , that
we're driving to a decisively lethal
navy . And it gives , provides a
structure , let us know if we're
winning or not in achieving those
objectives . This is how we're going to
make it real . And I think we can all
be honest with ourselves here in prior
examples of strategic direction from
leaders . It has not always been made
real . It's like here's some mildly
interesting vectors for us to go to and
then we stick on with day to day
activity and making progress . But in a
way that we can't measure and hold
ourselves accountable to the
implementation framework provides some
structure that we can work together in
a very clear way to drive these
outcomes . The structure includes
things such as clear Northstar outcomes .
I'm going to highlight in the next
light 17 specific objectives that came
out of here . Across those elements ,
maneuver , shoot , defend , we supply
with contested logistics , other
elements as well . What is the clear
specific Northstar objective ? What's
our baseline performance in terms of
performance , governance activity ?
What are the metrics by which will be
able to tell and measure the path to
where we're going and what's the
cadence of learning the cadence of
accountability that's what's inherent
in the structure on the right side .
You see the common in the marine course
planning guidance , incredibly
thoughtful guidance that guides that
the marine corps from the B . E . O .
Fight the violent extremist
organization fight to strategic
competition against the pacing threat
of china , exceptionally well done and
articulating changes in force structure
and con ops in design
the last two boxes shown here , the
Future Naval Force study the 30 year
shipbuilding plan . These are two
elements that primarily influence the
future Navy in terms of how we allocate
resources and how we're going to size
and shape that force for the future
fight overall the strategic foundation ,
our task is shown at the bottom is for
us to work together to make this come
alive next slide . So I'm
guessing uh most of us have read and
understand the casinos now plan . Let
me recap . It briefly talks in these
major pillars of sailors readiness
capabilities , capacity , sailors who
can out think and out fight any
adversary in readiness of force . It's
man trained and equipped to deploy
forward and win in day to day ,
campaigning in crisis and conflict , a
force that can project synchronized
lethal and non lethal effects across
all domains in a force featuring a
larger hybrid fleet of manned and
unmanned platforms under on and above
the sea . Go to the next slide .
So here's the implication framework
left at a fairly high level in
recognition of the unclassified nature
of this conversation . But what you see
Is 17 specific objectives in those
categories of readiness capability ,
capacity and sailors . And for each of
these right now , Our design is to have
clear C2 for every one of these 17
objectives , there is a three star
supported commander and there's a
specified supporting commanders to make
this real , there's discipline problem
solving that will talk about and then
there's a cadence of accountability for
learning the burial removal . You'll
see in the left , there's four elements
that are highlighted in yellow , those
are elements that feature ongoing
learning that has been driving wheel
change and execution performance . Not
happy talk . We'll illuminate this real
change associated with readiness
outcomes . But if you look at this
closely , you'll also see objectives
that offer a different type of
challenge that is less execution based
and more innovation base their
aspirational capabilities . They're
aspirational created problems . So in
the middle column here
long range fires how we shoot counter C .
Five I . S . R . T . How we maneuver in
the weapon engagement zone , how we
defend terminal defense , contested
logistics , how we resupply . So four
key capability elements that are
aspirational that we have to think
about how to innovate better . So I
want you to start getting the flavor .
We have an execution challenge for
readiness today we have a capability
delivery opportunity for capability
tomorrow . Beyond those four key
capabilities there's four cross cutting
elements here that are also relevant .
So there's four elements here that will
create increase navy lethality spanning
how we shoot , how we maneuver , how we
resupply and how we defend the naval
operational architecture and overmatch
is going to provide the connectivity
and the flexibility for us to operate
in a distributed way in a defendable
way ah in an environment and a fight
where communications are gonna be
targeted . So the naval operational
architecture unmanned systems across
how we should maneuver , defended . We
supply unmanned has roles in each of
those and so the learning that's going
to take place and led by the people in
this room and manned . Unmanned teaming
in concert with our industry partners
to drive with velocity . The feeling of
unmanned capabilities is what is being
attacked there live virtual
constructive capabilities again , core
to us driving the outcomes that we need
to drive them already and lethal Navy
and then the fourth cross cutting
supporting elements of artificial
intelligence . So we talk about this in
a four plus four construct how we shoot
maneuver defended , resupply enabled
by these crosscutting elements of naval
operational architecture , unmanned
systems , live virtual constructive and
ai the work that we are going to do
together to make the force of the
future real requires excellence in
attacking both of those types of
challenges execution today and fielding
capability for tomorrow next lot .
And so we spent some time thinking hard
about this and we spent some time
benchmarking what world class looks
like in these elements and conceptually
it's what you see up here that we have
a continuum of problems that the
leaders in this room are going to work
together and get after execution . Root
cause driven in
our learning which I'm going to take
you through briefly shows that in many
ways we are insufficiently fascinated
with root cause and there's an
opportunity for everybody here to
improve it . That innovation problems ,
experiment of it .
The good news is they're strong tools .
There's a body of Navy learning not
learning out of a textbook , not an
interesting Harvard business school
case study . There's a strong body of
Navy learning that we're going to scale
and we're gonna talk about today . Mhm .
Next life . So I'm gonna start with a
bit of a deep dive on the execution
challenge side . And we start with a
clear eyed look at where we've been in
a number of key issues that we all deal
with and impact everyone of us here
today . And many of the performance of
these elements to highlight for you
served as the trigger for the journey
of learning , which is creating a
foundation for us to build on . And
then we're gonna talk about today
on the far left . F A 18 E . F .
Mission capable rate .
So from 2008 to 2018 We had a
fairly steady between 250 and 255
mission capable Rhinos . Yeah , we
should be great . Except we needed 3 41 .
So we did the math . And again , in
this context of an unclassified
conversation , I'll just say we did the
math of what we needed for the fight .
The answer was 3 41 . We had 255 for 10
years . From 2008 .
Oh by the way , our inventory was over
500
In 2018 . The mission capable rate for
f . 18 E&S . was 55%, ,
interestingly the self talk of the
Naval Aviation enterprise over this .
10 years of which were all members
was yeah . You know . Sequestration is
killing us . We could really use some
more parts for sure . We could use some
more people in the depots . We could
really be great if we could hire some
more component repair at the same time
as that was going on . Are flying hours
program execution Over the years from
2012 to 2018 was such
that aviation gave away $2.5 billion
of congressional enacted funding to the
fleets to spend on ship depot
maintenance because we couldn't execute
it . So in terms
of our understanding of our processes ,
our business , 55% mission
capable giving away funding because we
didn't have a strong sight picture of
what we were doing In the upper
left private shipyard performance over
the years 2012-2018 private shipyards
do all our crude is in an fib depot
maintenance . We were completing low
double digit on time completion in the
private shipyards over that time . What
was particularly noteworthy to me is we
looked at the data danno , let's be
root cause driven well when you look at
the graphical graphical depiction over
that over those years of the durations
we said we would execute was a line
like this and the durations we actually
executed was a line like this . What's
noteworthy about that is a they're two
different lines . B they're parallel
lines . They were they were in no
manner converging . So we have to ask
ourselves irrespective of the
performance that we actually had in the
private shipyards . Why was it that we
couldn't be predictive predictive about
it and converge what we said , we were
gonna deliver to what we delivered .
The third noteworthy thing was that in
every type of maintenance available in
the private shipyards the slope was
going the wrong way in terms of we were
getting less productive in the public
shipyards which do the maintenance
obviously all our nuclear maintenance
on submarines and aircraft carriers Low
double digit on time completion for 20
years . Ship or fires .
So in 2012 when the US fire occurred
and we lost that ship , we swarmed that
with the body of instructions and
requirements and guidance that we
believed reflected a learning
organization and they corrected that
problem . Who had 15 major fires in
the last 12 years ? Mhm . It's fairly
clear we are not getting to what is
systemically driving that those
fires . So I'll just say there's a body
of work right now we are going to fix
this bonham Rashard will be
the last ship we lose to a fire in a
maintenance availability , navy
networks ? I will leave it to the
audience to characterize your
satisfaction with NMC high performance .
Yeah , but it's been that way a while .
Right ? What kind of interesting that
it's important it affects all of us and
we've been unable to converge that to a
more acceptable level . So there's news
here and I spent some time in this
because I want us to have an honest
look about what we see and what it
tells us about the way we collaborate
together . Again , we've got the fleet ,
we've got up now we've got the bureau ,
we've got our D A we've got industry ,
there's some news here regarding the
pace and quality of how every person in
this room , how every stakeholder in
this room learns and collaborates
together to solve problems . And I'm
just to help focus the conversation
briefly further . Let's go to the next
slide . So here's a brief touch and go
on why we can just dismiss the idea
that we're going to be leading this
superb problem solving required to
field the force of the future with just
more inputs . Because what this chart
highlights is defense spending in
constant dollars since Korea . And when
you look to the far right You will see
that in FY20 we were spending in
constant dollars , $80 billion 600 ship
Navy . So we're at historic highs
generally in terms of defense spending
and we're for sure having a rich
conversation today and for sure
additional funding will be required and
sought to grow the navy substantially
but the funding and inputs is not a
substitute for the execution excellence
and learning that we're going to talk
about today that's not going to be
coming from . Just give me some more
stuff up front . Next live . There is
good news here and the good news for
our challenges that thoughtful navy
leaders have been acting differently
for years now a number of years and
we've been learning and growing
momentum with a new mindset and a new
tools . I'm talking about leaders like
when we started this journey in
aviation to attack that 55% mission
capable problem bullet miller in
aviation now followed very impressively
by Kenny white salt zero boss leading
and driving the naval aviation
enterprise in a very powerful way . Roy
Kitchener in the surface community ,
Darryl caught on the undersea community
Bill Godliness and YaO fan at NFC and
Carl Chevy just taking over at nab ,
bear with a ton of energy to drive
improvement . So let's talk a little
bit about that momentum and what we can
build it and what we can learn . Next
slide . Please many of you in this room
have taken part of this learning . I'm
gonna take two slides to give you the
shortest possible overview of how that
learning progressed and then I'm going
to pause an anchor on the , so what
from that , which is what we learned
about while honoring our fundamental
culture , write a strong culture of
service of leadership of dedication .
This is a foundation which is , I'll
rank with any of the many , many world
class companies that we have
benchmarked in our journey but we can
do better with specific behaviors and
this is what we learned over the course
of this journey . So in 2018
we had just started a program we called
performed a plan which was really
getting after what what I just went
through in terms of those that six pack
of performance performed a plan . As
shown here on the left was a concept .
It was a hypothesis that we needed to
clean up the command and control to
draw clear accountability , that we
needed to become more predictive
instead of looking in the rear view
mirror and that we needed to have a
more effective cadence of learning and
accountability . We talk about the C
two piece for a moment . I feel
confident in making the following bold
statement . I would never you see
sustained , weak performance in the
navy . It's because it's being done by
committee and this applies at all
levels , including in your squadrons ,
in your wings and elsewhere . So you
say , what are you talking about ? We
had an air boss In 2018 in 2015 all
that time was running the energy was
functioning as a committee . There was
no accountable individual . We're at
55% mission capable rate of Rhinos and
in the supporting commanders of Navajo
air and knaves up their metrics were
largely green . How is that possible .
And so the first step of performed a
plan was a accountability drives
learning Clear C2 drives accountability
and so we told our boss you were the
accountable supported commander for
achieving 80% mission capable
341 Jets . Now it's up . Now . See you
are supporting your new metric is when
the support of manners metric turn
screen bringing that clarity and
alignment . The tools , driver based
performance management , which is to
say if the tier one metric is 341 jets .
What are the tier two drivers of that ?
People parts and repair velocity ? What
are the tier three drivers ? What are
the tier four drivers understanding
that digitally modeling that the intent
there is to be predictive and to
understand where leverage is because
one of the lessons that we're going to
take away is we are very strong leaders
who are overly fascinated with activity .
The tools we have gone on both is A P .
O . And M . Which is not a learning
framework because it's A P . O . And M .
Will not illuminate would cause
barriers A P . O . And M will not
illuminate leverage . I'm not saying
poems are bad . I'm just saying to
understand their limitations but our
instinct is given a task
commander's intent , mission command
initiative . I'm moving out . Here's my
lines of effort . One through three .
Our instinct when Eloise one through 3
don't move the needle . We had eloise
four and 5 And six and 7 . It's the
fundamentally wrong instinct . The
proper lesson we learned is to look for
root cause we'll talk about , Okay , So
P two p was in that nation forum when
sec def Mattis
Said maybe uh , Navy and Air Force , I
need you to get to 80% mission capable
in your tactical aviation fleet . In
one year . Secretary Mattis brought a
relentless focus and readiness for the
fight . I think everybody in this
room can imagine pre this very nascent
PTP how we would have responded to that .
It would have been dano . Go buy all
the parts you can pat , go by all the
people you can into the depots , bill ,
go by other uh , component repair . You
can just go get after that . Let's go
charge that hill and we'll see where we
end up in a year from now .
But we like wait mm hmm . We have this
new thing and in the tools piece
besides breaking down deconstructing
the problem into a driver based forum ,
we had a digital model of it that was
reliably predicting our readiness . And
we said , hey , wait a minute . Why
don't we take our digital model as a
thought experiment which is very
different from actually achieving it .
Let's crank all the high leverage
inputs to 100% . Let's see where we get .
And we learned that we would not get
there . This was the first illumination
of an understanding of our actual
capabilities To show it just cranking
the inputs to 100% . Which would have
been very difficult to achieve would
not generate the directed outcome .
So that's performed plan transformation
engine on the left , you see at the
bottom called that are get real engine ,
let's get real about what our actual
capability is . And let's use it as a
relentless hunt for leverage . So that
functioned it illuminated that we
needed to not just add inputs . We
needed to change the transfer function
between an input and an outcome . We
need a fundamental process improvement .
And that led to the get better engine ,
the complimentary engine on the right ,
which we call naval sustainment system .
It's a rip off of Toyota production
system , but it's fundamentally
bringing world class performance into
the Navy where it matters . You know ,
the sector at the time Shanahan used to
call it R and D rip off and deploy . So
you know , go find world class
performance , rip it off and deploy it
into the navy , not just clean , you
know curated for navy the navy case
where there's leverage and so that was
the journey That was the journey of
learning in 2018 . That chart in the
lower right , it has passed 23 41 .
It's a really interesting story behind
this . So in february of 2019 at the
navy flag officer and SCS symposium
emphasis this chart was put up and of
course it was just the black line which
was the plan and happily The
black line from 250 to 55 in February
January 2341 in October was not
just a straight line because that would
have been pretty unthought fel . So we
had done the homework to think through
what is the O . F . R . P seasonality ?
What's the elements of where people are
in the all of our P stage etcetera .
And we put up that black line . What do
you think the N A A C self talk was
both before the emphasis and during the
emphasis about that black line .
Yeah . Look , are you shipping me ?
We've been at 252-55 for a decade and
you want us to get to 341 from february
october . You know , what are you
smoking ? Here's what , here's what our
self talk was in every example I'm
going to highlight here of us driving
outcomes . We bring a tremendous sense
of humility that will actually change
the outcome , But always 100%
expectation that we're going to learn .
So we said , you know , and he was ,
please do not set 3 41 is our gold mine .
I mean , let's come out , pick 300 .
You know , give us something that's
real like , hey , this is what is
needed for the fight . We're going to
learn about our processes , our
capabilities by striving to get there
and with that learning , we're going to
make the navy better .
We worked with some incredibly helpful
thoughtful partners . We went to find a
world class performance and in fact
by october We hit 3 41 . What's most
newsworthy From October of 2019 through
today . We have sustained 3:41 . We
have narrow many people in this room
are familiar narrow upper and lower
control limits in Covid . We've
sustained 3 41 that the
Last rolling average I saw we were 350
which really knows really about this
journey of learning . Is that when we
did the analysis both during and
afterwards . Over half of that
improvement came from to process
changes . Nothing to do with funding
over 30% came from us R and D ng
the airlines and instituting
the maintenance op center aircraft on
ground Selma Kellogg mhm . We went down
to Delta Tech off southwest to cops who
worked with our partners Mark Wahlberg
as a new and different way to bring
velocity and collaboration at the level
we never had before between all the
stakeholders . O e m never never saw
the fleet to drive velocity to up jets .
What do you imagine the naval aviation
initial response to Mark A Yogi was
like , they're like , are you kidding
me ? That's the airlines , we're war
fighters , that's not gonna work for us .
That's not how we do maintenance . Our
response , we're going to learn
and maybe we will learn that it's not
for us , but we're going to elevate our
gaze fine world class performance and
bring it and test it into the Navy .
How does it any feel about MARCO G
today . We can't get enough of it .
Marco G drove 30% improvement from the
baseline with no substantial additional
funding . We're scaling it now to all
time model series . Another over 20
came from a second process improvement
which was to bring velocity of
maintenance into the old level . In our
VFA squadrons , 50% of scheduled
maintenance is an 84 day check . We
have been taking 10 to 14 days to do an
84 day check . We got curious about
world class performance , we
benchmarked it bullet and Kenny created
and implemented a playbook to do the 84
day check a three day playbook
and that's the new target . Not
everybody is hitting three days , but
it's much closer to three days . That
improvement brought 20% . So between
MArco G and velocity and the old level
over half that heroic
achievement was , was executed and our
self talk before was , hey , can I just
sequestration is killing me . Can I
just get some more parts etcetera ? Oh ,
by the way , in 2017 , Congress enacted
something called the request for
additional appropriations and we did
buy a bunch of new parts and now in
many ways those parts are driving the
Navy working capital found negative
because we're not selling them because
why it was never the route cost .
We were insufficiently curious about
what world class looks like about
understanding our capabilities and
understanding our processes
next slide . So we've scaled that ,
we've scaled that understanding in the
following ways up at top . You see the
example . I just went through , we
brought it into the challenges we were
seeing in the private shipyards From
2019 to 2020 from 7000 days made this
delay to 4000 will continue to drive
that down . This is a particularly
interesting example because we don't
have decision rights in those private
shipyards . So that improvement you're
seeing is just from us pulling
government lovers . Once again , we got
thoughtful , where's the leverage ?
What's consequential ? What does world
class look like ? And so we moved to
contracting to availability -120 . We
level lowered the ports , we got long
lead time material . We swarmed it , we
drove an outcome not happy talk .
Undersea operational readiness
submarines . Supply supply is
potentially the most powerful journey
we're going to be on . Under Pete
Stamatopoulos , the Chief of staff's up
there , doing incredible things to
drive , repair , turn around time
velocity down to drive reliability
components up to get shelf health up is
very impressive . Public shipyards is
perhaps going to be the most
spectacular story that we'll see for
public shipyards , superb
leaders as the ceo of the shipyards
that are driving this understanding of
world class production control looks
like I believe we're approaching an
inflection point where you're gonna see
tremendous improvement . Our public
shipyards . So that's a to slide
journey of where we are . We're on a
vector continue this Kenny White Saul
is expanding this strong learning and a
really powerful way for the Naval Air
Force . We drove mission
outcomes tremendously and now we see an
opportunity for Kenny with the N . E .
And everybody in this room to
reallocate funds to make the naval air
force more lethal when you
drive readiness velocity and a squadron
when you do maintenance program reset
and reduce squatter maintenance in our
depots . The F 18 P . M . I . Events ,
The heavy main events went from 120
days to 60 days and it's a better
product when you do those sorts of
things . That creates an opportunity
for us here leaders here to say I can
reallocate some of that depot bandwidth
to make the naval air force more lethal
in other ways . And that's the journey
that Kenny White Soul is leading . He's
going to teach the navy how to do that
as a leader there nev sub
similarly is expanding across multiple
processes , learning improvement and so
it's , it's continues to grow . It
continues to scale , go to the next
slide . So this is the money slide
um is kind of busy , but this is what
we learned and so let me talk about
this for a moment . Um I want to make
clear this is in the context of a
strong culture of service , dedication ,
leadership . It's that foundation on
which we see other elements of who we
are that we can improve . So the slide
is constructed traditional on the left
is who we generally are and on the
right is what we learned is actually
drove outcomes . And I
talked a little bit about elevating our
gaze and understanding what world class
looks like . And so we spent a lot of
time thinking about that in these type
of forms and particularly in senior
leader forms . I generally trying to
ask a couple of provocative questions
say , hey , where in the Navy do you
see world class performance ?
And this question
is one that typically our leader is not
used to thinking and answering about
and oftentimes you see them start
imagining their head , hey , where do I
see really good performance in the Navy ?
That might be world class , but that's
not what I asked asked where do you see
world class performance ? So the first
question that I'll be coming to your
mind is , well , how would I know do I
understand what world class looks like ?
And this highlights the imperative that
everyone here elevate your gaze , look
outside , understand what world class
is , understand your processes and then
R and D that into your units . Whether
that's brand X next door , Whether
that's an Air force , whether that's
home depot , figure it out and get
curious about that . I can tell you
one area where your navy is , our navy
is clearly world class is for
employment , but there is nobody
who can put ordnance down range on
target in the most complex ,
challenging operational contacts in the
U . S . Navy . And we do know that
right ? Because we study that we know
what that competitive environment looks
like when it comes to fourth generation
of course design force development .
There's opportunities for us to learn
from world class organizations , not to
say we're not good . And by world class ,
I don't mean world class military . We
are the world class military , no doubt
about it . I'm talking about world
class in the world in the economy .
That's who we're benchmarking getting
after in the context of what I want to
talk to you about leadership behavior .
There's a related question , do you
believe that we are world class leaders
in the U . S . Navy ?
And again , I hope the question that
comes to your mind is how would I know ?
Mhm . I mean , I think we're good
leaders . Are we world class leaders .
And what I would tell you my
perspective , we have exceptional
leaders in the Navy . Incredible
leaders leading the Navy forward in a
very harsh operational environment at
sea . In covid it's impressive . Mm hmm .
But what I also see is that the
problems world class leaders are
solving are different than the problems
are exceptional . Leaders are solving .
Our exceptional leaders are often
muscling through status quo processes
mostly through heroically to get the
ship out of maintenance to make the
deployment to execute the flight
schedule . That's not world class
problem solving . Yeah , world class
problem solving is getting after the
process of fixing the process with
urgency and then moving on because now
we've got the process fixed . That's
the context for the learning . I want
to talk about here . So traditional .
What we often see in the Navy is we
impressed with scope of activity and we
talk about input metrics . Yeah . And
when those are what we're talking about ,
you see the very slow improvement
dynamics of input metrics and activity .
Right ? That's all about . I'm looking
in the rear view mirror . I'm not at
the target yet . I'll take some more
inputs . I'm still not there some more
inputs . What we learned
is on the right to understand root
cause , which will illuminate leverage
and drive outcomes . Mhm . To focus on
output metrics , not input metrics and
forecast performance . When bullet
miller asked
his squadron ceos and Commodores to be
predictive in aviation readiness . Back
in 2018 there was palpable fear
was palpable fear from sales . Like
I don't know what my readiness will be ,
30 , 60 90 days from now . What if I'm
wrong and to drive the learning ? We
said , Hey , let's just stipulate that
you will be wrong . Got it . We are
still going to ask you to be predictive
so we can understand our self talk that
we understand our fourth generation
pump . So let's be predictive . And
then at monthly quarterly look at the
gap between what we said , we'd be and
what we are . And then use that to
learn . That's the discipline we're
talking about ? We're not bad americans .
When you're unable to be completely
read the crystal ball and be predictive .
The idea is to understand and learn by
moving away from staring in the
rearview mirror to being predictive and
driving learning . And so that's what
we see on the right focus on root cause
leverage , drive outcomes , use metrics
and forecast performance on the left .
You see a bracket that says stovepipe
organizational view who believes this
is generally who we are . We love to
emphasize the green in terms of how
we're performing up echelon . We love
to fix within in our view of success
and chain of command engagement as we
got no taskers . Now this is not bad
things . Right ? Of course Green
performance is excellent . Mhm
um fixing within self sufficiently is
critical to a navy that operates and
distributed maritime operations . We
need to be able to fix within the
lifelines . We need to be self
sufficient . That's awesome . Right up
until the point , it slows us down
because you're trying to fix things
that are not fixable by you that are
not actionable by you . And so to
contrast these , the proper behavior on
the right instead of emphasizing the
green was to go find and embrace the
red , find and embrace threat . Again ,
we learned this from benchmarking
multiple companies . Um Delta is a
really interesting example . Their
dispatch reliability as well above 99% .
When you see it in a delta operative .
You what do you think they're talking
about ? Mhm . The two flights that
didn't go . What happened ? How do we
drive that embrace the red fix ? The
red fixed within is awesome . Up until
the point it slows us down and then we
need to role model fix or elevate . I
ask everybody in this room to take this
on fix , understand the barriers that
are constraining the performance that
you want to lead your unit to or that
you want to lead yourself to understand
the barrier . And then if it's not
actionable by you , elevate it with
specificity and accountability . It's
not to say you know who does wrong got
it , you know the wind , got it . It's
like hey commodore when you remove this
barrier , I'll provide this delta
outcome within this time period . It
may not be again perfectly right but it
gives a sense fix . Our L . A . With
accountability and specificity ,
collaborative problem solving across
the chain of command . All of our
problems are key opportunities that are
gonna be talked about later today in
the force of the future they're complex
cross functional outcomes moving at
velocity within your stovepipe is
insufficient . It is insufficient . We
need to develop the behavior that
cultural to collaborate across
echelon across stovepipe organized
organizations at speed and I'll talk a
little bit about that going on
the bottom to the issue of
accountability and the last one is
you know , we occasionally have bad
behavior . Hey , let's elevate this to
a flag level conversation . That's
strong behavior . Focus it for a flag
conversation but be very detailed . So
traditional scope of activity input ,
emphasize the green fixed within no
taskers to what right looks like shown
on the right . And you'll see this boss
called radical transparency . This is a
fundamental orientation that we need to
orient to radical transparency drives
self corrective action . It drives
velocity . So this was what we learned .
And this again , I challenge this group .
I want to scale this learning is why
we're talking about it here in this
very atypical keynote address . It's a
challenge for action . So
reflect on this and then works . Work
together . Hold ourselves accountable
to drive to these type of behaviors .
Next slide and throw the slide in here
just as um , a pilot that
we have created to try and scale this
learning down to , you know , the
lieutenant in your squadrons and below
to the E five in your aircraft .
This uh pilot program called the Navy
Performance improvement Educational
Resource and Pierre . It's got a
website , you can see it up there .
It's CAC enabled . It gives you some of
these tools , it gives you much of the
orientation . So when we say , hey , be
root cause driven . Um , There's a
range of tools that drives that when we
got in to understand and drive that
improvement in the private shipyards
from 7000 maintenance days to 4000
maintenance days . We used our very
talented data scientists to create a
pattern recognition neural net model .
As you might imagine the complexity of
non linearity of all the thousands of
levers you could pull in a three month
long dDG 51 maintenance availability .
This is a tool That collapsed our
forecast error rate from 50% to 10% .
I'm pretty sure the oath when your
squadron is not going to have a neural
net pattern recognition model . What he
or she does have is an expertise in
understanding and using the five wise
fishbone Peredo . So these are the
tools that will drive at your level .
The ability to start understanding the
difference between activity and
focusing on . We're leveraging root
causes . Mm hmm . Okay , next line .
So this is what we talked about and I
just took you through whole body of
learning that I challenge all of us to
work and swarm together in terms of
execute differently . There's this
other category , experiment more learn
faster . Go to the next slide we recall .
There's this continuum of skills
required and what I talked about was
largely on the execution would cause
driven piece but to be clear , this is
a continuum where there's no hard line
and these skills apply on both sides .
Next slide we talked about the nap plan
implementation framework , these
objectives and how there's a mix beyond
the execution was largely in readiness
of aspirational capability that we're
going to work to swarm to drive the
more lethal force . The decisively
lethal force for the future . You see
in the blue the how we shoot maneuver
resupply and defend . And you see these
cross cutting enabling ones in red ,
the network , the unmanned lbc and Ai
Ml next slide . So this is that same
four plus four shown in a slightly
cleaner way and go to the next slide
and so illuminated here are a number of
the key rotary wing initiatives that
are core to driving the lethality .
The navy going forward and I'm not
going to step through these in detail
but for sure elements here Across all
communities including c . MV 22 , both
H S ch s M m cm across all of them .
There's for sure a great conversation
in the force of the future panel and
beyond . You do see in every element of
the four bullets floor key capabilities
underpinning the future fight and
strong opportunities for the rodeo in
community to apply the lessons , We
just talked about to drive these , the
maturity and into the fleet . There is
a cautionary note however , and go to
the next slide . So just like I went
through in the previous six pack , a
relentless look in the mirror across
rhino readiness flat . Our program
execution , private shipyards ,
published shipyards , shipboard fires
network . Hey , let's be real about our
capability to get forward . So there's
a , there's an equivalent , Let's be
real about what we see is our status
quo innovation performance
requirements , issues with how we set
them either over ambitiously or
inability to iterate them limited
experimentation with the fleet . Not
looking at the whole capability ,
integration , interoperability ,
sustainability , organizational
stovepipes that constrain us and
pockets of innovation as well . Mm hmm .
Go to the next slide . So
thankfully just as there was some deep
thinking by bullet Kenny Roy Daryl
Caudle to drive navy learning that we
can scale and execution . We also have
thoughtful leaders january in momentum
on this , develop and deliver
aspirational capability at speed . The
unmanned Task Force has stood up , led
by Michael Stuart and paul munn up in D .
C . Full time assigned to the UTF . To
integrate in a different way . The way
we do resources , requirements , the
acquisition team , the industry and the
war fighters In a less sequential ,
less linear way we elevated our gaze ,
what does world class look like in
delivering capability at speed ? And
this is a construct that we are
exercising now again with a strong
sense of humility about what it will
deliver , an absolute expectation that
we are going to learn and we're gonna
drive capability into the fleet at a
much higher velocity and much much more
focused way On Man Task Force , three
key elements a portfolio investment
approach . So if you look at our
unmanned portfolio right now , it's
kind of stove piped by domain , it is
unbalanced with an overemphasis on
platforms and an under emphasis on
enablers enabled such as resilient
calms autonomy , component reliability
and so bringing this holistic portfolio
approach is where we're going to learn
and allocate and and dr velocity
feedback from experimentation . Going
to be core to that Point # two We're
going to use the lymph ac limiting
factor , gap closure mindset . We're
going to focus with an understanding of
what is most constraining our ability
to bring world class unmanned systems
to the fleet at speed . So instead of ,
hey , let's all do a bunch of activity
and drive . Hey , what is that ? In
fact , let's swarm that and dr closure
and then number three highlighted in
red here because it's so related to the
fleet and experimentation , environment
and fast learning cycle , warfighting
interaction . You already see senses of
this , both with the UTF , with the
unmanned work being done in fifth fleet ,
the large scale exercise , other
elements really integrating and animal
use . I think we'll talk about this in
a very uh , strong way at the force of
the future panel about how we're going
to drive and accelerate learning and uh ,
in the Navy . Okay , we're happily are
getting to the end here . That's a lot .
So let's , I want to recap some of the
key takeaways on both of those
dimensions from a leadership
perspective . Next slide . So we talked
about the behavior change from a
foundation of exceptional ,
exceptionally strong foundation a
culture , our core values , our
dedication about how hard we work , but
to learn as well about how we can build
on that to drive outcomes . I've got to
see word of their culture . I generally
talk about behavior but this is for
sure a broader cultural piece and it's
our responsibility together to drive
this culture change . How do you do
that ? How do you change the culture
challenge , illuminating and correct
these things every time ? How do you
make your command values come alive ?
You impose a consequence every time
your expectations are met . Some people
go , wow , that sounds pretty harsh .
Doesn't have to be a thermonuclear
consequence . Just use a strong
conversation . This is not what right
looks like . This is not our standard
challenge , illuminate , correct when
you see these things every time in
transparency , work by committee
stovepipe perspective status , both
thinking a risk aversion . I wish we
had more time . I talked to every class ,
you know , the incoming major
commanders , 05 commanders and triad
leaders . And I say let's talk about
zero defect . Let's talk about what
fruitful learning looks like . Um
we're just not gonna have time here ,
but it's us together , it's on us
together to attack this issue of risk
aversion and understand what manageable
risk is and to take and thoughtfully
communicate how we're not going to be
zero defect and we're going to drive
for fruitful learning much of which you
saw role modeled and what I talked
about . That was clearly not all
everything I talked about was not a
slam dunk . Sure thing . It was going
to pan out . There was fruitful
learning involved role model
illuminated celebrating reward this .
Every time I talked to our tycom
leaders , I talked to assist calm
leaders , I said , hey , sign me up ,
sign cno up signs secnav up . They're
all completely on this to help you
reward and celebrate the new risk
taking behavior . So that goes to
everybody here as well . Kristen
e A Jett him up . We want to celebrate
reward , overtly understand this is
what right looks like accountable
leader . And again , this isn't just at
the three star level . Dianna Wolfson .
Ceo of naval of the shipyard in Norfolk
Naval shipyard um told her fascinating
story about how she reoriented the
accountability structure in the
shipyard to move away from committee
and to focus on the mechanic as the
center of the universe move from
committee to accountable leader from
activity to outcomes . Role model of
problem solving , focus , corrective
action and recovery plan instead of
reporting status and activity , embrace
the red fix or elevate experiment ,
learn get real , get better . Is our .
Is our learning next live . Do we
are driving to an increasingly ready
navy today a decisively lethal force of
the future tomorrow . There is no more
important work . I believe these are
world class challenges . World class
hard and that's awesome . There's no
better place to be , to challenge
yourself personally and professionally
to contribute to an outcome that is so
important to the nation of what we do .
Here's our last slide . So here's our
task , working together on your basis
relentlessly grow what you bring to the
warfighting table , build on the
lessons we talked about here to bring
velocity and scale to Navy improvement .
Dedicate yourself and your team to
collaborative problem solving . Because
our highest consequence opportunities
are all complex and cross functional
lead experimentation , address the fear
of failure . And let's were the mindset
we're adopting is from no at all to
learn it all , which is a fundamental
change that we're going forward for our
industry partners . Let's strengthen
our partnership , let's focus on
velocity , bringing velocity to
sustainability into the way we drive
acquisition outcomes . My
responsibility remove barriers with the
Cno with the second tab and enable this
team's success . So together we can
build on this , we can get real and get
better . Thank you .
Okay , I think , uh , we've got time
for a few questions . Um , so , uh ,
please , you know ,
let's have a conversation here . I
think we probably time for two or three
questions . People who have worked with
me know me knows like the best type of
question is a vice . Yeah , I don't see
it that way . That is . I love those
type of conversations because I will
learn from that . Um , but what I'm
saying is don't be overly constrained
in , uh , in the type of conversation
we have . Yeah please .
Admiral Captain Sean Russillo callsign
papa roach . Um , as you look across
all the enterprises , one thing that
I've been working with with HSC wing
land lCS . I'm
curious . We have UMA deck plate
tableau . But then when I look to , you
know our Or other communities , I have
two K two kg Kaz reps . And I'm curious
at the enterprise level or at the top
nav level do we have the data analytics ,
two cross
across communities . I'm going to give
an example . So we have T CDL you
cars which are shipboard systems and we
have the air vehicle and we just
returned to flight . But when we start
analyzing these things , it's very easy
for me to go into answer and pull data .
And I think it's real important as we
go to the unmanned plan because we're
going to have integration across both
surface and aviation to get after
things that we've got to have data that
we can match up . And I would say
that's more of a statement than a
question . But I'm kind of curious the
hot knave level if we kind of get
apples to apples data . No Shawn Shawn .
It's a great question . Um , so let me
talk a little bit about this journey
we're on and it clearly is a journey to
make our data come alive for us um ,
just as a quick benchmark . So in that
f 18 journey I talked about in 2018
like okay let's let's be root cause of
it notice I don't say data driven , I
say root cause driven . We would like
to believe our data will lead us to
root cause but it doesn't always for a
number of reasons that perhaps you're
highlighting here as well . So it's a
journey to understand the data , you
know it's the new gold um and have them
come alive in our culture . So when we
started in 2018 with aviation we
had dec played an answer data sources
of mission capable rates and I don't
believe it would be possible for them
to be less correlated . I mean it was
it was so as many of the people in this
room know who have worked on either
machine learning or ai or other data
elements . The first part of the
journey is largely just cleaning up our
data and there's a role for all of us
here to make that come alive in your
units . So we don't put the serial
number of the part we just replaced
with our mother's birthday but we
actually put data that is so critical
for us to generate insights . So it's a
journey sean um there's progress being
made on it and coming to a common data
environment . The other element that
we're using to drive progress in a
couple of ways in each of these
performance to plan forums that we do .
One of the things that we drive is for
every supported commander to attend .
Every other supported commanders forum
because there is some absolute velocity
of learning taking place When we
started P two p . I believe this will
resonate with many in the audience .
The Thai Coms were bringing in 50 power
point slides of mildly interesting
activity for us to talk about And after
I think session #2 was like Okay , just
stop . We are going to template this
conversation . I'm going to teach you
how to have a conversation with this
one . Yeah , We went to six lights
flight number one was our tier one
outcome 341 Jets . Where did we say
we'd be this quarter , where are we ?
What did we learn ? It's like two
you're here to outcomes people , parts
repair velocity , Where did we say
we're going to be ? Where are we ? What
did we learn et cetera et cetera . So
the learning that took place is how to
have a conversation That goes away from
generally who we are , which is
interesting storytelling in a power
point format of 50 slides to literally
focus . Let's value our time , our
leadership bound with on what we
understand . We'll move the needle and
I think you see strong cross learning
across our tie calms and sitcoms from
that . That's that's an element you can
role model . Here's another example
Shaun of the journey recognizing we
have so far to go , aviation again many
if not all of the people whose room . I
understand the concept of Amex aviation
maintenance experience of really
interesting vignette of how data can
powerfully drive navy readiness . So
pre MX our sight picture our metric
for Manning our force was 90-95% fit
film And when we got curious about
actually better understanding what it
was about our maintenance professionals
that actually drives readiness . We
characterize that much more precisely .
Do you have prior type model series
experience cd QR CD other elements of
qualifications and experience ? And we
put that in a metric and what we
learned was that we were over driving
deployed , manning in unthought fel
ways . Ty conn manning actions churning
our sailors , hurting quality of life
to get to 90 to 95 When the real gold
star was to get the MX one Because what
we learned in a very data focused way
was above MX 1.0 so as you as you
increase the aviation maintenance
experience score in our squadrons , a
strong correlation with improved
readiness of the squadron up to a level
which we bench , which we called one
point where it levels off What we
learned as we were driving readiness in
our fleet squadrons with 90-95 . The
Amex scores up to 2.0 and we were
ripping off from the maintenance and
basic face squadrons to do that and hey ,
Let's level load MX 1.0 improved
performance and deployed squadrons
include maintenance and basic phase .
So how does it relate to your question
sean so Roy Kissner is like , hey ,
that's pretty cool . And so right now
they're well along the journey of surf
max and Daryl Caudle and undersea is
looking at subjects . So it's a way to
drive this orientation that you talked
about as well . The last one I would
highlight in terms of how you can drive
across humanity learning . I believe
again , most people in this room are
familiar with the frag , which is the
analytics group at therefore that is J
Rogers left a tremendous leader of that
group . Um frag bringing down at the S
three level below strong analytic
driving underpinning so I was just with
Roy Kitchener yesterday uh at surf at
surfer and he took me through his sag ,
the surface action group . So these are
all , I don't know , it's directly
answer the question sean but we are
driving that learning . You highlighted
specific elements of fractured
fragmented data sources that is for
sure . Part as the sag and the frag
work together as we role model each
other and learn from each other and
operating reviews as a path board .
Does that make sense ? Yes sir . Thank
you one sir
uh steve Stacy in 81
I'm really excited . I see the first
bullet on your , on your slide is that
rotary wing is critical to demo And I
can say uh I absolutely agree . I'm
trying to carry that water throughout
your staff . Um but at 81 we do have a
challenge in actually expressing that .
Um primarily because uh naturally when
it comes to strategic competition , we
focus on the crisis and the conflict .
Um and so I was wondering if you could
just elaborate a little bit on that
bullet um as we work on updating the
future naval force study uh and as we
try to uh demonstrate the value
of demo from a strategic competition
perspective , not just on in the
conflict and crisis , but you know ,
the the win without fighting aspect
that we've been talking about . That's
great sir . Um Great question steve ,
thanks for asking that for those in the
audience who may not be intimately
familiar with the awesome organization ,
which is an 81 81 is our assessment
division which is the navy experts in
campaign modeling campaign analysis ,
other elements of assessment for
structure requirements . You know what
the 30 year shipbuilding plan is
strongly influenced by the N 81
analysis in concert with N nine . So a
real central roid of analytic
understanding of what the future
fortune looks like steve , it's my
impression that the reason you're in
that job and uh are bringing the
perspective you are , is because our
campaign models which drive a lot of
these conversations do not go down to
the level of specific uh platform type .
They often don't even go down to the
air wing type contributions only at
fairly high levels . Uh , so it , so
I mean that's not uniquely
disadvantageous to rotary wing . It's
just the nature of the level of our
analysis . One element of good news is
I can't help but note that there's a
three star over there who owns all
elements of consuming that assessment
work , influence that assessment work ,
driving our strategy . Who happens to
be the second best ceo of 87 48 hours .
So , um
ah so that's , that's one element I
would highlight for you . You talked
about understanding um , the
requirements that the contribution
opportunities across day to day
campaigning crisis conflict . I think
those voices have to come alive . But
to your point we are going to size and
shape of force for lethal conflict .
That is what right looks like . And
then when it comes to the crisis , when
it comes to day to day campaigning ,
we're going to make choices about how
to employ that for us . But in the
context of the resources we have today
and the decisive lethality journey ,
we're on to drive . We are not going to
invest as we've done in the past and
force elements that are not really
necessarily relevant to the crisis and
the conflict phase . The good news
nonetheless is in Damo where
surface action groups are seeing both
within the Navy and particularly
outside the Navy as the thing to do .
There could be nothing more relevant
from the aviation perspective two
Rotary Wing . So for sure , there's
opportunity in those elements . We
talked about to make the rotering
community interest contributions really
come alive , but perhaps not at a
campaign level of analysis . Does that
make sense ? Yes , sir . I look forward
to talking about it again with you soon .
All right . Hey , I'm gonna call
phoenix here , so I don't drive us
wildly off schedule . I appreciate the
thoughtful questions and I appreciate
the energy that each of you will bring
to this body of learning because this
was a call to action to assimilate ,
reflect and scale that learning to
drive the outcomes we need to drive to .
Thank you . Sure .