Team 2 Week 3 Blog

 

Our third week consisted of 22 interviews and our site visit to Ft. Bragg.

 

Summary of Key Insights and Trends:

• Commanders won’t let their units do a mission unprepared, but the process to get teams prepared is far more difficult due to the dearth of budget and resource organization. Teams often have to rely on the “Sergeant Major Mafia” to get the materials they need to get to mission standard readiness.
• The “color of money” is an important component of the resourcing process. Certain buckets of money are only available for certain causes. We are still working to determine how/if this should be incorporated into our MVP.
• There are men who recognize these problems and have created systems to combat them. These people are great resources for us as they have put a lot of thought and work into what we are working on. A lack of time, resources, and help has prevented any of these “pet projects” from coming to life on a standard level.

 

1. Warrant Officer Luke – Assistant Detachment Commander

• Although there are some issues with the current database organization, all the data exists and the problems have workarounds(at his particular team because their job is more linear)
• As long as you can justify that your training matches up with commanders instructions you are usually fine
• Problems occur when someone does not know the system and someone else has to fix it(though usually just involves talking to the person)

 

2. Major Crystal – Battalion XO

• Their group also is quite linear and thus they don’t have a hard time budgeting
• Useful to justify training by mission enhancing and mission critical
• Multitude of different colors of money from which they must allocate money to the correct location

 

3. Lieutenant Colonel Mike

• Making the process more efficient and more effective is important to everyone
• At the outset, saying something like “I’ll know we’ve achieved success when we land from freefall at 25,000 ft at night with all of our equipment, twice” could be the key to effectively measuring self-reported training
• Making a more streamlined training concept process will help keep the focus on the “why” of training

 

4. Colonel Joe – War College Fellow

• Understand the line between your teams all the way through to USASOC. If you have a commander who’s really interested in what you’re doing, it’ll energize the supporting staff
• Understand the flow of money and its time horizon
• For SF to adopt a new system, it has to have a strong value proposition

 

5. Captain Kyle- Assistant S3

• For ODA commanders, the end state is that we’re trying build capability, and whenever the nation needs whatever capability, we can provide it
• If I could type a MET and get best lessons learned from previous teams, having the relevant AARs and their sustains and improves help me design more effective training
• Institutional memory is important to a team, and usually vested in the team warrant officer.

 

6. Captain Tyler- Assistant S3

• Really want to capture info from other team’s AARs– sustains, improves, and finances
• Measuring tools should be a requirement before deployment on training
• We’re most interested in forecasting, so that we can fight when resources are cut by clearly pointing to how funding translates into readiness

 

7. Chief Greg- Assistant Detachment Commander

• Continuity and consistency is vital to the success of the battalion. People come and go, and so having a clear SOP means that commanders can pass knowledge on to the next person
• For teams, the core training of shoot move communicate medicate is the top priority
• Staying in sync with Big Army is important, and SF should leave their systems in place to have continuity

 

8. Captain Phil – Former Group S3

• DOD technology revolves around proprietary systems and microsoft office documents that do not speak to each other. Making a system that puts all kinds of information into one software would be extraordinarily useful.
• Captain Phil was working on a “MICON wizard” which compiled a lot of the information we are also planning to collect. He sent us a presentation on this project which looks like it will be very useful as we decide what kind of information we are looking to collect.
• Phil is working to create an innovation type course at NPS and would like to continue interacting with us to help him develop the curriculum there as well.

 

9. Major Eric – Battalion S3

• Three training events were cancelled last year due to budget constraints.
• Making training cater more closely to individual ODA and deployment needs is important. A lot of training is performed on things that are not necessary, sometimes instead of training that could be more useful.
• Applying after action feedback on readiness and mission stress points would be useful in creating a more salient training plan.

 

10. Aaron – Former Company and ODA Commander

• The way that the military works encourages people to go over budget rather than under, as going under could mean that you don’t get as much money the next time

• Even an additional 4 hours can be very useful to an ODA commander, as that time can go into range training, refresher training, etc.
• Historical records often exist, but don’t provide the level of detail so as to be useful. Each time a MICON is formed, you are essentially starting from scratch if you are not doing the exact same thing as a previous team.

 

11. General Martin

• The training budget is the only thing that the battalion XO can actually change (the rest of the budget is fixed)
• Our tool can be helpful to visualize where to allocate resources in the event of a compromised budget or how readiness will be impacted based on a budget cut
• The XOs capability can be described as a “dial” that can be turned to change the training budget. We should be able to measure the consequences of an x degree turn in that dial.

 

12. Colonel Daniel

• Model for readiness:
• 1. Hard data = certification
• 2. Collective competence– I want to know that my teams have accomplished these tasks at these events = data driven
• 3. Ability for the commander to use gut instinct as a factor = validation

 

13. Major Bill

• We want a document that takes you all the way through the process
• To empower the company level, require training that makes sense, give teams the money they ask for, and then look and see what’s effective.
• Justification needs to be readiness or capability

14. Sergeant Major Damon

• We figure out what we need to do to get the resources we need, and get it done, no matter what
• The environment and SOF is constantly changing
• Less is more. It’s easier and cheaper to train at Bragg, and can be forecast more easily.

 

15. Adam Beauregard

 

• Naval aviation squadrons are allotted a set number of flight hours.  As flight hours are the currency of air squadron readiness, this is equivalent to a budget for the squadron.
• Sierra Hotel Aviation Readiness Program – provides a basic level of assistance around planning training.  It is minimal, however.
• Readiness is driven by the deployment cycle even more than Special Forces.  (Due to the fact that Red Cycle for Special Forces is focused on individual training while Amber is focused on group training.)

 

16. Major McConnell

 

• During the semi-annual training briefs, the budget is not explored in deep detail. The detail is handled in private conversations with the RMO prior to Battalion and Group briefings.
• ODAs are shielded from the color of money complexity.  This is the primary reason they do not get a defined budget number upfront.
• The current influence Special Forces can wield in budget negotiations rides upon the ability of the RMO to make a detailed and compelling case.  If the next RMO is not natively equipped to understand and maintain the current spreadsheet system, it could easily fall by the wayside.

 

17. Captain Ko

• Each air squadron that provides us lift support has a different request format and template.
• Coordination of lift support happens at the ODA, Battalion, and Group level.
• Planning air support should begin at least 3 months prior.

 

18. SSgt Ferrer

• Medgroup has not been holding the standard inventory levels recently.
• Med supplies have a standard two week order turnaround.
• The aid station does not have the inventory software system used at Medgroup.

 

19.  SFC Harrison

• They had been functioning w/o a medical logistics officer for several months.
• Maintaining inventory in the aid station is time consuming and inefficient.
• Aid station rotations are longer assignments than most other rotations.

 

20. First Sergeant Brian

• Looking at our training and capacity that we want to deploy with, we want to be able to say “The truly critical training events are X,Y,Z” and “You could do X by…” and back it up with data.
• Commander’s job is to look at the calendar, identify potential future deployments, derive what capabilities are required, and then what training is needed
• We have a linear model, but not a linear timeline

 

21. Maj Robey

• The Company Commander will take the individual ODA’s budgets and preview them with the RMO to ensure alignment.
• ODAs do not work from an actual budget number.  Group commanders don’t have a budget number either.
• One experiment potentially worth trying is providing each ODA with a budget number upfront.

 

Hacking for Defense

Team 3

Week 2

 

Our second week beneficiary discovery focused on testing and receiving feedback on our MVP. Below, we list the interviews conducted this week and key takeaways from each.

 

Summary of Key Trends and Insights

• Battalion and Company level commanders and S4s note that resource allocation efficiency is suffering due to disorganization, and this can be costly to readiness
• The system must be comprehensive enough to replace existing administrative tools, such as the CEW. Otherwise, it will simply add more work and not be accepted by the unit.
• Giving teams the ability to evaluate their training resource is one of the most valuable pain relievers that officers want. We will need to work on our MVP to include more training and mission evaluation categories

 

Captain Tim – Detachment Commander

• Product would be useful and time saving as long as it isn’t added as a requirement on top other administrative requirements. thing they had to fill out it would be much more helpful.
• A big problem is that they don’t know how much funding their battalion/group has
• When justifying spending decisions he uses a mix of quantitative information and abstract relating back to training readiness.

 

Sergeant Major Johnny – Company Sergeant Major

• Problem #1: lack of prioritizing is limiting factor to ODAs getting proper resources.
• When they do a mid year plus-up- you must ask for resources at the middle of the year but they don’t get that ammo until the start of the fourth quarter.
• If they give you what you asked for months late and don’t shoot it all you could be punished for that.

 

Captain Josh – Battalion Logistics Officer

• Problem #1: system must be user friendly so that it can be accessed by people that are not subject matter experts and can handle high rates of turnover.
• As of now, there is no system in place for tallying the final costs of training, but the battalion need this.
• Would like to see an MVP with specifics such as points of contact and a method of organizing budget by date

 

Captain Erica – Company Commander, previously Battalion S4

• The current equipment resourcing process involves a pool of money periodically being made available for allocation.  It is then a 48-hour rush to spend the money. Frequently, the first group to get their prioritized list in wins.
• She confirmed the ODA budget worksheet is very complicated and frequently the formulas get scrambled by the users entering information.
• Transportation and other per diems, military & commercial vendor costs would need to be regularly updated.

 

CW2 Bob, CW2 Zack – Assistant Detachment Commanders

• A big problem is that when we come up with a concept to go train, from the time it gets briefed and budgeted, it grows a lot of “barnacles”  as more units get added. Needs to be adaptable.
• The gap between estimated costs and actual costs won’t be solved if us at the team don’t know it’s a problem.

• A useful tool would be to add 3 columns on the AAR: the budget, the final budget, and the mission essential tasks.   

 

Captain Dillon – US Army

• Do you want your unit to be the Most-Trained Unit or the Best-Trained Unit? Having actual information on the efficiency of training will tell you.
• Making the emphasis of spending record-keeping tied to how much readiness improved, which will move away from using totals of money spent as the yardstick.

• Look at figuring out the cost of time. If you make a soldier stay in the field for an extra length of time, what does that actually cost?

 

Major Ryan – Battalion Executive Officer

• “When I cycle out, I want the person who replaces me to not have to start over from zero. If we can get a system in place that they can plug into, it’ll go a long way.”
• “Right now, my S4 has to do a lot of digging through old spreadsheets, which costs us a ton of time and prevents us from focusing on analysis.”
• Ideally we want to know how much money gets us how much training.

 

Captain Rex – Field Artillery, US Army

• Tying money to each task is very useful, and if you could say spending this amount gets you to a certain level, it would be more efficient.
• Objective T incentivizes teams to underestimate their readiness at the beginning and overestimate it at the end
• Ease of use for tracking is the most important aspect

 

Major Dodger – US Army

• When people come back asking for money, the commanders need to be able to say “show us progress,” (on objective T) and then be able to say “go talk to x,” who did the training for a certain cost.
• There needs to be a standardized way of evaluating in a more centralized way. That’ll be even trickier when it comes to very specialized training that SF teams have to do.

 

Insights

1. Trend: There’s a “trickle-up” effect- if each team underestimates its costs by a little, it means that the company’s costs are off a lot, and can eventually mean that the battalion is missing out on using millions of dollars.
2. Trend: high rates of turnover means that any product we develop must be easy to learn and understand
3. Hypothesis: Green Berets are constantly following a systematized, uniform, training program supported by rigid budget.
4. Results: Commanders make individualized decisions when it comes to training for their specific teams and do not use a standardized process for creating, tracking, resourcing, and authorizing training.

Decisions

1. MVP elements: A tool that allows users to select a category of training, then a specific subcategory, and enter the number of soldiers, and get historical data on the costs for such a training trip.
2. We decided to focus on the military professionals that Major Schubert recommended that we talked to this week. We needed to get a good idea of the problem and what people working with that problem everyday say that they need. In following weeks, we will consult professionals in other fields that can help us as we continue to develop our product.

Beneficiary Discovery

1. There’s a gap between what teams estimate for their mission concept (MICON) and their after action reports (AARs), and AARs are not as accurate.
2. The AARs focus on the training and how to improve it, not the costs, because the pace of the work is incredibly fast.
3. There is a lot of historical data and a number of training activities that are effectively cookie-cutter as far as resourcing – making them amenable to automation.
4. Planners should be able to input all the training requirements and easily search through past training costs to easily create a budget rather than recreating the budget each time without too much hassle.

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