Blog Posts tagged with "organizational development"

Standing up a new organization is an interesting process.  As I look at the EPTF there are three key components to consider:

• Understanding the European environment and our partners in order to build effective partnerships


• Thinking outside the box to generate new ideas


• Creating the new organization structure and staffing it

Admiral Stavridis has an excellent reading list that helps to build foundational understanding.  I've been working my way through this reading list.  But there is no substitute for face-to-face discussion and meeting people.  We're working on a partnership engagement strategy now.  I think getting some of allies embedded in the EPTF will be critical for success.

The figure at the right looks at a spectrum of partnership engagement.  The upper right quadrant, labeled Framework Nation, is those partners that are both highly interoperable and highly capable.  These are measured by using NATO standards.  Officers from Framework Nations are likely candidates for staffing the EPTF.  Partners in other quadrants are key partners for joint capability building programs.   By embedding officers from Framework Nations, we’ll ensure a high powered organization that looks at capability building programs from a variety of perspectives and leverages talents, knowledge and resources.

In order to start thinking outside the box, I’ve gone a bit beyond Admiral Stavridis’ reading list.  I just finished reading Iconoclast, and am now reading The Talent Code.  Iconoclast is an interesting mixture of case studies of iconoclasts (those that challenge established thinking and ways of doing things) and analysis of the brain and areas of the brain that inhibit new thinking and action.  I’ve just started The Talent Code, but it looks like it will be an interesting study of how to train high performing people and teams.  Since the EPTF is both a new concept and a new team that we’ll stand up, I thought both books might be fertile fields for study.   In Iconoclast, Berns says that to develop and implement new ideas, you need a different way to perceive the world, freedom from fear and social intelligence.  Without a different perception you won’t get the new idea.  As long as you fear failure, you won’t implement the new idea.   If you can’t convince others of the idea’s value, it won’t catch on.  Coyle writes of the need to practice at the margins of ability and work on failure points.  He identified three key ingredients:  deep practice, ignition (a spark that creates a talent “hotbed”) and Master Coaching.

Finally, we need to develop an effective EPTF structure that nests within the overall construct of EUCOM’s Building Partnership Capabilities efforts.   After the approval of the EPTF concept and essential task, we’ve moved into this stage now and are developing organizational and staffing plans.   We must identify the EPTF’s key tasks (those things it must do) and then determine the organizational functions and structure required to accomplish these tasks.  I think we’re well on the way and will keep you updated as develop the organizational construct.

Give Way Together!

BG Jeff Marshall