This week’s blog involves feather ruffling and some wing clipping...

There is a review of the 5Ws for DoD travel – who, what, when, where and why. The objective is to ensure we are minimizing the cost of every trip we make, and we’ve been directed to reduce travel expenditure to 30 percent below what we spent in FY10.

We’ve started already and several smaller Systems Engineering Technical Review events have been held with all or some of the team participating by video teleconferencing. We’re going to have to be even more careful with choices; cutting 30 percent means we’ll each have to not travel to one out of three meetings we would otherwise have gone to in the past. Are there options?

NAWCAD has a lot of video teleconferencing facilities.  I know there are drawbacks. Planning a VTC requires the other end to have the capability. Many rooms seat fewer than 20 and most of those can’t be seen on camera easily. The rooms are difficult to schedule and I’ve heard from mid-level engineers and logisticians they have been “bumped” at the last minute when somebody senior needed to use the room even if they weren’t using the VTC. Finally an all-day, multi-day, VTC can challenge the attention span of even the most dedicated.

Another option for meetings is web conferencing using Defense Connect Online. Department of Defense users worldwide can access this system for DoD enterprise collaboration services. If you are not familiar with this, contact the Help Desk and they can walk you through.

When you do have to travel, stretch your budget. If allowed by the contract, have contractors travel to meet with us. Have a mixed meeting where some travel and others support by VTC. One person may be able to cover two different team roles. Sharing rental cars is expected. If one person can come back a day early - do it; every night and per diem saved adds up across our 14,000-person team. While we’re talking primarily about flying to the destination, we can reduce local travel, too. I have no qualms about asking folks inside the beltway to travel once in a while to Pax River, for example. Let them get on a plane to Orlando or drive to Lakehurst.

Watch out for the negative effect from these changes on our perception of our performance. We’ve become used to personal interaction, so the phone or VTC can add stress because interaction is less. I know many important discussions take place in side meetings.  Now we’ll have to step out of the VTC and make a call. Supervisors should manage their own expectations and keep an eye on “Type-A” behavior that results in frustration as we learn to manage this new environment.

Finally, I’m aware of some who think these limits will not impact senior leadership. Speaking for myself, I’ve already cut back on trips, combined several to a geographic area to save airfare, and have been sharing rental cars, etc. I commit to you that I will be holding myself to the same level of accountability to meet our 30 percent requirement.

– RM