As the community of Navy-Marine Corps information technology professionals — both military and civilian — we are change leaders for the Department of the Navy. The Department's journey of transformation will only truly be successful if each of us is a positive force for change. Opportunities for transformation and innovation surround us; these opportunities must be exploited. We must never forget that our "shipmates" on the Navy-Marine Corps team look to each of us as examples. Our commitment to change, our acceptance of new ideas and initiatives, and our positive reinforcement and support is observed and assessed by our teammates — they take their cue from us. We must be positive forces for change, supporting and improving our strategic initiatives like FORCEnet, PKI, NMCI, etc., and thereby ensuring their maturation and success.
Recently, I had the honor and privilege of spending time with a large group of positive change leaders — the Navy's Information Professional (IP) Officer Community. The IP Summit 2003 focused on a theme of "Sea Power 21 — Realizing the Information Power Advantage." Under the gifted leadership of Vice Admiral Dick Mayo, the IP Community has grown to 410 officers, and in only two short years has truly forged a "team" of extremely innovative and dedicated advocates for the digital transformation of the Department. In addition to aligning community goals and competencies, the forum served as both a knowledge-sharing forum and an important opportunity to prioritize community efforts to ensure the continued success of the naval warfighting mission in the digital age. Every attendee of the conference, which included 70 stakeholders external to the community, came away from the event both energized by the enthusiasm and commitment of our officer community, and impressed by the willingness of all of the participants to work on 14 pilot projects over the coming year that will provide real value to the Navy.
The summit was also an outstanding example of the power of appreciative inquiry and positive organizational change techniques. The success of this approach can be traced to the outstanding efforts of Dr. Ron Fry of Case Western Reserve University, and Dr. Frank Barrett of the Naval Postgraduate School. If you would like to know more about the importance of appreciative inquiry and positive change as leadership skills, you can check out Dr. Barrett's Web site at www.nps.navy.mil/cpc.
It is only through positive change leadership that we can ensure that bold new IT initiatives are embraced and sustained, rather than stifled before they have a chance to succeed. I am excited and energized by the success of our Navy IP Officer Community as exemplars of the power of positive change leadership. I encourage each of you to join them in positively shaping the "IT future" of this great Navy-Marine Corps team.