Marine Commandant Seeks 'Disruptive Thinkers' to Drive Innovation
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Marine Commandant, General Robert Neller address the innovation symposium
Speaking at an innovation symposium at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab last month, Marine Commandant, General Robert Neller, took aim at military and political bureaucracy and urged leaders to better understand and encourage Marines who think outside the box but who are often viewed as 'troublemakers'.
There is much that any organization, particularly large ones, can learn from the General’s comments and the discussions at the symposium. The underlying message: our organization is not as innovative as we must be yet it is full of innovative people; Marines are renowned for their ability to adapt to any circumstance. How can we close that gap?
Challenge The System
The General did not mince his words. He noted that a staff full of majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels “just generates a bunch of work. It doesn't move innovation forward, it just maintains the status quo,” he said. “The system doesn't move fast enough. There is way too much middle management.”
Gen. Neller expressed the need to go “faster, cheaper, smarter,” instead of “hard, stupid and expensive … which is the choice too often in Pentagon.”
Listen to The ‘Troublemakers’
Many of the General’s comments contrasted the level of organizational innovation with the observation that Marines are naturally innovative people, particularly rank-and-file Marines. Gen. Neller wants Marines to be encouraged to come up with solutions and for leaders to accelerate these ideas to decision makers.
Neller noted a natural human barrier to innovation, observing that managers are less likely to listen to ‘troublemakers’ but that these troublemakers are often those with the most innovative ideas. And not by chance; he explained why:
“Most people with good ideas are annoying because they are frustrated,” Neller said. “The Marines that we want to re-enlist don't want to stay because they get tired of being around stupid people. They do. They get frustrated, they get tired of beating their head against the wall. [They say] ‘You guys won’t listen to me, I'm outta here. I'm going to go to college and make a million bucks.’ And they do.”
The General should know, as someone who became known as a disruptive thinker but who also may have ended up on a different path without the right guidance and encouragement earlier in his career.
Candid Debate Drives Innovation
Ambassador Anthony D. Marshall, Chair of Strategic Studies at the Marine Corps University described how much innovation has occurred in the past through the ‘hot washes’ after exercises when ‘hundreds of officers would watch admirals ruthlessly critique one another, and even invite the perspective of field grade officers.’
A Fast Changing Landscape
The description of the military landscape provided may also sound familiar to business leaders:
‘There are an increasing number of hot spots around the world; no two are alike, and the circumstances are ever changing and increasingly complex. Technologies that could help have often evolved before older technologies are even fielded.’
Innovation Can Take Many Forms
It was noted that innovations can be ‘anything from a program designed to improve parts inventory or predict parts failures, to a tool fabricated at a local motor pool that cuts maintenance hours and errors. It may be an app that gives a ground pounder unprecedented situational awareness. It may involve the development of new technology, or adoption/adaptation of a commercial technology.’
News Ways of Thinking Are Needed
Lt. Gen. Mike Dana, deputy commandant for installations and logistics, noted that “The way you look at the problem can be the problem”. He asked the group, “if the Marine Corps didn't exist, what would it look like if you had to form it?”
Innovation Management
Innovation within an organization cannot be sustained without the right culture, structure and processes. The group discussed things such as: giving more than one role to innovators, tracking success, the role of the Naval War college, personnel reviews, organizational unit size and mechanisms for capturing ideas. This was summed up nicely in the observation that “allowing innovation is one thing. Applying innovation is another matter entirely.”
Action Not Ideas
But a high-speed suggestion box is not enough. Marines who promote new ideas and point out bad ideas often are not seen in a favorable light. They receive little encouragement, let alone the time and material needed to produce a solution. Good ideas are worthless unless acted upon.
Avionics Technician 1st Class Richard Walsh was named the 2011 Naval Aviation Enterprise Innovator of the Year for his Statistically driven Maintenance Analysis and Repair Technology (SMART) program underlined this as he described the struggles he had had with superiors who didn't want change. “It’s dangerous, it’s scary, and it sucks,” he said.
A Final Word
As General Colin Powell once said: “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
It will be interesting to track the outcome of the symposium and the lessons that other organizations can learn from the US Marines.
A full report of the symposium is on the Marine Corps Times website.
Photo Credits:
General Neller at Innovation Symposium: Kyle Olson/Marine Corps