Through relationships built by completing work in the past, the AF CyberWorx team was approached by Col Pope of the 81st Training Wing. With a turnaround time of just over 4 weeks, our Team was charged with building out and facilitation a design thinking workshop to bring together stakeholders and helped form a new vision and mission for the unit. Additionally, to make this new vision and mission actionable, our job included having participant groups create lines of effort (LOEs) and measurable metrics of success. Col Pope's original ask is as follows:
We’re holding a Group and Squadron Commander “offsite”... to validate our priorities and building out the lines of effort we think will deliver on the goals we set. We have the collective minds gathered to develop and codify our approach. What we don’t have, however, is a bona fide set of design thinkers who can help us navigate the process.
With the offsite date rapidly approaching, our Team worked closely with the 81 Training Wing (81 TRW) to understand their objectives, the players that will be present, the space we will be using, and primary objectives of the event.
The result was an incredibly productive 1-day event in which over 50 participants worked through the proposed mission statement and created full LOEs with metrics to measure success along the way.
For more details on the methods we used and our workshop design process, see below:
After the initial ask from the 81st Training Wing leadership team to assist, our Team began a discovery process with our POCs to determine purpose, goals, and logistics of the offsite. We learned they have a mission and vision from the previous leadership team, but have begun work on a first draft of their new model, an acronym FIRE (based on their unit's mascot being a dragon). They stressed that although they have an acronym to work off, they are more than willing to shift strategies based on the input of participants in the workshop. With a general direction and set of objectives that stemmed from the strategic vision draft, we began work on crafting a solving session that could accomplish these goals in an effective, efficient, and meaningful manner. The desired outcomes of this event included the following:
As Team Lead, I worked with the head of our Futures department and a fellow facilitator to begin crafting a tactical execution plan for the workshop. We identified early on that this day would need to be a combination of collective sense-making and small group work. This was necessary due to the need for both a 1000ft view of the current state of the 81 TRW and a comprehensive breakdown of the LOEs, metrics, and dependencies.
We decided the best approach would be to have group activities in the morning, then break out into small groups before and after lunch. Our Team felt a booklet would be a beneficial aide for this event, as we were limited to only 2 facilitators for the 50+ individuals.
When the dust from our collective brain power settled, we found a workable series of exercises that the 81 TRW agreed would be beneficial. The event included:
My teammate Austin and I provided limited facilitation among the small groups to avoid disrupting their limited time, but continued to check in and help challenge each groups ideas to provide additional layers of detail.
The outcome was a huge success that provided tangible feedback and actionable next steps for command, all while increasing buy-in of leaders at all levels. Our last step after the event itself was to provide a brief report with a thematic analysis and annotation of all group outputs. The feedback we recieved from Col Pope upon delivering the report was outstanding:
"I hope it came through yesterday just how appreciative I am (on behalf of our team) for your steady hand in guiding us through yesterday’s events. “Easy” or not, it was an investment in time and expertise that drove 81 TRW in a positive direction that will last…and I’m personally thankful."
-Col Pope
This event helped create alignment and buy-in for a new strategic vision of the 81st Training Wing and create tangible ways to measure progress along the way to an ideal end-state.
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Innovation is the conduit for so many meaningful ideas, but it is also important to identify programs that fall short of their proposed intent. Enter MOTAR, a research-heavy initiative culminating in a business case analysis lite to inform decision-makers of the Air Education and Training Command.
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Copyright by John Roberts