Zooming In
Joann Robertson BA (Hons), FCILT, CMgr FCMI
Head of Supply Chain Transformation Babcock International Non Executive Director CILT
I have spent a few hours this weekend reading the 2017 Investigation into the Royal Navy Cannibalisation Report the 2017 Delivering Carrier Strike Report and the 2020 Carrier Strike Preparing for Deployment Report all from the National Audit Office (NAO) the UK’s independent public spending watchdog.
Why?
16 months into my current role I continue to peg out my areas of responsibility, the boundaries between my teams and those in DE&S, Industry, The Waterfront, The Shipyards, The Jetty's, the international bases, other functional areas, other Lines of Development, the CADMID Cycle, Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), the Defence Logistics Framework including over 500 policies, the Defence Support Function, Digital, the Balanced Scorecard, SCRUM, Lean, Agile, P3M, Defence Logistics Planning, Transformation and circa 35+ live projects and programmes.
Hyman G Rickover, an Admiral in the US Navy said that “Responsibility is a unique concept. You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.”
For me its not about pointing the finger when it goes wrong, its about everyone knowing where the responsibility and accountability sits, everyone knowing their part in the delivery of outcomes, being able to look up and downstream to see the value chain.
Because if that transparency is missing it demotivates staff, if firefighting achieves hero status people light fires, if legacy decisions result in painful pressures people look for blame and it ultimatley creates a climate of chaos.
Chaos is a state of complete confusion and disorder : a state in which behaviour and events are not controlled by anything and while Sun-Tzu identified that “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” which can springboard creativity and innovation, it is control and order that optimise logistics support.
As I and my team continue to grow; we are endeavouring to become fully conversant with the vast range of complexities inherent in the logistics activities across Defence. While we have some way to go to deliver clarity across our portfolio we are not shirking away from our responsibilities. We remain up for the challenge.
“When doing a job — any job — one must feel that he owns it, and act as though he will remain in that job forever.”
― Hyman G. Rickover
Consulting clinical hypnotherapist and Master Mariner
3 年Found the Royal Navy Cannibalisation Report a bit disappointing. I can let you have some recipes if you think it might help.
Human Factors Consultant & MD at K Sharp Ltd - Host of 1202, The Human Factors Podcast. Past-President of the CIEHF
3 年I use Hyman G Rickovers views on Human Factors in presentations, particularly introducing HF to military personnel (he isn’t especially keen). But I think that final quote would be brilliant to round up the conversation - thank you. But on the main topic, you are absolutely right, my current project on the future of the military is trying to unpick that as one of its threads of military characteristics :-)
Director - Leidos Supply
3 年I will be sharing with my team Hyman G Rickover view on ‘Responsibility’ - thank you.