Although most organizations have a mission and vision statement, it's the culture of the organization that can make or break its success. Driven by the U.S. Army Futures Command strategic vision, the Combat Capabilities Development Command has develo...

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (September 25, 2019) -- Although most organizations have a mission and vision statement, it's the culture of the organization that can make or break its success.

Driven by the U.S. Army Futures Command strategic vision, the Combat Capabilities Development Command has developed a program to encourage the type of culture required to meet the mission of delivering on the Army's Modernization priorities.

"The message should not be heard that our culture is broken. You need to embrace the things that are good about our culture, but as we have to adapt to new priorities, we have…to have the ability and willingness to adapt our behaviors, our culture, to those priorities," explained John Willison, deputy to the commanding general, CCDC.

"That's why culture is an important part of what we are talking about, that's why we put that in the forefront. So, say let's think about what our culture is and think about where we can make improvements."

According to Willison, an organization's culture is the set of ideas, commitments, and practices that an organization engages in and ultimately is how they operate.

"We are trying to get new capability into the hands of Soldiers as fast as possible without sacrificing the quality of which we are giving. That's got to be the culture-- that end goal, that frequent touch points with Soldiers, that willingness to pick your head up and look at not just what you're working on, but what other people are working on-- that's all got to be built into the culture. It's all got to be the way we do things, not an exception, Willison said.

In the thirteenth episode of the "CCDC In the Lab" podcast, Willison talks about the command's renewed focus on culture and the role of the CCDC acculturation team, as well as the importance of embracing the pillars of culture: communication, collaboration and trust.

"CCDC in the Lab" is a bi-weekly podcast highlighting the people behind the technology being developed within the command. To listen to the podcast, copy and paste this link (https://ccdc.podbean.com) or search "CCDC in the Lab" in the Apple Podcast, Google Play or Spotify apps.

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The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), formerly known as the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), has the mission to provide the research, engineering, and analytical expertise to deliver the capabilities that enable the Army to deter and, when necessary, decisively defeat any adversary now and into the future. CCDC collaborates across the Future Force Modernization Enterprise and its own global network of domestic and international partners in academia, industry and other government agencies to accomplish this mission under the strategic vision of the Army Futures Command.

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