FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- (Feb. 26, 2016) Nearly 40 members representing a diverse cross-section of the garrison were selected to participate in an Army Design Methodology workshop that concluded Feb.12. The group studied employee engagement and professional development using the ADM model of organizational problem-solving and improvement strategies.
Fort Campbell Garrison Commander Col. James "Rob" Salome presented the results to 300 members of the workforce at a town hall Feb. 17.
"I wanted to spend a little bit of time today with you talking about a few things and sort of following up on what we talked about the last time we were together," Salome said.
"When we looked at the [2014 Workforce Satisfaction] survey, one of the things that we found is that we have some work to do to make your jobs as easy as possible," he said, "We want to be engaged with you as employees, but we also have a lot of pressures that are on us from DOD, the Army, IMCOM -- different things that help us guide what we do to make sure that we stay in line with what the nation needs us to do."
Salome explained that multiple internal and external influences cause tension in the way the post and its workforce operate.
Whether it be in the demands of everything that we do, the way that our bosses do things, or in doing things the way that we've always done them. All those things combine to positively or negatively impact our work environment, Salome said.
The ADM workshop brought a team together for a week in December and two weeks in February to look at how to deal with the tensions and pressures while at the same time build an engaged workforce.
"One of the great things I find as I move about and talk with you all, and as we were doing our work the last couple of weeks, is that the talent that we need to solve any problem that we have is already resident inside the garrison right now -- amazing, amazing talent that we have," Salome said.
"So how do we leverage that? Because right now … we don't have everybody working together to maximize the talent that we have. Right now we are disengaged," he said.
Salome explained that the foundation of garrison operation is mission command. "Mission command has two components. It's the science of control and the art of command," Salome said. "The art of command is, 'How do we engage all of that talent to work together?' The science of control is really those processes that we have in place which are very good at Fort Campbell but are they necessarily doing things the way that we want to? Are we doing the right things or are we doing things right? We've got to figure out what those things are."
Salome invited employees to discuss what was learned during the workshop and more importantly, their outlook on the way ahead. "I was lucky to be part of this design team, Charles Audler, an Information Technology specialist with Child Youth and School Services, said. "What I figured out with the group I was working with was that employees not just here at Fort Campbell but employees across America are disengaged."
"Employees feel that command, their leadership, their coworkers are not communicating with them properly. They feel like they're not 'in the know' with all the information that's out there. What we figured out, too, was that we need to share vertically and horizontally and what that means is that leadership needs to talk from top down, but we need to get everybody involved in the process not just about the same people making the same decisions. That means leadership and anybody in between becomes part of the process to solve the problem."
Salome added that external forces such as the Army, IMCOM, and the employee union are important.
"How do we make sure that the strengths of the Army, the strengths of IMCOM, the strengths of the union are leveraged in the right way so that it's not an external force; it is a partnership?" he asked.
LaVor Rodgers, an education guidance counselor at the Staff Sgt. Glenn H. English Jr. Army Education Center described his experience in the workshop. As a group we talked about the feedback loop of the workforce or FLOW.
"A lot of times when we look at the science of [control] -- most of us are familiar with how the hierarchy works. It is a directive culture, 'here's your task, execute.' … The Art of Command is more the feedback from everyone. Everyone has a voice."
"Sitting in a room with [garrison] directors -- I had a voice. I wasn't just another employee [who] wasn't listened to. I was valued. I was heard. And this is what's important throughout the garrison. We all have a part to play in the art of command. We all have a part to play in employee engagement. We all have a part to play in the readiness of our Soldiers."
Salome said the important thing is to realize that we are not where we need to be, but that the garrison is working on a plan to get there.
"This is what you told us in October, the last time that we met," the garrison commander said. "You said that learning is important, promotion is important. You want to be able to provide input. There is a perception that ideas are not accepted.
"You're willing to change. You just need some help --[leaders] listening to what are those changes. You want personal input into your career path. Are we as leaders and supervisors providing that and giving you a way to provide input into your own personal career path? You need more than just the CES, the civilian education system, in order to learn and grow. And also you want to know that your input is valued."
Salome emphasized that in a directive culture, leaders often miss the opportunity to receive feedback from front line employees who have the responsibility of completing the work. The second and third order effects of leadership decisions may lead to wasted resources or worse -- mission failure.
"So how do we create an environment where we can collaborate on that and see the big picture?" Salome said.
FLOW, or 'Feedback Loop of the Workforce', is a new concept under development intended to improve information sharing from top down to back up the chain of command and across all directorates. More importantly, as it develops, it will encourage innovation and idea sharing throughout the garrison.
"So are we doing things right?" Salome said. "Yes we're doing things right, here at Fort Campbell. We're very competitive in the Army Community of Excellence. That shows that we're doing things right. But are we doing the right things not just for the Army but with respect to you as the employees and with respect to all our partners in the community?"
Salome concluded the town hall with a snapshot of the way ahead consisting of three areas of focus.
First, employ psychomotor, affective and cognitive learning in daily operations.
"For example, affective learning is about our culture," Salome said. "It's about how we look at how to interact with one another to best provide the services that we need and make adjustments to the way we interact so that we provide the best environment."
Second, work on the five core pillars of employee engagement: trust, relationship, communication, empowerment and purpose.
Third, implement the four lines of effort across the garrison workforce: career/talent management, professional development, performance management, communication.
"We have subject matter experts in this room and across the entire garrison that we're going to need to pull in and get input from in order to do this right -- both inside of the garrison team and with our partners. Because we're not going to solve this just by ourselves," Salome said.
Stressing the value of every member's input, Col. Salome added that the garrison workforce will be working together over the next few months to set the course for the way ahead.
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