Materiel enterprise leader pushes accountability

By Kimberley Capehart, USASACOctober 1, 2018

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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- When Gen. Gus Perna, Army Materiel Command's commander, made his quarterly visit to the Security Assistance Command Sept. 14, he emphasized commands must learn to see themselves to be able to set appropriate metrics.

"We are terrible at defining metrics," he said. "We have to hold ourselves accountable."

Being accountable means not settling for the status quo.

"In our world, we are responsible for what could potentially be loss of life," Perna said. So when he questioned how a metric was developed and what the "triggers" for additional coordination and action would be, Perna was driving home what the ultimate purpose, or impact, of the work is.

As AMC's lead for building partner capacity, USASAC must ensure it stays in lockstep with other AMC entities and organizations in the security assistance enterprise, he stressed.

Perna indicated USASAC was headed in the right direction with its "Share Vision 'Up and Out' Concept." The concept uses multiple inputs from the AMC security assistance enterprise to identify leading indicators and incorporates readiness inputs to assist in identifying potential readiness impacts to the Army and to allies and partners.

Perna noted that "seeing yourself" has to be done at all levels. He encouraged leaders and staff at all levels to not get caught up in the process of just doing, but to always assess the effectiveness first.

"Effectiveness is the metric I'm looking for -- if you have effectiveness, then efficiency will follow," he said.

Perna also expressed concern that while leadership hears his expectations in multiple meetings, he is not sure the workforce understands the intent. According to Perna, every employee must understand, or be accountable, for eight hours of work each day that contributes to both Department of Defense and Army priorities.

"We must drive priorities and intent to the workforce," he said.

Perna admitted change does not occur overnight.

"But I'm here to tie all this together at this level," he said, mentioning meetings such as the Operations and Intelligence, staff call and the quarterly visits as forums to AMC entities. He made it clear that his expectation was for USASAC to do the same at its level.

"I want you to bring the data points together so we can make a decision," he said.