III Major Usafr Harold W Linnean

Air Force Smart Operations for the Twenty-first Century: Identifying Potential Failure Points in Sustaining Continuous Process Improvement Across the III Major Usafr Harold W Linnean

Publisher Marketing: Air Force Smart Operations for the Twenty-first Century (AFSO 21) is the Air Force's initiative to recapitalize funds by maximizing value and minimizing waste in operations. This is a fundamental shift by the Air Force toward a desired end state of continuous process improvement. Will AFSO 21 change the culture of the Air Force? A successful change requires a balance between the system components of culture, vision, structure, leadership, and systems. Air Force leadership may avoid failure in its AFSO 21 implementation if it addresses potential failure points before they fester and take root. The first potential failure point is focusing only on culture and thus creating an unbalanced system or organization. The next potential failure point is the inflexibility of the Air Force structure. A third potential failure point is its human resource management systems. When it comes to "quality" programs, Air Force midlevel officers are experiencing deja vu. How will midlevel officers accept it? The failure to win over Generation TQM, the midlevel officers, is a fourth potential failure point for the sustainment of AFSO 21. Does the Air Force have a vision for AFSO 21? The Air Force must rectify this disparity between vision and message and remove a final potential failure point in sustaining AFSO 21. This paper identifies potential failure points associated with the changing Air Force culture. Overall, the Air Force's change plan appears to be proceeding according to schedule. However, it does not appear that the Air Force is adequately planning for a long-term sustainment of AFSO 21. There is still time for Air Force senior leadership to correct the system's alignment and put AFSO 21 on track for long-term sustainment. A culture of continuous process improvement will take root once the Air Force leadership fully commits to AFSO 21. Contributor Bio:  Press, Air University Walter Gary Sharp Sr. serves as a senior associate deputy general counsel for intelligence at the US Department of Defense, where he advises on legal issues related to intelligence, covert action, intelligence and counterintelligence policy, intelligence oversight, information security, information sharing, security classification policy, information operations, and computer network operations. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Sharp served as an associate deputy general counsel for international affairs at the Department of Defense; the director of legal research for international, comparative, and foreign law at the Law Library of Congress; the director of global and functional affairs within the Bureau of Legislative Affairs at the State Department; and a principal information security engineer at The MITRE Corporation. A veteran with 25 years of service, Dr. Sharp retired as a decorated US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel with prior enlisted service. His military assignments include commanding officer of a field artillery battery, senior prosecutor, deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and international law adviser for the commanding general of the Unified Task Force in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. Dr. Sharp's military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, and his many awards for writing excellence and academic achievement include the Judge Advocate General's School Alumni Association Annual Professional Writing Award and an American Bar Association Award for Professional Merit. Dr. Sharp is the author of numerous articles and three books: UN Peace Operations (1995), CyberSpace and the Use of Force (1999), and Jus Paciarii (1999). He serves as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center where he currently teaches a counterterrorism course, The Law of 24. He has also taught graduate-level seminars on United Nations peace operations and international peace and security. He lectures internationally in universities and other diverse public forums on wide-ranging topics of international law and national security law, such as international peace and security, conflict management, and peacekeeping operations.