Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
A couple of items out there for review if you wonder what in DoD/DoN are going to take the brunt of budget shortfalls if sequestration takes place.
First, from Deputy SECDEF Ashton Carter;
A little closer to home, from SECNAV Mabus;
DTG 112146Z Jan 13 UNCLASSIFIED/ FM SECNAV WASHINGTON DC TO ALNAV INFO SECNAV WASHINGTON DC CNO WASHINGTON DC CMC WASHINGTON DC BT
UNCLAS
ALNAV 006/13
MSGID/GENADMIN/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC/-/JAN//
SUBJ/RISK MITIGATION FISCAL PLANNING//
RMKS/1. THIS IS AN UPDATE ON THE CURRENT FISCAL SITUATION FACING THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS AS CONGRESS CONTINUES TO WORK TOWARD A DEFICIT REDUCTION PLAN TO AVOID THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF SEQUESTRATION AND TO PASS A BUDGET TO END THE EQUALLY DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION (CR) UNDER WHICH WE HAVE OPERATED SINCE THE FISCAL YEAR BEGAN OCTOBER 1, 2012.
2. SEQUESTRATION WAS DELAYED FOR TWO MONTHS IN THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER RELIEF ACT (ATRA) PASSED BY CONGRESS ON 1 JANUARY, CREATING MORE TIME TO AGREE ON DEFICIT REDUCTION, BUT GIVING THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE LESS TIME TO MITIGATE SPENDING CUTS IF NO AGREEMENT CAN BE REACHED.
3. BUT DON (AND ALL OF DOD) FACE AN EQUAL BUT MORE IMMEDIATE FISCAL CHALLENGE BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF AN FY-13 APPROPRIATIONS BILL, WHICH HAS LEFT US OPERATING UNDER THE CR, WHICH LOCKS OUR BUDGET INTO LOWER FY-12 LEVELS FOR OUR OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE ACCOUNTS DESPITE INCREASING RESPONSIBILITIES WHICH DEMAND INCREASED RESOURCES.
4. BECAUSE SEQUESTRATION WAS DELAYED, OUR FOCUS MUST NOW SHIFT TO THE IMPACTS OF THE CR, WHICH CREATES SIGNIFICANT SHORTFALLS IN OPERATION & MAINTENANCE, NAVY (OMN) AND MARINE CORPS (OMMC) ACCOUNTS AND THE RESULTANT STEPS WE MUST TAKE TO MAINTAIN A MINIMUM LEVEL OF PRESENCE. UNLESS A SPENDING BILL IS PASSED QUICKLY BY THE NEW CONGRESS, WE MAY BE FORCED TO OPERATE UNDER THE SAME CR THAT HAS BEEN SUSTAINING US SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THIS FISCAL YEAR. THIS CR IS SET TO EXPIRE AT THE END OF MARCH. SHOULD CONGRESS DECIDE TO EXTEND THE CR THROUGH THE END OF FY-13, THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS WOULD NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO MEET FY-13 REQUIREMENTS IN THESE ACCOUNTS.
5. WE EXPECT TO RECEIVE FY-13 OVERSEAS CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS (OCO) FUNDING; HOWEVER, THOSE FUNDS ARE EARMARKED FOR SUPPORT OF CRITICAL WARFIGHTING REQUIREMENTS AND WOULD NOT PROVIDE ANY SIGNIFICANT RELIEF TO OUR BASELINE OPERATING ACCOUNTS. WE PROJECT A SHORTFALL OF OVER $4 BILLION IN OUR BASE O&M ACCOUNTS WHICH FUNDS NAVY AND MARINE CORPS READINESS.
6. GIVEN THE GREAT UNCERTAINTY WE FACE, WE MUST ENACT PRUDENT, BUT STRINGENT BELT-TIGHTENING MEASURES NOW THAT WILL PERMIT US TO OPERATE THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS THROUGH THE REST OF THIS FISCAL YEAR IF THE CR IS EXTENDED. EACH OF THESE STEPS ARE DESIGNED TO BE REVERSIBLE, AT LEAST TO SOME EXTENT, SHOULD CONGRESS PASS AN FY-13 BUDGET. ACCORDINGLY, NAVY AND MARINE CORPS LEADERSHIP HAS ADVISED THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE THAT THEY ARE CONSIDERING A SERIES OF ACTIONS, EACH SUBJECT TO EXCEPTIONS FOR MISSION-CRITICAL ACTIVITIES. ACTIONS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
- CURTAIL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTRACTING SUPPORT SERVICES
- REDUCE TRAVEL
- DELAY ALL DECOMMISSIONINGS AND ANY DISPOSALS OR LAY-UPS
- REDUCE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGETS
- CURTAIL REMAINING FACILITY SUSTAINMENT RESTORATION AND MODERNIZATION PROGRAMS
- CUT FACILITIES SUSTAINMENT, EXCEPT FOR SAFETY OF LIFE
- REDUCE SPENDING ON BASE OPERATING SUPPORT
- CANCEL ANY PLANNED FACILITIES DEMOLITION
- TERMINATE TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES, EXCEPT THOSE SUPPORTING MISSION-CRITICAL ACTIVITIES SUPPORTING THE WARFIGHTER
- IMPLEMENT A CIVILIAN HIRING FREEZE
7. THESE STEPS WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM COMPLETELY. WE WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN CURRENT FLEET OPERATIONS. WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUFFICIENTLY MAINTAIN AND RESET OUR FORCES FOR FUTURE OPERATIONS.
8. WITH A YEARLONG CR, THE POTENTIAL FOR CIVILIAN FURLOUGHS EXISTS, BUT ALL DECISIONS IN THAT REGARD WILL BE MADE AT THE DOD LEVEL. WE WILL FOLLOW WHATEVER GUIDANCE WE RECEIVE.
9. THIS GUIDANCE IS PROVIDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION. SHORTLY, YOU WILL BE HEARING SPECIFICS FROM SERVICE LEADERSHIP ABOUT THEIR PLANS FOR THE AMOUNT OF THESE ADJUSTMENTS AND WHAT ACTIONS ARE BEING TAKEN TO LIMIT THE IMPACT ON OUR MILITARY PERSONNEL, CIVILIANS, AND FAMILIES.
10. RELEASED BY RAY MABUS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.// BT
Sexual assault is very serious - but we are not addressing this in a serious manner. We are simply going through the process like a fonctionnaire.
Who is driving the SAPR clown car? You can usually measure the uselessness, especially if it is politically motivated, of any endeavor by how much goofy activity surrounds it, and how much it makes otherwise sound, balanced professionals act like they forgot to take their meds. For the uninitiated, SAPR training is;
SAPR-L training provided command leadership triads (Commanding Officer / Officer in Charge, Executive Officer / Assistant Officer in Charge and Command Master Chief / Chief of the Boat / Senior Enlisted) the skills to promote a culture of change through interactive video and facilitated face-to-face (F2F) discussion. Deployed command leadership triads that were not able to participate in F2F SAPR-L Preparation or Defense Connect Online (DCO) / Teleconference training can still complete the training by attending a SAPR-L training session conducted by their parent command or viewing a DVD recorded Master Mobile Training Team led training session. Contact the SAPR Task Force (via link below) to obtain a DVD copy in the mail.
...
Based on the success of the SAPR-L delivery model and positive feedback received, the SAPR-F delivery plan has changed. Master Mobile Training Teams (MMTT), certified by the Center for Personal and Professional Development, will now deploy to fleet concentration areas in December 2012 to begin SAPR-F Preparation Training. Commands cannot begin SAPR-F training until their training team has attended SAPR-F Preparation Training. In order to allow ample time for this change to be executed, the deadline for active and reserve E-6 and below completion of SAPR-F has been extended from 31 December 2012 to 31 March 2013. Additional information and execution guidance is included in NAVADMIN 336/12.
So, here is the first clown out of the car. A little detail here, this is written by an O6 selected for Command. He knows a few things about leadership. He has been in this rodeo before. He does this by email. He/she does this to CAPT, CDR, CMDCM, and all sorts of other senior swinging Johnsons and Joannas in a leadership positions he owns paper on.
BEHOLD THE MADNESS
-----Original Message-----
From: [redacted] Commanding Officer [redacted]
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 8:58 AM
To: [redacted]
Cc:[redacted]
Subject: Last Chance SAPR-L Training
I wanted to reach out one last time before beginning Administrative
action as a result of your non-compliance with the CNO's order to
complete SAPR-L Training. I will provide one last opportunity for
training on January 13 and 27 from 0900-1100 in the CO's conference
room. Keep in mind that your failure to complete the required training
will be considered a violation of the UCMJ and will be treated as such.
If I am contacting you in error, please let me know.
COs,
Please let me know if there is a specific reason your member in the To
line has not been able to complete the training.
Vr
CAPT [redacted]
Commanding Officer
[redacted]
O [redacted]
C [redacted]
[redacted]@navy.mil
[redacted]@navy.smil.mil
-----Original Message-----
From: [redacted] Commanding Officer [redacted]
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 12:55
To: [redacted]
Subject: Non-compliance Warning
Importance: High
Presently, [redacted] has no record of SAPR-L completion for those of
you in the "To: line". It is your responsibility to complete SAPR-L
training by the end of January. If you have already attended the
training, I will need documentation to enter it into FLTMPS.
[redacted] will provide training on both weekends in January and you
are welcome to complete training there or with your Unit. Your COs are
copied and they have all completed the training required to ensure you
are able to comply with this simple requirement mandated by the CNO.
Failure to complete will result in administrative processing for failure
to obey a direct order.
COs,
As with the others in your unit, this training needs to be recorded on a
3500 and entered into FLTMPS. If you conduct the training, please let me
know when and how it was completed. As always, if you need any support,
please ask.
Vr
CAPT [redacted]
Commanding Officer
[redacted]
O [redacted]
C [redacted]
[redacted]@navy.mil
[redacted]@navy.smil.mil
Oh, wait. We are not even close to being done.
So, like all good officers, another member of the Salamander Underground heads in to listen to what the Zampolit has to say. This comrade though did not have the good sense to sit down and shut up.
From a small, cold cell in re-education camp deep in the Irkutsk Oblast he found himself at this weekend, he managed to sneak a note to me via a courier we have in the fur trade;
Today we had SAPR-F training. During the training (which overall I thought was better and more realistic than previous years training), the following statistic was brought up:
90% of sexual assaults go unreported
I raised my hand and asked where that statistic comes from, because it seemed very high and I wanted to know where it was calculated. The Staff Judge Advocate giving the training responded with:
"It's a Congressional figure. If you can't support the CNO's message, we can take you off of the CTT. I realize that nukes and cryppies want numbers, but the point is you need to recognize that sexual assault is a problem."
So, there you go. Actual figures are here. Zampolit did not do his homework and is acting like an a55hat to boot. On a very serious note. You want professionals to take your priorities as their priorities? Show them something they will respect and that shows them you respect them.
If you have some politically driven BS that only makes sense inside the Beltway or in the fever swamps of Gender Studies programs in academia, yet has no reflection to what the Fleet sees day in and day out - then don't be shocked when you get indifference, and when you can't even handle a follow-on question - anything but contempt. Next time when you need their attention on something really important and fact based, think you might have a little trouble getting traction? I wonder why?
Join us this Sunday form 5-6pm EST to celebrate Midrat's 3rd Anniversary with a free-ranging panel discussion with some of your favorite guests from the past three seasons.
In addition to my illustrious co-host EagleOne, for at least an hour we will have a free-for-all panel with regular guests; Captain Henry J. Hendrix, Jr. USN; Captain Will Dossel, USN (Ret); LCDR Claude Berube, USNR; and YN2 H. Lucien Gauthier, III (SW) USN.
We will be asking each other questions on the above-the-fold subjects of the last year and what we see in the next.
Join in the chat room for to suggest your own questions as well.
Join us live if you can, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio - the best way to get the show and download the archive to your audio player is to get a free account and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
This is it? Commander in Chief of the world's top power?
"So, you know, I think that, have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. You know, there's a human enterprise, and you know, you fall short of the ideal, ... Did we achieve our central goal? And have we been able, I think, to shape a strong relationship with a responsible Afghan government that is willing to cooperate with us to make sure that it is not a launching pad for future attacks against the United States? We have achieved that goal. We are in the process of achieving that goal. And for that, I think we have to thank our extraordinary military, intelligence and diplomatic teams, as well as the cooperation of the Afghan government and the Afghan people.
Has he ever been briefed on the actual OPLAN for AFG? Objectives/Goals, End States, Mission? Good googly moogly, from this horror show, it looks like he has not - or worse - he has and simply cared so little for it that he didn't let any of it soak in.
Anyway, let's read that again;
We have achieved that goal. We are in the process of achieving that goal.
Either this or that ... cannot do both. I've known since DEC of 2009 that he had no idea what conditions based vs. calendar based planning was all about - and the history of both, but he could at least try to instill some confidence in his military in the field and show some spine as we continue our scheduled retreat.
This level of disinterest and depression just endangers all who are in the field right now. Heck, the center is broken ... now I know what the Elector of Bavaria was thinking at Blenheim. If this is the level of commitment that the Commander in Chief has in AFG ... then we are way past any measure of morality in keeping people in harm's way. 2013's fighting season will be simply setting the conditions for 2014's retreat - a retreat right in the middle of fighting season. Might as well do it now ... but we won't/can't/probably shouldn't.
The responsible thing is to execute the CINC's orders as best as you can, but by no means take exceptional measures that put your people in harm's way. The CINC has given up on victory, no reason to do more than is strictly described. Get as many people home as possible, and to h311 AFG. This is ALL on President Obama's head. He came in to office with a OPLAN that at least had a chance through Shape-Clear-Hold-Build and a conditions based path to some type of acceptable resolution. Now? Nothing. This eventual defeat is all of his making. Watch the video above, you can hear it in his voice. He knows it, and perhaps even wants it. I don't know. I can't see in to a man's heart, but I can judge him by his actions. Those speak for themselves.
As for senior leadership in uniform since DEC 09, know this. Somewhere in the near future there will be a young man or woman who will get their PhD and will write a book about your silence - about your inaction - about your willingness to stand in silence while this went on.
It will make Bright Shining Lie and Dereliction of Duty look like love letters. Be prepared for it. Be ready to defend your silence. There are some schools of thought that will make sense to explain your silence ... but don't be shocked when you are held to account by history.
How well do you fully understand the core of your service? Of your broad mission?
What do you do here?
In early November, 1897, the Chamber of Commerce and the people of San Francisco brought to the attention of President William McKinley, that eight whaling ships were caught by the Arctic ice in the vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska, and their crews were in danger of starvation. The situation for the whalers was believed so critical by the President that he ordered a rescue expedition formed.
Little hope was given for the whalers, by men who had explored and experienced the Arctic region. It was believed too late in the Fall to reach the marooned whalers by ship. However, trusting in the ability and resourcefulness of the Revenue Cutter Service (now called the Coast Guard), the Secretary of the Treasury, Lyman J. Gage, directed the veteran cutter Bear to prepare for a Winter rescue of the whalers.
The Bear, under the command of Captain Francis Tuttle, had just returned from her annual cruise to Point Barrow on the Arctic coast of Alaska. Upon the receipt of the Secretary's directive, Captain Tuttle began to assemble an all volunteer relief expedition. Next, he stocked the ship with ample provisions to enable the entire crew to winter-over in this area.
An incredible story of professionalism, creativity, leadership, and most of all - just doing the right mission the right way.
Read it all.
What is the latent and potential ability of the Royal Navy vs. the Japanese Navy to function as THE critical maritime partner for the rest of this century?
The numbers are striking. The quality is close. The proximity speaks for itself. I'm pondering that a bit over at USNIBlog. Come visit and tell me what you think.
I guess I need to bring out the obvious: "With all due respect ....but ...." Good googly moogly; sadly this was not written by TheDuffleBlog. Just when I think we are making progress towards a more just, color blind military - we had a Flag Officer come out with a gobsmackingly retrograde racialist article that beggars the imagination. Did he actually author this in a clear conscience? You hope beyond hope that he didn't; that it was just something ghost written for him by a member of the Diversity Industry's nomenclature that infest the Navy's branch of the Grievance Industry's commissariat. He either didn't read it critically, or he had to put it out to keep the wolves at bay.
Out of respect for his self respect, you hope that like the photos, letters, and confessions by our POWs held in Asian communist rat-holes, that this is all being done under duress. Well, that is what I hope. Heck, some of the things I was forced to do to protect and support my boss in the face or roaming gangs of the (D)iversity SA breaking shop windows, I am not proud of either. Heck, who knows - but I do know this - the below will not stand without a thorough quasi-Fisking. It begs for it; it demands it. Out of respect for the author, one must.
Yes, we all have that block on our FITREP. Nice standard issue article opening gentuflection ... almost too much, I almost see the finger. Almost.
But what is diversity and how do you achieve that vision? The Navy
definition of diversity is “all the different characteristics and
attributes of individual Sailors and civilians that enhance the mission
readiness of the Navy.” As the NAVSEA commander, I lead a workforce of
more than 58,000 talented civilians in career fields ranging from
engineers, scientists, acquisition professionals, financial managers to
shipyard workers. In order for us to meet our mission requirements of
developing, delivering and maintaining America’s Navy, we need a to
attract, develop, and retain a high-quality, diverse workforce that
values a culture of inclusiveness, and harnesses the teamwork and
experience of our workforce to produce ideas and products to
keep America’s Navy #1 in the world.
Please note the official definition of (D)iversity. Very clever to put that there when in just a very short amount of reading time the operational definition of (D)iversity is given, putting the lie to the official "different view, opinions, and points of view" whitewash that comes out now and then.
When I became the NAVSEA Commander in 2008, one of my key people
goals was for NAVSEA to become the Federal Employer of Choice. Part of
that goal was to ensure that we fostered a welcoming environment and
that assignments and promotions were transparent and merit-based.
Workplace diversity needed to simply be part of the way we do business
every day.
Yawn. Really? Cut-n-paste from some random Flag Officer speech generator ... but hey, as writers, some times you have to meet the minimum word count some how. Background noise, don't like it.
To achieve this goal, I conducted a top-down review of the
organizational demographics and the path to hiring and promoting
personnel into key leadership positions. The results showed that while
the command understood and embraced diversity, that in practice we were
missing the mark with respect to recruiting women and minorities and
advancing them to leadership positions.
Of course. As Dear Leader Gary taught us, get the specific race and gender self-reported numbers, hire ADSW USNR O6s to produce XLS and PPT so you can count your beans and put them in to little piles. Once you do that, show where you need to move the beans you have based simply on the type of bean they are - throwing away and moving aside the beans you don't like. Actively discriminate by direct action based on race, creed, color, and if needed, national origin. After all ... that is what we mean by "practice." Hey, did you see what we just did in the above quote? That is right, we just defined what we actually mean. You get what you inspect, and what are we inspecting?
... missing the mark with respect to recruiting women and minorities ...
... and how are we going to actively discriminate against those races and genders we don't like(in the zero sum game, that is what you are doing when you don't promote on the basis of merit). (again, like high school physics's "mass-less friction-less pulley," let us just ignore racial self-identification fraud for a moment)?
... recruiting women and minorities and
advancing them to leadership positions.
At least we are being honest about what we are doing. Out and in the open - active discrimination.
That is all they are really talking about?
Diversity of opinion, background, experience, education? Child please!
To understand and develop a path to change this trend, Executive Director Brian Persons and I implemented annual Diversity Accountability Reviews patterned after those conducted by the CNO
with his enterprise leads. In the first assessment, I asked my field
activity commanders for an honest appraisal of the state of diversity in
their organizations. They looked at:
Identifying key leadership positions and grade levels;
Identifying the “pathway” an employee would take to get those positions;
Defining how the organization makes employees aware of these career pathways; and
Identifying any systemic barriers or cultural norms that prevented
the command from integrating diversity into their organization.
Ah, yes. The Diversity Accountability Review show trials. Rarely in the last hundred years has our Navy been involved in a more disgusting activity. No unity, no Sailor ... but breaking things down in to the most base and meaningless definition of a person; their race and ethnicity (and gender). Promoting already rampant racial self-identification fraud, and forcing multi-racial or post-racial people us regress back to a Jim Crow world view. Look at the bullet points above. Get beyond the incredibly patronizing 2nd and 3rd bullets and look at the 4th. If there is a barrier or cultural norm that is throwing up a wall due to ethnicity or race ... where is the NJP? Where is the Courts Martial? Oh, wait ... we are building systemic barriers and creating new cultural norms. We haven't had race and ethnic barriers and cultural issues in decades ... I guess going beyond that endangers the (D)iveristy Industry jobs; then we must build new ones. Afterall, we all know that to oppose racism in to be a racist; at least that is what the race-trolls say in their emails to me.
These initial assessments allowed NAVSEA/PEO Headquarters and Field Activities
to self identify barriers to improving the diversity of the workforce
and to lay out a set of actions to work. The results of these reviews
revealed, that despite command rhetoric about practicing diversity, we
were not moving the needle in hiring and promoting diverse
personnel largely because our eligible pool of candidates lacked
diversity. We discovered that senior leadership was not directly
involved in the recruiting and hiring processes; managers lacked
an understanding of the importance of hiring a diverse workforce; and
hiring officials were hiring and promoting people who looked just like
themselves.
Stop right there. That is an incredible accusation of discrimination and racism. Where are the names? Who has been fired ... what is your proof? If that really happened and no one has been fired, then why are those people still working for you? We aren't just making those statements on 1-dementional numbers, i.e. piles of beans, are we? Please tell me someone is doing regression analysis before they make such statement. But, wait --- let's read that closer. Are we asking senior leadership in interject themselves to make hiring decision to "make the needle move" strictly on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender? Again, if so, thank you. You just outed yourself and your organization ... again ... as an organization that engages or desires to engage in a discriminatory basis with regard to race, creed, color, or national origin. OK. Thank you again for proving my point.
Additionally, we uncovered instances where diverse personnel
were migrating off of traditional technical leadership paths and self
selecting other career paths (e.g., business and finance) for better
promotion opportunities. This was a result of perceived reduced
promotion opportunity in their technical career path. The next step was
to determine the factors that led to this situation and implement
measures to change the culture within our organization.
Wow again. Could not be more patronizing. Great White Father knows best? I thought we left that racial theory behind over half a century ago too.
The factors hindering NAVSEA in increasing minorities and women in key leadership positions fell into these areas.
Minorities and women were not in gateway positions that would lead them to be considered for key leadership positions.
Women had migrated out of a technical career path to business operations positions, thereby eliminating them from consideration.
Women and minorities had limited access to high visibility assignments in order to continue to progress in their careers.
There was a general lack of succession planning to identify
positions that would lead to senior/executive level positions and an
absence of cross-cultural mentoring in order to discover talent and
bring it along the career track.
Senior level vacancies were advertised within the local activity
only with no expanded search for persons outside of the activity.
In our shipyard blue collar positions, we found that females were
being selected for the apprenticeship programs at significantly lower
rates than males; and
Recruiting and promotion processes (interviews, exams, selection
board makeup) had not been vigorously reviewed and influenced by senior
leadership to ensure that no demographic was disadvantaged. In essence,
we were hiring and promoting personnel the way we always had, despite
the fact that our diversity metrics were not reflective of the broader
population surrounding our activities and were not improving.
Thank you again for reiterating the operational definition of "Diversity" in the Navy. You want senior leaders to actively discriminate. You imply that something is taking place, with no "proof" that will survive a Sophomore level statistics student's analysis. I'll just reference that quote next time another Flag Writer cut-n-pastes this from our (D)iversity Bullies' homepage;
Diversity is all the different characteristics and attributes of individual Sailors and civilians that enhance the mission readiness of the Navy.
We should be so lucky to actually follow the little lies we tell each other. Sad.
Bottom Line: Our rhetoric concerning fairness to all in hiring and
promotions was at odds with our behavior. At face value, these items all
seem fairly straightforward and easy to change. We found that it really
was not!
What behavior? Again, if there are bigots in the workplace, where are the firings? If there are no bigots, then what are you asking for? From the outside, it is clear - you are asking for people to discriminate in order to "move the needle." Someone get me the JAG.
During our second year assessment, we met with the leaders of all
NAVSEA/PEO Headquarters and Field Activities 12-18 months after the
first assessments to determine progress and the effectiveness of their
actions. Several of these reviews did not go well and, in fact,
some activities were directed to stop hiring or stop promoting personnel
until they took actions to increase their pool of qualified candidates.
What was at stake was cultural change and without direct senior leader
involvement, the status quo would not change. This resulted in
two problems: the pool of qualified candidates for hiring and promotion
was restricted which resulted in a real loss of opportunity to bring
better talent to the team and we were not improving the diversity makeup
of our workforce to better reflect that of the surrounding communities.
We have Sailors being blown up and burned to death by the enemy in AFG. We have Sailors who are deploying 11-months straight. We have ships whose material condition is well below standards. ... and NAVSEA stops hiring support staff meant to support the Fleet because ... your PPT numbers did not meet a racialist world view PPT?
The major action we took as a result of our assessments was to
develop a talent-focused perspective to managing civilian careers, where
we identified and eliminated barriers that impeded hiring and career
progression in mid-, senior- and executive-level positions; laid
out clear career paths and positions leading to senior/executive
positions; created opportunities for career enhancement; increased
wounded warrior/individuals with targeted disabilities hiring; and
launched a enterprise-wide retention initiative. We discovered that the
key is that diversity isn’t about quotas, but rather it is about
fostering a welcoming environment and having a process where assignments
and promotions are transparent and merit-based and built into the
culture.
You cannot do that and also do everything else you are talking about. You cannot have a merit based system when you are inspecting, rewarding, and punishing based on race, ethnicity, and gender.
As a team, we are now in our third year of Diversity Accountability
Review process – where we require Headquarters and Field Activities to
conduct an annual self assessment of their diversity improvement
actions. It is a frank discussion about what is working and what is not
and the activities unique challenges in terms of talent required and
local demographics. Long term, the NAVSEA Diversity reviews are about
sustaining our progress; changing our culture about how we view
diversity; and how we attract, develop, and mentor talent. This is a
continuous journey and NAVSEA fully recognizes that sustained focus and
energy must be maintained to continue our progress and that we must view
diversity as a “marathon vice a sprint” with everyone on the same
starting line.
Where did that dog's breakfast of a last line come from? It makes no sense.
1. In theory, every marathon has the same starting line. Not everyone can stand on that starting line, that is impossible in the time-space construct of our universe. 2. If someone demands that you run a marathon where everyone is standing on the starting line, then you can never run a marathon, as that is impossible. You either have to lie, or limit the marathon to just a few people so once everyone who can stand on that line are there - no one else will be able to run. Maybe that is the point .... or maybe like so much else in this article, it does not fall in alignment with the real world. Many times over the years we have been doing this on Thursday, I have said one of the tragic things about the our Navy joining the socio-political movement that is the modern (D)iversity industry, is that it forces otherwise logical, honorable, hard working, patriotic, and refined professionals say the most illogical, integrity distorting, and at times bizarre things. But, authoritarian socio-political philosophies throughout history have had that effect on good people. Sadly, it is true here as well.
Authoritarians who can only exist in a web of lies wrapped around hate, as the (D)iveristy Industry is rife with, all respond in similar manners to truth.
