Without Talent Agility, America May Lose
Jim Perkins and Mike McGinley
August 14, 2024
Joint Full Mission Profile exercise empowers Airmen
When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine could not afford to waste time establishing an official drone corps before deploying unmanned quadcopters onto the battlefield. Ukrainian soldiers did not pass a formal accreditation process and earn a skill identifier before assignment to these previously non-existent units, either. Instead, a whole-of-nation collaboration allowed civilian innovators to partner with Ukrainian intelligence and cyber units to rapidly create a new military unit, Aerorozvidka, and deploy an innovative threat against the Russian invasion.
The 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy states that “people execute the strategy” and will be critical in great-power competition or a future conflict. Senior U.S. defense leaders tout that people are the U.S. military’s “greatest strength” and that the department is in a global war for talent. Yet no major program focuses on innovation and investment in talent management on par with the innovation and investment seen in countless other tangible systems. The department is pursuing sixth-generation fighter aircraft but is seemingly unphased by second-generation talent management systems, processes, and policies. To get serious about winning current and future conflicts, the military needs a talented, flexible, and skilled force, and the Defense Department should take on the thorny tasks of talent management reform.
Despite numerous calls for change over the last two decades, talent management reform has mostly been on the fringes. The policy changes keep pace with quality-of-life enhancements offered outside the military, such as enhanced parental leave, marginally more flexibility in the up-or-out promotion system, and updated grooming standards. In 2013, the department made the most significant shift by removing the restrictions on women from combat arms. These changes are needed progress but represent incremental, insufficient adjustments.
https://warontherocks.com/2024/08/without-talent-agility-america-may-lose/
