SECDEF announces first round of Force of the Future reforms

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Here is the list:

  1. Improve and Enhance College Internship Programs
  2. Establish the Defense Digital Service (DDS)
  3. Launch Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program
  4. Designate Chief Recruiting Officer
  5. Expand Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellows Program
  6. Increase Size of the Career Intermission Program
  7. Update and Modernize Retirement System
  8. Implement Web-Based Talent Management System
  9. Establish Office of People Analytics
  10. Implement Exit Surveys
  11. Examine Ways to Improve Recruiting
  12. Diversity Briefings
  13. Talent Management Centers of Excellence
  14. Civilian Skills in Reserve Component
  15. Compensation Study
  16. Increased Use of Reserve Component Service Members
  17. Doctoral-Level Program in Strategy
  18. Center for Talent Development
  19. Civilian Human Capital Innovation Laboratory
  20. Defense Innovation Network
  21. Active and Reserve Component Permeability

Some of these are low hanging fruit (10, 12) and driven by need (7, 15). Also, the Department has been working on making better use of the Reserve Component (14, 16, 21) for many years. The Army (via OEMA) has operated an Office of People Analytics (9) and worked on talent management (8, 9, 13, 18) for many years.

Establishing a doctoral-level program in strategy (17) is not a comparative advantage of DoD. Many well-regarded business schools offer PhDs in Strategy. A homegrown program would focus more on military applications. But, it would be more valuable to send our officers to civilian programs but bring them back to well-placed post-doctoral positions to leverage their education and tie it to military applications. I believe this is true with AFIT and NPS as well.

I am especially excited that each of the services is directed to establish a "Talent Management Center of Excellence to provide labor economics data and [modeling] for Service personnel chiefs and senior leaders." This is an under-served area, and I hope the services truly invest in this area.

Ovearll, this is a great initial set of initiatives. Their success will depend on the level of resourcing (manpower and funding) and the talent DoD puts into these reforms.