Using Prizes to Harness the Power of the Population
By: Michael Carlson Estimated reading time: 5 minutes The United States (US) Air Force proudly proclaims it has been “breaking
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innovation
A Bomber for the Navy
Rather that sending the B-1 Lancer into early retirement, the Department of Defense could transfer it to the Navy for duty as a land-based ship-killer.
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Innovation Madness: Accepting Risk Today to Avoid Defeat Tomorrow
The United States Air Force (USAF) recognizes a need for future innovations as near-peer competitors make rapid advancements in military capabilities. However, the current USAF system does not facilitate keeping up with these competitors. Innovation requires a cultural shift regarding risk acceptability at all levels, starting with leaders. The USAF can facilitate this shift by further addressing regulatory guidance and Professional Military Education programs. Until the USAF as an organization is willing to accept risks and ultimately failures to achieve success, mission impacting innovations will continue to be elusive.
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Forget “The Frozen Middle”: This mysterious layer of bureaucracy is not an insurmountable obstacle to innovation, even if it did exist.
The frozen middle is a term that we, as the AF, need to move past. Airmen need the courage to try, courage to fail, and the top cover to try again. It isn’t going to be easy or comfortable, but it is necessary.
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Changing change while it changes: The rise of disruptive military thinking (Part 3 of 3)
Militaries need to introduce design education as early as possible; cadets and privates need to experience design.
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Changing change while it changes: The rise of disruptive military thinking (Part 2 of 3)
Military design is about constantly changing, transforming, challenging, and disrupting.
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Changing change while it changes: The rise of disruptive military thinking (Part 1 of 3)
Many of the seemingly successful mechanical planning processes of the last two centuries are now holding us back
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Igniting a Cultural Insurgency in the Acquisition Community: Part II
A cultural reform in DOD acquisitions and USAF professional development is critical to timely delivery of capability to the warfighter.
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#RescueIcarus: A Manifesto for Heroic Innovation
Excerpt: The moral of the myth is not—as we’ve been taught—to value Daedalus’s pragmatism over Icarus’s playfulness, but rather that
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Leading Distributed Teams: Theory and Practice (Part 2)
Leaders must purposefully plan how they will engage and conduct business within their own distributed organization by defining each team’s
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Avoiding the Early Bird– Innovation in the US Air Force
“The early bird gets the worm. The early worm… gets eaten” – Norm Augustine With support from the highest levels
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The Laird-Packard Way: Unpacking Defense Acquisition Policy
Exploring David Packard’s leadership in defense acquisitions may help guide the path for present day acquisition reform.
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Designing Through Complexity and Human Conflict
Rather than focus on specific or contextual concerns within a single conflict or foreign policy approach, we ought to consider
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OTH Video: Interview with Lt Gen Jeff “Cobra” Harrigian
At the end of the day it’s about killing and surviving. To do that, we’ve got to go faster and think beyond just air, space, and cyber.
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Innovation from the Bottom-Up: How Design Thinking Can Transform the Air Force Culture
Incorporating Silicon Valley’s design thinking methods can revolutionize the way the Department of Defense approaches innovation.
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Interview with Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan: Part 2
Excerpt: In an interview, Lt Gen Jack Shanahan shares his vision for the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning
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DROP ZONE: The Rise of the Machines
Although the machines have not taken over, swarms offer a solution to the problem of accessing contested areas and destroying challenging target sets.
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Multi-Domain Operations Security
OPSEC is one of many information related capabilities that must evolve in the next few years to ensure our military protects its future critical information.
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War as a Living Phenomenon: Change from and Continuity with the Past in Warfare
War is a living, multiform and complex phenomenon in perpetual motion, where there is no culmination point. The future of war is both decided by a slow-pace adaptation to experiences and history and radical innovations.
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Understanding Change: Improve, Innovate, or Create?
Innovation is not an end in and of itself, but rather a tool that can be used to achieve a desired end.
By Jon Farley