The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Innovation. John E. Jackson

“harvesting point” for new thought.

       • U.S. Fleet Forces Command has consolidated concept development and Fleet experimentation programs at NWDC, allowing for a synergistic “one-stop” shop for turning new ideas into experiments leading to future capabilities.

       • NWDC published the “Innovators Guide,” dedicated to helping junior leaders, officers and enlisted, to understand how to push their creative ideas up their chains of command and into development.

      In the end, the tomorrow we seek may very well depend on how we harness our creative activities today. Building a streamlined process to drive innovation from the deckplates could be the key. As was so clearly demonstrated during the interwar years, visionary leadership that embraces change as a necessary part of growth, combined with a keen desire to harness the energies of the Fleet, can tailor a future Navy ready to prevail at sea.

       Notes

       1. John Kao, Innovation Manifesto: The Pocket Version for Extremely Busy People (Hampton Roads, VA: Precision Printing, 2002).

       2. John Kao, Innovation Nation (New York: Free Press, 2007).

       3. Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts & Cultures (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004), 19.

       4. John T. Kuehn, Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet That Defeated the Japanese (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008), 4, 15.

       5. Dr. Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy, speech presented at the Current Strategy Forum, Naval War College, Newport, RI, 13 June 2006.

       6. Term coined by ADM John C. Harvey, Commander USFFC, October 2011.

       7. Kao, Innovation Nation.

       8. Speech by ADM John Harvey at NWDC, 13 March 2012.

       9. GEN Martin E. Dempsey, “Mission Command” (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff White Paper, 3 April 2012).

       10. Peter J. Munson, “Disruptive Thinking, Innovation, Whatever You Want to Call It Is Needed for a Military in Crisis,” Small Wars Journal (blog), 5 April 2012, http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/disruptive-thinking-innovation-whatever-you-want-to-call-it-is-needed-for-a-military-in-crisis.

       11. Interview by Vago Muradian in “This Week in Defense News,” 24 July 2012.

       12. Warren Bennis, Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1997), 212.