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The DoD defines “readiness” as the ability of the U.S. military forces to fight and meet the demands of the National Military Strategy.
It needs to be put in the context of what goals an organization is trying to accomplish. That clarity drives the need for strategy and priority.
Agencies must be very purposeful in how they act as they work towards their goals with limited resources.
They need to be able to crosswalk the investments they are going to make back to the strategy and demonstrate how it will deliver a more advanced stance towards readiness. Under sequestration-level funding, the military cannot continue to operate at current levels and provide a fully-ready, globally responsive force.
But, does simply adding more money and more people fix everything? Agencies must prioritize their most important assets and allocate those finite resources against those priorities intelligently. The following four best practices will help improve the state of military readiness:
1. A structured, disciplined, and repeatable decision-making framework ensures a portfolio of assets is prioritized to achieve goals and objectives with minimal risk and greater benefits.
2. Even more important to establishing the decision framework is the task of prioritizing the strategic objectives in relation to one another. It is critical to take a fresh look at objectives, not assuming what has worked in the past will continue to suffice.
3. Input from stakeholders is essential to incorporating needs and considerations from across the organization into the long-range plan. Assembling a group of internal stewards to champion the change is essential to implementation.
4. The introduction of greater transparency, collaboration, and analytical rigor into the readiness process will certainly lead to significant changes in how projects are selected and how funding is allocated in the future.
Want to learn more? Watch our on-demand webinars to listen to a senior expert level panel representing multiple military services give their perspective on readiness:
Readiness Priorities and Improvement: the Navy, Army, and Air Force of Today and Tomorrow Webcast
