13 October 2018

Cognitive Diversity: A Mile High...

On the eve of an early winter storm in Denver, CO USA, there is change in the air and the anticipation of a new blanket of fresh snow.  Hundreds of like-minded individuals with a common mission, steadfast purpose and glowing enthusiasm for innovation are gathered here.  This is the "Virtuous Insurgency."

The Defense Entrepreneurs Forum (DEF) is gaining momentum on so many fronts.  The crisp dialogue and the challenges for change are so distinct and even heart felt.  When you put this much "Cognitive Diversity" in one place over the course of 3 days, there is bound to be multiple examples of critical moments of brilliance and also social intelligence.

Maybe it's time you changed your "Chief Operations Officer" (COO) title to:  "Chief Outlaw Officer."

When was the last time you heard such intellect, witnessed such courage of ideas and even caught your eyes gathering a tear listening to people tell their vivid stories.  This is evidence of the organizational and cultural hurdles that we face each day to achieve our purpose, within a tremendous system designed for an era of arms races and so many decades past.

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the incorporated Intelligence Community (IC) are rapidly accelerating the pace of change and even celebrating their failures.  The question on many people's minds is this.  Are we too late?

When was the last time you as a CxO in your commercial enterprise, made the decision to assist our men and women serving our country, to better learn more about the daily business strategies of the private sector?  It's processes, the entrepreneurial factors and the continuous race for market share.

Have you created a strategic initiative within your commercial company, that invites outstanding fellows from our military and intelligence domains, for a Tour of Duty within your organization?

Why not?

You see, it is a 360 degree opportunity for the individuals in your firm to learn from these military and intelligence fellows, to gain new insights as they have become so skilled in their respective specialties and roles.

This learning works both ways and would provide those serving our country with vital experience and understanding of the idiosyncrasies of your industry sector and unique commercial enterprise.

There are current forms of this kind of work exchange fellowship going on across America now, yet it is now being optimized.  It is far from perfect for both stakeholders.

What is the right amount of time and at what level of seniority is the fellow brought in to the organization?  Six months, a year?  Who is the sponsoring department?  Engineering, Information Technology.  Business Development.  Accounting, Customer Service, Procurement, maybe it is even more than one.

You see, organizations today are asking for Veterans to consider their commercial company for employment and have specific recruiting events being marketed to those who have transitioned out of one of our military services.  Why are these companies waiting for someone with a DD Form 214?

Our organizations large and small should be creating the most ideal roles and experiences for these fellows now, so that they ultimately would like to return, once they have finalized their tour of duty with the military.

What is brought back to the inner core of the current state of our military industrial system are new ideas, new processes to be tested and the experiences of working in the private sector.

So how might we lead the commercial race to attract new found experts in asymmetric warfare to work along side those inside your Information Security department?  Who will lead the commercial race to attract new found experts in Geo-Spatial Intelligence to work with your Logistics, Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) or even your Marketing department?  The possibilities are too numerous to imagine.
"Our U.S. nation state adversaries have optimized their defense and intelligence systems already.  The blur between commercial and military operations is hard to discern sometimes.  The speed to market and the "Cognitive Diversity" of those working on Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence is already well known."
One only has to peruse this recent report to ascertain why we are now behind the curve.  Yet our "Virtuous Insurgency" is on the correct trajectory.  Almost straight up...

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