March 2013 Continuous Process Improvement Director Ms. Olga Z Rivas Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing U.

S Pacific Fleet

March 2013

Driving Engagement to Change Behavior

Driving engagement of qualitative stewardship has been the focus of Commander, Helicopter Strike Maritime Wing Pacific and his staff. This shift from a task to be accomplished to a task which must be done to specification has enabled the 10 Fleet squadrons under his command to understand the reason for standardized processes and the performance metrics associated with effective corrosion performance. Upon implementation, these processes and metrics can generate and sustain the behaviors that produce required corrosion performance. What does success in the fight against corrosion look like? Does EVERYONE know what that is? More importantly, do they understand why success is required? Have they been given the tools, information & knowledge to succeed? The efforts to answer these questions have led to the improved/engaged performance of organizational squadrons assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Pacific Fleet. Following the guideline outlined by K.B Ridge, in Helping People Win at Work (2009), the type wing commander has driven improved performance by giving his squadrons the playbook for success. He has chartered his staff to educate squadrons on expected performance, the process to be executed and the performance metrics by which they will be measured.

Commitment Engagement Alignment Motivation

Achieving Engagement

Contents
Target areas

Achieving Engagement
Incremental and systematic Performance metrics

1 2 3

Why is it Important?
Sustaining success Replicate Additional Information

Execution, sustainment and, Replication

3 3 4 4

Target Areas

Corrosion Control Performance Maintenance Personnel Readiness & Proficiency

Squadron/Detachment Preparedness

This article will highlight the first target area: Corrosion Control Performance

New initiatives are frequently met with resistance. One reason is a lack of understanding why its being introduced and its importance to squadron readiness. The shift in reception of the Enhanced Corrosion Control Performance initiative has been positive. Squadron commanders now understand the why: the HSM community has received brand new aircraft and they must exercise qualitative stewardship of the assets in their care. Ultimately it has produced desired behavior their engagement.

Incremental and Systematic

Our culture implicitly drove this behavior. In most military organizations, not many indepth question & answer sessions are held. But that has changed with this initiative. The 180 degree shift resulted in executive meetings where probative questions are asked and detailed explanations are given. This change in the wings dynamic produced a sincere desire for understanding at all levels of leadership. And with that understanding comes the ability to execute successfully. All staff members have embraced a personal charter: Squadron success in execution and results.

Tell me how Im being measured and Ill tell you how I will behave.

Performance Metrics

Collected baseline data depicting performance

Why do we use performance metrics? Its simple. Accountability. Checklists and instructions dictate to squadrons what minimum requirements must be met. The nebulous directive to get it done is often where the disconnect lays. Patrick Lencioni, an expert in Executive Team development, highlights the five dysfunctions of a team (Lencioni, 2002) in his book. An integral component of team success is the importance of integrating accountability. Providing information on how to succeed comes with the commitment that the squadrons are prepared for inspection. Their readiness comes from the desire to succeed. Our type wing routinely and randomly extracts data to ascertain how well units are performing. Its difficult to argue with data. It has no personality or agenda. It just tells the story. The type wing training team actively engages with the squadrons to provide training to units that have had a large turnover of personnel or have experienced skill set degradation a typical difficulty which, if left unaddressed, can set a unit back to square one. The type wing inspection and training teams intent is to sustain a high level of proficiency consistently. The type wing maintenance officer verifies that his team is in compliance and following instructions. This high level of accountability ensures success with all other high-level operational tempo requirements. These step-bystep instructions are being embraced and utilized. Performance to be proud of is the intended goal. Just as students dont embrace a bad grade, squadron commanders will do everything to set up their squadron for success. The squadrons will soon be using lessons learned in attaining corrosion performance and applying essential process steps to determine how to fast track and expedite maintenance personnel qualifications while developing technical proficiency. The primary reason for this is the reduction in the number of personnel available to conduct tasks and the realization that these personnel must know how to complete the job correctly the first time. No one has time for mistakes or rework.

COMHSMWINGPAC CPI Director PO Box 357137 San Diego, CA 92135-7137 619-545-5938 619-545-5964 olga.z.rivas@navy.mil

Intergranular & Exfoliation Corrosion Ms. Olga Z. Rivas

HSMWP Solution Based Approach

Sustained Corrosion Performance

Execution, Sustainment, Replication

Why is it Important?
The sequential order of attaining success commenced with the process of change highlighted in Leading Change (Kotter, 1996). It has equated to the following sequence: execution, sustainment and replication. The use of continuous process improvement (CPI) tools has influenced how change initiatives are approached and disassembled for improvement or repair. Lean Six Sigma elements provide the perfect platform in that discipline is required not to arrive at a solution without accurately analyzing the data. There isnt just one preferred tool that fits all situations and circumstances; the selection will be determined by accurate problem analysis and the timeframe of when the problem must be resolved. CPI tools coupled with an optimal strategy and communication plan will answer the question of why the change is taking place. Providing squadrons with the necessary elements to succeed (Ridge, 2009) and the engagement model to generate excitement about what is being done (Halsey, 2011) have broken down barriers which previously impeded success.

The Naval Aviation Enterprise has made substantial investments in modernizing aviation weapon systems. We are transitioning more than 23 communities/platforms systems in the next 15 years a historical first. This large investment requires qualitative stewardship for the custodians of our aircraft. The NAVAIR Corrosion Prevention Team was chartered to accomplish this endeavor. The modernization encompasses over 25 type model series upgrades totaling over 32 varieties of manned and unmanned aircraft. The first vital step was establishing a baseline standard for each model to use for inspection. The elimination of variation is crucial to directing maintainers behavior. Inspectors thoroughly educated squadrons on what would be inspected while pointing out correlations to the Maintenance Requirement Cards. This engagement transferred knowledge and created a setting which generated more questions and also required the scheduling of additional training opportunities. This engagement isnt only applicable to the here and now; it also applies to future maintenance plans which encompass Reliability Centered Maintenance, complementary rotary wing operations, deliberate cross-training and allotment of technicians.

Sustaining initiatives over the long-term has been a challenge across the Naval Aviation Enterprise because of the turn over of Executive Leadership. Most organizations understand why it was important for a time and worked with fervor to correct the deficiency. Sustaining, however, it is more complex. The fluctuation of personnel in military environments drives this dysfunction. Success not only requires senior leadership engagement, but ownership at all levels regardless of who the leader is or if a person who has championed CPI leaves for another assignment. Each individual should see his or herself as building for the future.

Sustaining Success

Replicate, replicate, replicate

As the organization continues to identify the problems that require improvement initiatives to correct and sustain, its biggest gains will be in the power of replication.

Transferring lessons learned as well as process development will nuance change towards something done with familiarity, and more importantly, embraced without hesitation. True culture development factors the power of replication of previous successes and exploits them.

More information on this initiative can be found in The Department of the Navy Continuous Process Improvement Management System website: https://don.hqda.pentagon.mil/CPIMS/Home.page http://corrdefense.nace.org/corrdefense_fall_2009/top_story3.asp http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/nae/Current%20ReadinessEnterprise%20AIRSpeed%20Newsl etters/Volume_11-Issue_2-Posted_February_2013.pdf

Additional information

Ms. Olga Z. Rivas COMHSMWINGPAC CPI Director PO Box 357137 San Diego, CA 92135-7137

[Recipient Name] [Street address] [Address 2] [City, ST ZIP Code]

Blanchard, K. a. (2009). Helping People Win at Work. (K. B. Ridge, Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: FT Press. Halsey, V. (2011). Brilliance by Design. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers,Inc. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Lencioni, P. (2002). The FIVE Dysfunctions of aTeam. San Francisco, CA, USA: Jossey-Bass.

Works Cited