Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians (NEOD), the organization that I am currently a part of and have some influence over, are a small group (1500 personnel) trained in the art of bomb disposal. As a scalable force, we specialize in complex and dangerous tasks ranging from IED to chemical and biological weapon remediation. NEOD personnel can enter a crisis surreptitiously from the air, under the sea and across the land. NEOD has historically been the “force of choice” across virtually every component of the Department of Defense (DoD), due to the high number of terrorist bombs. Post 9/11 global terrorist activities placed tremendous “operational stress” upon the NEOD community with relentless training and deployments (Jones, Hammond
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In this paper I will give the current state of my organization highlighting the need for organizational change, discuss major issues that have been prevalent and the need for urgency to change, and dramatic, attention grabbing techniques to influence innovative …show more content…
Alarmingly, initial training or EOD School has been shortened from 30 months to about 18 months. Additionally, upon reaching their teams or operational units, members are now expected to attain the highest level qualification after being a part of the organization for just two to three years. NEOD is broken down into three skill levels, the basic technician/new school graduate, the senior technician/journeyman level, and the master technician/supervisor level. The NEOD Master Technician qualification ideally requires 10,000 hours (5-7 years) of focused and deliberate training to attain. 10,000 hours is an interesting observation since Gladwell (2008) noted “researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours” (p. 63). Syed (2010) confirms the 10,000 hours of focused practice rule to achieve world class performance (p. 15). In the last five years, NEOD rules have had to be changed to force completion of the grueling master technician board process and abbreviate the process, particularly for junior officers. The original shortfall in master board applicants may be considered from a lack of passion or motivation. The perceived corrective action to achieve the desired number of master technicians was to force compliance through the evaluation process. For example, if a member does not
In this paper I will give the current state of my organization highlighting the need for organizational change, discuss major issues that have been prevalent and the need for urgency to change, and dramatic, attention grabbing techniques to influence innovative …show more content…
Alarmingly, initial training or EOD School has been shortened from 30 months to about 18 months. Additionally, upon reaching their teams or operational units, members are now expected to attain the highest level qualification after being a part of the organization for just two to three years. NEOD is broken down into three skill levels, the basic technician/new school graduate, the senior technician/journeyman level, and the master technician/supervisor level. The NEOD Master Technician qualification ideally requires 10,000 hours (5-7 years) of focused and deliberate training to attain. 10,000 hours is an interesting observation since Gladwell (2008) noted “researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours” (p. 63). Syed (2010) confirms the 10,000 hours of focused practice rule to achieve world class performance (p. 15). In the last five years, NEOD rules have had to be changed to force completion of the grueling master technician board process and abbreviate the process, particularly for junior officers. The original shortfall in master board applicants may be considered from a lack of passion or motivation. The perceived corrective action to achieve the desired number of master technicians was to force compliance through the evaluation process. For example, if a member does not