Collaboration offers an effective approach for organizations to resolve complex problems, maximize resources and improve innovation. However, the organization must establish the conditions for collaboration to be successful and use a deliberate approach to collaborating with other, external stakeholder organizations. This paper identifies a few historical challenges that the Department of Defense and other federal agencies faced in the past, how those organizations sought to overcome those challenges, and how these solutions can apply to other public organizations.
Historical Challenges
Communication and operational synchronization within the Department of Defense are two particularly notable historical challenges. During the conflict in Vietnam …show more content…
The Goldwater-Nichols reduced each branch’s service chief to an advisory role while strengthening the position of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also streamlined the chain of command between Combatant Commanders, four-star generals in charge of geographic or functional operations, so that these commanders reported directly to the Secretary of Defense and the President. The most significant change wrought by Goldwater-Nichols for collaboration purposes is the act’s legal requirement for “Joint” qualification of senior leaders and the creation of numerous Joint service positions. The qualification requirement and availability of Joint positions forces each military branch to integrate, develop a holistic Department of Defense understanding, and collaborate more effectively to achieve operational or strategic objectives. These measures have and continue to prevent the levels of rivalry that created dysfunction within the Department of Defense and the corresponding operational failures. Considering the success of joint force integration, exchanging personnel to other parts of a large organization is a best business practice that most public sector organizations can benefit from. Additionally, liaison officers and personnel …show more content…
ICAF is one of the responses to the obvious lack of interagency coordination and collaboration the led to the terrorist attacks again the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and many notable dysfunctions throughout OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (Dimasio, 2007). ICAF is effective for developing a shared understanding of potential solutions, but the framework lacks a process for developing measures of effectiveness (Williams, 2012). An enhanced form of the ICAF must include a process of for evaluating policies, their outcomes, and the specific contributions of each agency to validate the level of success of any collaborative efforts. This will allow for an improvement of processes where necessary and ensure accountability of agencies involved in the process. This enhanced ICAF offers a template for other public sector organizations to use when developing a collaborative relationship with external
Historical Challenges
Communication and operational synchronization within the Department of Defense are two particularly notable historical challenges. During the conflict in Vietnam …show more content…
The Goldwater-Nichols reduced each branch’s service chief to an advisory role while strengthening the position of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also streamlined the chain of command between Combatant Commanders, four-star generals in charge of geographic or functional operations, so that these commanders reported directly to the Secretary of Defense and the President. The most significant change wrought by Goldwater-Nichols for collaboration purposes is the act’s legal requirement for “Joint” qualification of senior leaders and the creation of numerous Joint service positions. The qualification requirement and availability of Joint positions forces each military branch to integrate, develop a holistic Department of Defense understanding, and collaborate more effectively to achieve operational or strategic objectives. These measures have and continue to prevent the levels of rivalry that created dysfunction within the Department of Defense and the corresponding operational failures. Considering the success of joint force integration, exchanging personnel to other parts of a large organization is a best business practice that most public sector organizations can benefit from. Additionally, liaison officers and personnel …show more content…
ICAF is one of the responses to the obvious lack of interagency coordination and collaboration the led to the terrorist attacks again the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and many notable dysfunctions throughout OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (Dimasio, 2007). ICAF is effective for developing a shared understanding of potential solutions, but the framework lacks a process for developing measures of effectiveness (Williams, 2012). An enhanced form of the ICAF must include a process of for evaluating policies, their outcomes, and the specific contributions of each agency to validate the level of success of any collaborative efforts. This will allow for an improvement of processes where necessary and ensure accountability of agencies involved in the process. This enhanced ICAF offers a template for other public sector organizations to use when developing a collaborative relationship with external