The Defense Department is finally getting workforce development right

The Department of Defense is finally on the right track to improving the acquisition workforce. The DoD is investing in two key scholarship-for-service initiatives — the Defense Civilian Training Corps for multidisciplinary undergraduate students and the Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation program for graduate students in the sciences — as well as developmental opportunities such as industry exchanges aimed at retaining and training the next generation of acquisition professionals.

But the DoD can’t do this alone. Development of an innovative workforce requires a combined effort of the entire national security ecosystem — government, industry and academia — to achieve the flow of new ideas and collaborative mindset necessary to outpace near-peer adversaries. To ensure the success of budding workforce initiatives, we must avoid burdening them with well-intentioned but overreaching bureaucracy.

Last week, the DoD released the 2023 National Defense Science and Technology Strategy , which emphasized a commitment to sharpening its competitive edge by cultivating the current workforce and developing the workforce of the future. In particular, the strategy recognized the importance of rotation and exchange assignments between industry, think tanks, and academia, and it acknowledged that without a creative and knowledgeable workforce, the United States will be unable to execute the 2022 National Defense Strategy and create enduring advantages over U.S. competitors.

This is consistent with the finding of a recent report by the Atlantic Council’s Commission on Defense Innovation Adoption, which found that U.S. service members are equipped with technology that lags behind adversaries and commercial peers alike, and identified as a significant challenge to innovation adoption the “hamstrung workforce [for whom c]reative problem-solving and measured risk-taking are not often rewarded, and too few individuals with an industry background agree to take senior leadership roles at the DoD.”

There is interest in post-governmental employment legislative restrictions working its way through the national defense authorization process , threatening to set back efforts to make more robust use of industry exchange programs under the specter of conflicts of interest. Contorting legitimate concerns over post-government employment conflicts to such lengths diminishes workforce improvement efforts. The proposal would add layers of bureaucracy to an already complex ethics system and reinforce anxiety and hesitance among employees seeking developmental assignments.

This is exactly the culture of fear and risk-aversion that must be replaced with one of bold creativity and teamwork.

A 2021 Government Accountability Office report on the DoD’s post-government employment restrictions recognized the DoD already has measures in place to guard against conflicts of interest and ensure public trust in the integrity of decision-making processes. GAO made no recommendations for additional rules, noting that “both DOD and defense contractors benefit from the contractors’ employment of former government officials. For example, contractors benefit from the knowledge and skills that former DOD officials developed at DOD. DOD benefits from improved communication.”

The Partnership for Public Service has observed that talent exchanges are particularly attractive to Generation Z — which values opportunities for collaboration and career development — and urged Congress to enable wide use of the authority as a retention tool.

The Acquisition Innovation Research Center, an academic consortium dedicated to enabling DoD innovation through applied policy, has an opportunity to design a deliberative approach to talent exchange programs, carefully tailored to avoid conflicts of interest. By engaging ethics experts across government, academia and industry to build a set of best practices, AIRC can host candid discussions about the limitations of ethics letters (which cover only joint ethics regulations) and develop firewall best practices that can be implemented as effectively by large corporations as smaller, emerging tech firms.

The AIRC can go even further, using the Defense Civilian Training Corps pilot, which will offer DoD internships and an experiential learning-based curriculum on college campuses, to engage students in real-life national security problem-solving while adhering to the values of public service and integrity.

This commitment to integrity in early professional development can increase public confidence in government and help recruit students to the national security workforce. A more educated public, inculcated with the positive values of national and public service is itself a public good and helps tap into the aspirations of future generations.

The effort to become more adaptive and innovative amounts to nothing short of culture change, demanding both top-down leadership support and bottom-up involvement by the workforce. Most importantly, the workforce must feel a responsibility to change. In this sense, culture change is the greatest demonstration of integrity and commitment to uphold public trust. For junior members of the acquisition workforce, talent exchange programs between the DoD and industry partners are an opportunity to build trust and cohesion across the national security ecosystem.

We should invite Gen Z to join us in turning the “ revolving door ” narrative on its head and create in its place a portal to building trust across government, industry and academia. If we are to succeed, it will take all of us.

Karen DaPonte Thornton is a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University. She previously served as a professional staff member with the House Armed Services Committee.

国防部终于走上了改善采购队伍建设的正确道路。国防部正在投资两项重要的奖学金换取服务计划——面向多学科本科生的国防文职人员训练队（DCTC）和面向理科研究生的科学、数学和研究转型计划（SMAT）——以及旨在留住和培养下一代采购专业人员的行业交流等发展机会。

但国防部无法独自完成这项工作。培养创新型人才队伍需要整个国家安全生态系统——政府、产业界和学术界——的共同努力，才能实现新思想的涌现和协作精神的形成，从而超越势均力敌的对手。为了确保新兴人才队伍计划的成功，我们必须避免让那些出于好意但却权力过大的官僚机构成为它们的负担。

上周，美国国防部发布了《2023年国防科技战略》，该战略强调致力于通过培养现有人才和发展未来人才队伍来提升自身的竞争力。该战略特别指出，工业界、智库和学术界之间轮岗和交流的重要性不容忽视，并强调如果没有一支富有创造力和知识渊博的人才队伍，美国将无法有效执行《2022年国防战略》，也无法在与美国竞争对手的较量中建立持久优势。

这与大西洋理事会国防创新采纳委员会最近的一份报告的结论一致。该报告发现，美国军人所配备的技术落后于对手和商业同行，并指出创新采纳面临的一个重大挑战是“受限的员工队伍，创造性的问题解决能力和适度的风险承担能力往往得不到奖励，而且很少有具有行业背景的人愿意在国防部担任高级领导职务”。

目前正在国防授权程序中推进的有关离职后就业立法限制的提案，可能会阻碍在利益冲突阴影下更有效地利用行业交流项目的努力。将人们对离职后就业利益冲突的合理担忧扭曲到如此地步，会削弱劳动力发展的努力。该提案将使本已复杂的道德体系更加繁琐，并加剧寻求发展性工作的员工的焦虑和犹豫。

这种恐惧和规避风险的文化必须被大胆创新和团队合作的文化所取代。

美国政府问责局 (GAO) 2021 年发布的一份关于国防部离职后就业限制的报告指出，国防部已采取措施防止利益冲突，并确保公众对决策过程公正性的信任。GAO 没有提出任何关于制定额外规则的建议，并指出“国防部和国防承包商都从承包商雇用前政府官员中受益。例如，承包商可以受益于前国防部官员在国防部积累的知识和技能，而国防部则可以受益于沟通的改善。”

公共服务伙伴关系组织观察到，人才交流对重视合作和职业发展机会的 Z 世代特别有吸引力，并敦促国会允许广泛使用该权力作为人才保留工具。

采购创新研究中心（AIRC）是一个致力于通过应用政策推动国防部创新的学术联盟，它有机会设计一种审慎的人才交流项目方案，并精心调整以避免利益冲突。通过汇集来自政府、学术界和产业界的伦理专家，制定一套最佳实践方案，AIRC可以就伦理信函（仅涵盖联合伦理法规）的局限性展开坦诚讨论，并制定防火墙最佳实践方案，这些方案既适用于大型企业，也适用于小型新兴科技公司。

AIRC 还可以更进一步，利用国防部文职人员训练队试点项目，该项目将在大学校园内提供国防部实习机会和基于体验式学习的课程，让学生参与解决现实生活中的国家安全问题，同时秉持公共服务和诚信的价值观。

在早期职业发展阶段注重诚信，能够增强公众对政府的信任，并有助于招募学生加入国家安全队伍。一个受过更高教育、拥有积极国家和公共服务价值观的公众本身就是一种公共福祉，并有助于激发未来几代人的抱负。

为提高适应性和创新性而做出的努力，无异于一场文化变革，这既需要自上而下的领导支持，也需要员工自下而上的参与。最重要的是，员工必须感受到变革的责任感。从这个意义上讲，文化变革是对诚信和维护公众信任的最佳体现。对于采购部门的初级员工而言，国防部与行业伙伴之间的人才交流项目是建立国家安全生态系统内信任和凝聚力的良机。

我们应该邀请Z世代加入我们，彻底颠覆“旋转门”的固有模式，并在此基础上创建一个连接政府、产业界和学术界的信任桥梁。如果我们想要成功，就需要我们所有人的共同努力。

凯伦·达蓬特·桑顿是乔治·华盛顿大学法学院的教授级讲师。她此前曾在美国众议院军事委员会担任专业工作人员。