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Disruptive solutions process

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The disruptive solutions process (DSP) is a form of iterative, low-cost, first-to-market development created in 2005 by fighter pilot and the United States Air Force/Air National Guard Colonel Edward Vaughan.[1] It is primarily used by the Air National Guard at the tactical or operational level to prevent mishaps during the combat operations process. However, it has been used successfully in other government agencies and the private sector. The term 'disruptive' was borrowed from the marketing term disruptive technologies.

Overview

The typical defense industry bureaucratic approach to problem-solving involves long lead times and relative inflexibility. Long development cycles and lead times results in solutions that are no longer relevant.[2]

Recent attempts to resolve inefficiencies include overwhelming the problem with funding, resources, and manpower—for example, major weapon systems development, such as a new fighter jet or IT system.[3] Conversely, when resources are constrained, bureaucratic staff adopt continuous process improvement, similar to Kaizen, total quality management, and Lean Six Sigma. This perpetuates low-value programs that should be eliminated, rather than "improved".

Because most preventable safety mishaps are caused by human factors,[4] safety should apply a disruptive, iterative approach that may not be appropriate in hardware-focused programs, such as aircraft production.

To address the cultural issues associated with mishap prevention in a large bureaucracy, the Air National Guard safety directorate used Boyd's Observe, Orient, Decide, Act Loop to assess the effectiveness of the process. This was the origin of DSP.

DSP is persistent and adaptive:

"Persistence is about refusing to give up even in the face of adversity. Adaptation is about shortening the time to success through ingenuity and flexibility. 'Adaptive persistence' entails alternating between anticipation, changing course, and sticking with it, deftly navigating that paradox with aplomb."[5]

Basic process

Essentially DSP is a six-step process that runs counter to the military mantra of being "requirements-driven", instead focusing on projecting future market needs. This is accomplished by looking at front-line problem solving activity and scaling these solutions up. These six steps, when applied rapidly, can get ahead of recognition, providing viable solutions at the point and time of need:

1. IDEA MINING: use professionals at the field unit level to identify best practices for mishap prevention. Project unpublished requirements by including end-use customers in the idea mining process.

2. CONSOLIDATE: Heuristically sort ideas into groups based on resource requirements, proven record, technology leveraging, mission accomplishment, identified needs. Order all projects based on overall value.

3. ELIMINATE BAD FITS: Scrub the list for items requiring major hardware or other difficult to acquire funding.

4. SELECT: Rapidly source funding in the sub-$50K range to perform a limited DEM/VAL of concept. The key is to remove barriers to execution that typically delay other military efforts.

5. ITERATE: Establish definition of success at the outset. Demonstrate measurable results within six months. Match requirements to resources and solutions.

6. MARKET: lead the effort on behalf of the United States Department of Defense, etc. and tighten the OODA loop. Market the solution and seek buy-in by returning the solution to same experts that initially proposed it.

History

DSP was initiated in 2004, when a joint team led by Vaughan created Project Black Mountain. The project evolved from a combined requirement to share real-time tactical data among ground and air forces, as well as avoid mid-air collisions within the area of responsibility.

More recently, DSP has been used in the ANG and USAF to field mishap prevention programs:

  • See and Avoid: a web-based civilian-military midair collision avoidance program created by Vaughan and led by the ANG Safety directorate from 2005 to 2009.[6]
  • WingmanDay.org: provides tools for commanders, leaders, and care practitioners. In 2011, the program was relaunched as Wingman Day. The Air Force Safety Center took the RealBase Toolkit concept and developed one-stop-shopping online tool kits hosted on the secure Air Force Portal.[7]
  • FlyAwake: a web-based fatigue risk management tool which returns quantitative fatigue analysis for a given flight schedule.[8]
  • Wingman Project: a suicide intervention initiative that shows family and friends of distressed Airmen how to intervene to save a life, providing training in 54 U.S. states and territories.[9]
  • dBird bird mortality model: tracks and predicts movements of pathogen-infected bird flocks using BASH resources.[10]
  • Low Altitude Deconfliction Program: an online scheduling function with FAA's MADE program to provide collision avoidance for military aircraft operating in low-altitude environments.[11]
  • Ready 54: an online joint resiliency outreach and education tool with associated mobile apps.[12]

On September 25, 2009, Dr. John Ohab of the American Forces Press Service interviewed Vaughan about the Disruptive Solutions Process.[13][14]

See also

Citations and notes

  1. ^ Face of Defense: Air Guardsman Entrepreneurial Approach..
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ Catalog of Air Force Statistics by Aircraft Type, considered typical for US Military [3] Archived December 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Adaptive Persistence article from HBR
  6. ^ See And Avoid Archived October 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Wingman Day". Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  8. ^ Fly Awake, User-Friendly Fatigue Assessment and Mitigation
  9. ^ The Wingman Project
  10. ^ "dBird, Bird Mortality Model". Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  11. ^ "Low Level Deconfliction". Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  12. ^ Ready 54 About Us
  13. ^ Wingman Project
  14. ^ About Aditya Raj Singh

References

  • Lee, Lynn "Face of Defense: Air Guardsman's Entrepreneurial Approach Earns Safety Award"[4]
  • Boyd, John, Organic Design for Command and Control [5]
  • Kotnour, Jim, Leadership Mechanisms for Enabling Learning Within Project Teams in proceedings from the Third European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities, Proceedings OKLC 2002 [6]
  • Osinga, Frans, Science Strategy and War, The Strategic Theory of John Boyd, Abingdon, UK: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-37103-1.
  • Richards, Chet, Certain to Win: the Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business (2004) ISBN 1-4134-5377-5
  • Ullman, David G., “OO-OO-OO!” The Sound of a Broken OODA Loop, Crosstalk, April 2007,
  • Ullman, David G., Making Robust Decisions: Decision Management For Technical, Business, and Service Teams. Victoria: Trafford ISBN 1-4251-0956-X – ties the OODA Loop into decision making processes.[7]
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