Creating a culture that enables innovation begins with removing barriers written in policy. In 2018, the SECAF published a series of guidance letters directing the reduction of policy and removing processes to non-directive guides. The Air Education and Training Command has undergone significant changes as a result of this directive. In this paper, we explore best-practices and lessons-learned that we discovered by reducing directive U.S. Air Force technical training guidance from 524 pages to 29 pages through a collaborative development process. Change management processes used both top-down and bottom-up leadership to create what-to-do guidance that lets commanders be commanders and NCOs be NCOs. We migrated the how-to-do information into a knowledge portal that is agile and adaptable to mission needs of our subordinate units. Finally, we explore some examples of innovation that occurred once the restrictions of policy were lifted.
Policy, Standards, Management, and Acquisition
A new approach to policy: Creating a culture of “Can.”
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