DCMA - Defense Contract Management Agency
07/25/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/25/2024 04:27
OI Board Forum seeks team member insight, solutions
The Organizational Infrastructure Capability Board is hosting an agency-wide digital forum Thursday, Aug. 8, from noon to 1:30 p.m. EDT.
Defense Contract Management Agency team members will receive an invite through Outlook to the Teams Live event, and while attendance is optional, organizers are hoping for active participation among the agency's professionals.
In a video championing the board's recruitment effort, Karen Schultheis, DCMA's Information Technology executive director and chief information officer, posed a simple question.
"Have you heard of the organizational infrastructure capability board?" asked Schultheis, who also serves as the OI Board manager. "Otherwise known as OI, it is a cross-functional board that has membership from headquarters, regions, and CMOs, and it covers the policies, processes, and tools managed and created by (Financial and Business Operations), Total Force, and (Information Technology), and those policies, processes, and tools are the things that equip our workforce and our agency mission."
After highlighting the board's effort and championing the value already provided by "listening session" participants from past employee-feedback efforts, she asked more questions hoping to inspire a high forum turnout in August.
"These sessions were extremely valuable to us," said Schultheis. "We knew we needed a forum to keep those communication channels open and to keep the dialogue going between you and our enabling capabilities. So, what challenges do you face that OI can support? How can we improve the services provided by OI? What best practices can you share that may benefit others, and what's working well that you'd like to see continue?"
These answers could help shape the agency's future, but the final question is: who will answer? In the past, agency team members have answered the challenge of making DCMA more proficient through feedback.
The August forum follows previous OI Board listening sessions, which tapped into the agency's global network of subject matter experts to inspire and drive positive organizational change.
"The listening sessions were instrumental in fostering open communication and understanding within our DCMA community," said Grace Andriliunas, DCMA Special Programs Command contract specialist and OI board member. "By actively engaging our DCMA community in the field, these sessions provided a platform for honest dialogue and feedback. They allowed us to gather valuable insights, identify challenges, and explore innovative solutions collaboratively. Ultimately, the listening sessions played a crucial role in developing a forum just for you to help shape our agency decisions, policies and initiatives. By ensuring your voice is included, leadership will be responsive and align our needs and aspirations of the agency and to our warfighters whom we serve."
The board's communication tenets highlight its mission to identify and implement positive change:
• Organizational infrastructure plays a critical role in supporting continuous process excellence by providing the right resources, tools and frameworks that enable ongoing enhancement of processes.
• Effective infrastructure includes robust communication channels, comprehensive training, advanced technology systems and a supportive leadership structure.
• By fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation, the infrastructure encourages employees to participate in identifying inefficiencies and implementing solutions actively.
Marlean Jones, DCMA Portfolio Management & Business Integration Directorate senior program manager and OI headquarters co-lead, said communication is essential to continued success.
"We listened to you during the listening sessions, and we want to keep the dialogue going," she said. "This OI Forum provides a unique opportunity to share some immediate successes based on your feedback and discuss our long-term plans. The benefit of this forum is that as we continue to grow and gather more input from you, we can deliver more short-term and long-term successes, directly addressing your requests for these changes."
The listening sessions resulted in 87 individual recommendations, distilled to 40 unique recommendations. Many areas of improvement were identified, including transparency, training and accessibility. The OI team also identified areas of strength within the lifecycle system, including notifications, issuance feedback and resource pages for supporting documents.
Defense Contract Management Agency team members will receive an invite through Outlook to the Teams Live event, and while attendance is optional, organizers are hoping for active participation among the agency's professionals.
In a video championing the board's recruitment effort, Karen Schultheis, DCMA's Information Technology executive director and chief information officer, posed a simple question.
"Have you heard of the organizational infrastructure capability board?" asked Schultheis, who also serves as the OI Board manager. "Otherwise known as OI, it is a cross-functional board that has membership from headquarters, regions, and CMOs, and it covers the policies, processes, and tools managed and created by (Financial and Business Operations), Total Force, and (Information Technology), and those policies, processes, and tools are the things that equip our workforce and our agency mission."
After highlighting the board's effort and championing the value already provided by "listening session" participants from past employee-feedback efforts, she asked more questions hoping to inspire a high forum turnout in August.
"These sessions were extremely valuable to us," said Schultheis. "We knew we needed a forum to keep those communication channels open and to keep the dialogue going between you and our enabling capabilities. So, what challenges do you face that OI can support? How can we improve the services provided by OI? What best practices can you share that may benefit others, and what's working well that you'd like to see continue?"
These answers could help shape the agency's future, but the final question is: who will answer? In the past, agency team members have answered the challenge of making DCMA more proficient through feedback.
The August forum follows previous OI Board listening sessions, which tapped into the agency's global network of subject matter experts to inspire and drive positive organizational change.
"The listening sessions were instrumental in fostering open communication and understanding within our DCMA community," said Grace Andriliunas, DCMA Special Programs Command contract specialist and OI board member. "By actively engaging our DCMA community in the field, these sessions provided a platform for honest dialogue and feedback. They allowed us to gather valuable insights, identify challenges, and explore innovative solutions collaboratively. Ultimately, the listening sessions played a crucial role in developing a forum just for you to help shape our agency decisions, policies and initiatives. By ensuring your voice is included, leadership will be responsive and align our needs and aspirations of the agency and to our warfighters whom we serve."
The board's communication tenets highlight its mission to identify and implement positive change:
• Organizational infrastructure plays a critical role in supporting continuous process excellence by providing the right resources, tools and frameworks that enable ongoing enhancement of processes.
• Effective infrastructure includes robust communication channels, comprehensive training, advanced technology systems and a supportive leadership structure.
• By fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation, the infrastructure encourages employees to participate in identifying inefficiencies and implementing solutions actively.
Marlean Jones, DCMA Portfolio Management & Business Integration Directorate senior program manager and OI headquarters co-lead, said communication is essential to continued success.
"We listened to you during the listening sessions, and we want to keep the dialogue going," she said. "This OI Forum provides a unique opportunity to share some immediate successes based on your feedback and discuss our long-term plans. The benefit of this forum is that as we continue to grow and gather more input from you, we can deliver more short-term and long-term successes, directly addressing your requests for these changes."
The listening sessions resulted in 87 individual recommendations, distilled to 40 unique recommendations. Many areas of improvement were identified, including transparency, training and accessibility. The OI team also identified areas of strength within the lifecycle system, including notifications, issuance feedback and resource pages for supporting documents.