“Our Airmen are developing innovative solutions and finding ways to improve our missions every day. Often these local solutions can benefit a wider command and Air Force audience,” said Maj. Gen. Carl Schaefer, deputy commander, AFMC. “This is an opportunity for us to empower our Airmen and civilians to take their ideas and move them forward for the AFMC and Air Force we need.”
Ideas may be submitted for any mission area. However, the campaign is particularly focused on gathering submissions along the following themes:
• Leadership: How do we best develop people for the future?
• Culture: What can we do to help move from a culture of risk aversion to one that embraces urgency and innovation?
• Infrastructure: How can we improve our facilities to best support mission needs?
• Communication: How can we better deliver information internally and to our customers?
• Agility Transformation: How can we improve and streamline processes to be more agile in meeting the needs of the National Defense Strategy?
The Ideascale Campaign submissions will be reviewed by the Commander’s Accelerated Initiatives Office (AFMC/CDX) with promising ideas assigned to an accelerator for further development and refinement. Submitters will then have the opportunity to “pitch” their solutions to command leadership and decision makers who will determine whether or not an idea moves forward to a prototype/implementation stage.
Ideas with the potential to impact users beyond the center or major command level may be shared with Headquarters Air Force for broader implementation.
“This summer’s AFMC We Need initiative uncovered a number of concerns across the command, and we’re aggressively working those issues and finding solutions,” said Schaefer. “What we also learned was that for many of these issues, our Airmen were already working to improve them and have ideas on how to address others. We need to capitalize on our Airmen’s innovation and expertise across the command. This is an opportunity for everyone to contribute and make a difference.”
The Ideascale Campaign is one way AFMC is working to address the issues uncovered during the AFMC We Need initiative. The initiative yielded more than 90,000 pieces of feedback from Airmen and civilians across the command footprint, with concerns in areas ranging from information technology and facilities to communication, training, culture and more.
Airmen and civilians can submit their ideas and review those of their peers at https://usaf.ideascalegov.com/. The platform will remain open for submissions through September.
“We are ready to innovate, accelerate and integrate your ideas,” said Schaefer. “Together we can build the AFMC and the Air Force we need.”
About the Author