An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 9 REPORT & PHOTOS BY COMDT IAN SNEE, 1 BDE HQ I n the words of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs: "Innovation distin- guishes between a leader and follower." In today's volatile working environment, an innovative and creative culture is a necessity of any learning organisation such as the Defence Forces. It has become commonplace to assert that we live in a period of unprecedented change. What is certainly clear is that the pace of scientific and tech- nical change is almost exponential. A learning organisation such as the Defence Forces requires creativity and innovation at the heart of its DNA if it is to survive and thrive. At the cultural level, the Defence Forces has encouraged and of- fered its personnel through the Chief of Staff's Innovation Awards an opportunity to shape future capability development through bottom-up transformation. To be successful the Defence Forces continues to strive to attract talented people and provide its mem- bers with opportunities to grow and be challenged. To coincide with the Chief of Staff's Innovation Awards 2019, under the auspices of GOC 1 Bde, Brig. Gen. Patrick Flynn, a 1 Bde Innovation Committee convened with the strategic objective to "build an environment that fosters innovation and creativity". As part of the 1 Bde Annual Plan innovation and creativity cover two KPI's. It is part of a strategic objective within the developing perspective in the Annual Plan. With that in mind, an initiative was introduced by the 1 Bde Innova- tion Committee, which involved the appointing of Unit Innovation Representatives. An innovation workshop was conducted for Unit Representatives with the purpose of generating awareness of the background of innovation within the military sphere and the re- quirements in generating an innovation ecosystem. Unit Innovation Committees subsequently convened across 1 Bde in order to further educate personnel on innovation. Following this, a 1 Bde Milathon (military hack- athon) was conducted in Collins Barracks, Cork, on 21st March 2019, the first of its kind within the Defence Forces. A hackathon is a design sprint-like event in which di- verse teams collaborate intensively to provide solu- tions to major issues. As part of the event a number of challenges that the Defence Forces is currently ex- periencing were presented to the participants. These challeng- es focused on the HR, opera- tional, training and techni- cal streams. Units across 1 Bde were well represented on the day with a total of nine syndicates taking part. The event set out to allow the participants the opportunity to grow and be challenged and furthermore to promote diversity allowing for the participants to work with others demonstrating creative and innovative think- ing. As the syndicates chose their respective challenge, they set about creating a problem statement thus leading to further in-depth analysis of the problem and finding potential solutions. Throughout the Milathon, the syndicates were exposed to an environment that provided the space and time to explore new ideas collectively. Follow- ing the identification of a problem within their respective challenges, the syndicates were tasked with producing a clear solution to the identified problem. This solution would form the basis of the final in- novative product. All syndicates presented their final product before a judging panel consisting of EO, 1 Bde, Col Tim Daly, G3/5 1 Bde, Lt Col Gareth Prendergast and SO, Mil Finance, DFHQ, Comdt Neil Curran. The standard of all syndicates solutions was of an exceptionally high quality on the day. Prizes were awarded to the first, second and third placed syndicates whose ideas would subsequently be submitted for the Chief of Staff's Innovation Awards, 2019. The winning syndicate's submission focused on the challenge of retention of personnel within the Defence Forces. Their specific innovation centred on the creation of a DF smartphone application, which would afford all, ranks the op- portunity to have a greater influence on their Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The concept of the application would streamline the availability of information regarding Defence Forces news, HR updates, CPD, Training and Fitness. The Milathon provided a forum for "bottom-up" innovation and further demonstrated that the potential solutions to some of the Defence Forces challenges are not limited to the senior leadership in the organisation. Furthermore, the Milathon allowed all participants to demonstrate that innovative, creative leaders at all levels of the organisation are key. 1 Brigade will continue to drive the ethos of inno- vation and creativity into the future to ensure the sustained success of the Defence Forces. Pictured are the participating syndicates as 1 Bde Milathon gets under way. Cpl Kim Goulding presenting her syndicates innovative idea during the 1 Bde Milathon. 1 Bde Milathon winning syndicate photo (l/r): Sgt Alan O'Brien, Sgt Jonathon Hennessy, EO 1 Bde, Col Tim Daly and CS John Galvin. 2nd placed syndicate (l/r): Cpl Denis Fitzgerald, Cpl Jackie Sheehan, EO 1 Bde, Col Tim Daly and Cpl John Stone.

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