An Cosantóir

38 | An Cosantóir November / December 2023 www.military.ie/magazine This will strengthen Ireland's existing Defence innovation capability and make Defence a flagship for innovation in Ireland." This was the vision of the 'Evolution Bridge' team, one of the teams who took part in SPARX 2022. The team thoroughly enjoyed the SPARX 2022 experience. The team was hugely passionate about innovation and were committed to bringing about high impact transformation within Ireland's Defence sector. The most enjoyable part for the team was "getting out of the barracks" to work in a non-rank environment where any idea was valid unless proven otherwise – in this way creativity flowed whilst not being bombarded by the "day-job" – space was created by the organisation. MEET THE TEAM… Pearse Dunne is a HEO in the Department of Defence where he works as Accommodation Manager. Captain Sean Maguire is a highly experienced infantry officer. He is currently completing a business and strategy orientated master's programme. He is passionate about the transformation agenda and believes that fostering a culture of innovation is a key part of this. Captain Dr. Lisa McNamee was a medical officer with the Irish Defence Forces. She is a co-founder of Space Medicine Ireland, sits on the committees of the European Society of Extreme Environment Medicine, Women in Medicine Ireland Network and is medical logistics lead with the Irish Paramedicine Research and Education Network. She recently developed a multi-lingual medical emergencies app, called Fluent Medic. Lieutenant Commander Cathal Quigley is an STCW qualified marine engineer with eighteen years' experience as a military officer of the Irish Navy. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from CIT and a Master of Engineering Management (MEM) degree from UCD. He is currently serving shore side in a fleet technical management / ship superintendence function and is responsible for planning major maintenance and dry docks. Team 'SMAART' Team: Comdt John Murphy (PDF), Comdt Tim Cunningham (PDF), Joyce Fagan (DOD), Pte David Flood (RDF), Sgt Kieran McKenna (PDF) The experience the SPARX programme offered was very worthwhile as it provided us the opportunity to identify challenges the Defence organisation have and the time and space to come up with innovative solutions. We effectively conducted a civilian version of MDMP (Military Decision Making Process), used by entrepreneurs to start and grow a business. We were guided through this process by the professional staff of Furthr in the Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin. In the military we are given a mission to complete with specific resources/constraints. As part of this innovative process there was no mission, no limit on resources which was unusual for us as we had to establish where we wanted to go with our project. Most of the teams started with an initial idea which changed as the process was followed and the end result might look nothing like where you started. This took a bit of adjustment from the military mind set. This programme was the first iteration of this concept so we had to adjust to the civilian methods of planning but this also gave the civilian facilitators an insight in to the military mind set and our way of doing business. It is the combination of both of these methods of doing business which lead to quick simple solutions to problems within the Defence organisation. Our team was drawn from the DOD, PDF and RDF. This ensured there was no siloed thinking and we could draw on the experience the team members had based on their backgrounds. Our project looked at the possibility of bringing RFID tagging into the Defence organisation in order to streamline logistical procedures. This required us to establish lines of communication within the Defence organisation in order to develop support for the project as well as external to the Defence organisation such as companies who provide RFID solutions to other militaries and state organisations who use this very effectively like the Dublin Fire Brigade. The final stage of the project was to present the problem and the solution to the Secretary General of the Department of Defence and the General Staff seeking approval for funding to conduct a trial. Team SMAART in the GEC Members of the DefenceSparx programme being briefed in the GEC Capt Eddie McGuire pictured during Sparx training – Capt McGuire was instrumental in setting up the Sparx programme Team Evolution Bridge in the GEC

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