Off site unfolds Center's strategic move forward

Huntsville Center Public Affairs
Published Dec. 5, 2014
Huntsville Center Business Director Dan Heinzelman, Commander Col. Robert Ruch, Deputy Commander Lt. Col. Kendal Bergmann, Programs Director Charles Ford and Tracy Edmonds, a project manager with the  Center’s Army Central Metering program, participate in a strategic off site Dec. 3 at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Guntersville, Alabama. The meeting allowed Center senior and emerging leaders to look over recent guidance from Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and determine the direction of Huntsville Center within the paradigms set by the new USACE Campaign Plan.

Huntsville Center Business Director Dan Heinzelman, Commander Col. Robert Ruch, Deputy Commander Lt. Col. Kendal Bergmann, Programs Director Charles Ford and Tracy Edmonds, a project manager with the Center’s Army Central Metering program, participate in a strategic off site Dec. 3 at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Guntersville, Alabama. The meeting allowed Center senior and emerging leaders to look over recent guidance from Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and determine the direction of Huntsville Center within the paradigms set by the new USACE Campaign Plan.

More than 20 senior and emerging leaders attended the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville strategic off site Dec. 2-4 at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Guntersville, Alabama, to look over the recent guidance from Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and determine the direction of Huntsville Center within the paradigms set by the new USACE Campaign Plan.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers periodically marches forward with a new Campaign Plan 2015-19 to transform the way it does business and the off site synchronized Center leadership for 2015 and helped prepare for an upcoming Command Strategic Review set for February.

Huntsville Center Deputy Commander Lt. Col. Kendall Bergmann and operations officer Russ Dunford planned and moderated the off site and plotted the agenda for the meeting, which Dunford said will develop how Huntsville Center plans to assist the Corps in shaping America’s future.

The group discussed entrepreneurial mindset, alliance development and technical leadership.

 “Given what guidance we’ve received, what information we have and the unknowns we face right now, this pulls us all together allowing us to declare an end-state objective and then we proceed for the upcoming years,” Dunford said.

Col. Robert Ruch, Huntsville Center commander, opened the meeting and set tone by explaining how he believes diversification and the Center’s 42 programs are the Center’s absolute strength.

 However, Ruch said he said he believes exponential growth shouldn’t be the Center’s future focus, citing the sunset of the chemical demilitarization program and the recent stand up of the Center’s Information Technology Services division.

Ruch said if new programs were offered to the Center, the Center would be obligated to accept them or find solutions, but setting metrics for growth wasn’t the focus of the off site and not the best solution for falling in line with the campaign plan.

“Programs come and programs go and that’s fine,” Ruch said. “If they go, we will redistribute resources. But what means something on every one of our programs is that we deliver quality product and if we are over-tasked or under-resourced on those products then we will start to lose the work.”

As the panel discussed topics through the morning, they began to understand the over-arching vision of conducting business focused more on efficiency.  

Boyce Ross, Engineering Directorate director, said this off site was is a little different in concept from the off sites he’s previously attended.

“In the past we’ve tried to look at work load and what we do, what we ought to be doing and what we’re not doing. This one has a little bit different tone to it, but all the right issues are coming up and being discussed,” Ross said.

The issues brought up in discussions and the decisions made at the off site are essentially a roadmap to how Huntsville Center will present its capabilities for Headquarters USACE staff during the upcoming CSR.

Tracy Edmonds, a project manager with Huntsville Center’s Army Central Metering program, said she first reviewed the latest USACE Campaign Plan while attending an emerging leaders program in August.

She said watching the plans for the upcoming CSR presentation unfold throughout the day provided her with unique insight into just how leadership decides what steps to take in moving forward strategically.

 “Everything from Headquarters level flows down to the centers and districts and it’s interesting to see how our leadership is relying on discussion and input so the Center can meet the campaign plan goals and objectives,” she said.