b'Conversations with LeadersOn Building an Agile and Adaptive Force On the Pandemic ResponseWe are an agile, adaptive force whose greatest value to ourAs the commandant, I am incredibly proud of our workforce nation resides in our ability to rapidly shift our missionsand accomplishments. The Coast Guard entrusts and and efforts to meet national priorities during both steadyempowers its personnel at every level to lead with a bias state and crises. The agility, strength, and resilience of ourfor actiontaking on-scene initiative and bringing solutions 42,000-strong active-duty force continues to impress. But weto complex problemsand that has never been truer than could not have performed at the highest levelespecially in during the pandemic. times of crisisif not for our reserve component and volunteer auxiliary. There are several key insights that stand out to me. Most important, we must modernize our training and health care Last fall, Coast Guard personnel supported thirteendelivery systems to enable flexible delivery of these key contingency operations occurring simultaneously, on top ofworkforce enablers. The increased demand on technology steady state business. In every major operation, reservistsreinforced the need to strengthen our networks, improve IT and auxiliarists were United in Service, meaning side- resilience, and expand the use of mobile tools for ourby-side with our full-time personnel. They were amongfield operators.one hundred medical personnel deployed to the Southwest border, supporting Customs and Border ProtectionIn an environment that continues to pose new challenges operations and FEMA. They were also among the medicaland place added strain on our frontline operators, we must contingent who delivered CDC-recommended vaccines tomodernize our data systems as well. Our goal is to reduce Afghan nationals in support of DHSs Operation the burden on our field personnel (e.g., data calls, manual Allies Welcome. data entry), enhance real-time operational decision-making, and enable the use of modern analytics tools. On Management Challenges My first challenge is to make sure we have sufficient and,Additionally, we must reduce reliance on single sources if possible, additional resources to meet our readinessof supply and improve our expeditionary logistics. Supply challenges. We continue to make progress budget-wise withshortages made it clear that we must diversify our logistics support from the Hill and the administration.suppliers to eliminate single points of failure (e.g., PPE, critical ship/aircraft parts, etc.). The closing of many major The second challenge involves operating in an increasinglyports worldwide highlighted the need to strengthen logistics competitive market for talent. From surveys, slightly northfor our deployed units.of 25 percent of Americas youth are eligible to serve in the armed forces. You look within that percentage and theres about 10 percent with a propensity to serve. Were trying to find 4,000 young men and women that want to serve in our enlisted workforce and trying to find about 500 officers. While we have the highest retention of any of the armed forces, we still need to attract men and women to lead the next generation of Coasties. Were focused on retaining our workforce by looking for opportunitiesfrom childcare subsidies to expanded educational benefitsthat will make the Coast Guard an employer of choice for a new generation of Americans. Weve adopted a new blended retirement strategy. We work to attract technical specialists. A critical part of that effort is to continually increase the diversity of our service. Anything less means that we will fail to garner the talent, innovation, creativity, and performance necessary to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex maritime operating environment. 2022 IBM Center for The Business of Government 23'