NOVEMBER 22, 2023 – From improving processes to updating policies, the Washington Air National Guard Innovation team is providing commanders a platform to solve problems through non-traditional means.
“We offer portfolio management, network and partnership connections, education and training and direct access to other funding and programs in the larger national innovation ecosystem,” said Lt. Col. Rex Ayers, chief innovation officer, Washington Air National Guard.
Ayers and MSgt. Chris Pavel make up the Washington Air National Guard’s full-time innovation team, focused on improving the Air National Guard one problem at a time.
“During the initial standup of the innovation team, we heard about grassroots pain points from multiple organizations needing tactical communications in a degraded environment. Our first step in solving problems requires a clearly defined and unique definition of the problem, so we brought in a third-party company from our innovation network to facilitate a group of Washington National Guard members who have missions related to the pain points,” said Ayers.
In early November the innovation team brought together Guard members from the Air National Guard Headquarters, Joint Operations Center, Homeland Response Force, 10th Civil Support Team and 194th Wing for an innovation seminar. The goal of the meeting was to share lessons learned and look for innovative solutions to problems.
“We continue to advance the problem statements, finding innovation solutions that make the most sense for the problem,” said Ayers. “We’ve formed a good relationship with other states’ National Guard innovation cells and can find ways to scale or reuse existing solutions. For other problems that come into the innovation team, we assess where the innovators are in their journey and can tailor their next engagement to get them to their next desired state.”
For every problem solved the innovation team gets closer to accomplishing its goal of helping others improve their work environment.
“We want some solid wins for the state, so that’s where most of our effort will go – making sure we find some meaningful solutions that have lasting impact,” said Ayers. “The next step is to continue to build a list of potential projects through our outreach efforts. In doing so, we will be able to educate and recruit more of our Guardsmen to build out the in-state innovation network. This helps us in setting the national standard on how, with focused effort, a state’s National Guard can use the incredible ecosystem out there to rapidly remove existing roadblocks to ensure we win the next war, or successfully execute any state level domestic operation.”
In the coming months, the innovation team plans to meet with all unit commanders and senior enlisted leaders across the state to describe the program and how they can use innovative solutions to help make their units better.
“Along with that, we will have a one-pager that we can leave behind with more information but since each situation can get unique quickly, we always recommend meeting with us before getting too far into a solution,” said Ayers.
Story by Joseph Siemandel
Joint Force Headquarters – Washington National Guard