Case Study

Program Management

Rockwood establishes and enables programs to optimize resources, mitigate risks, share knowledge, measure and communicate performance, and continuously improve to enable mission impact in a rapidly changing environment.

The Client

The U.S. Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act tasked a Defense organization to assess the viability and benefits of transferring government investigative personnel and contracted resources from the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) to DoD.  A small program office was stood up to conduct the assessment and later implement the first phase of the mission transfer.

Client Challenge

The client required program management support to conduct an assessment, develop and deliver plans and a report to the congressional defense committees, and to plan and execute the transition of the mission back to DoD. 

Rockwood’s Approach

With a short timeline and a small level of effort, Rockwood partnered with a team of government civil servants to stand up a program office and assess, plan, and execute the transfer of the personnel security mission. Applying Rockwood’s organizational development, human-centered design, and facilitation expertise, Rockwood enabled collaboration and aligned stakeholders to gather information quickly, develop a plan, and thereby instill confidence in the DoD (at the POTUS, SECDEF, and Congressional levels) to execute the personnel security mission in an improved and credible way. Following the decision to transfer the mission, Rockwood supported a disciplined approach to optimize resources, mitigate risks, share knowledge, measure and communicate performance, and continuously improve a critical mission transfer in a rapidly changing environment.

Rockwood executed the following approach:  

• Aligned leadership and staff by identifying and engaging key stakeholders and de-conflicting assumptions related to the mission transfer. 

• Designed and facilitated workshops with stakeholders from across the mission areas to spur innovation, identify activities, develop timelines, and estimate and advocate for resources required to successfully transfer the mission.  

• Conducted knowledge capture and distributed notes after workshops to keep participants aligned and engaged well after meetings. 

• Supported the creation of two plans and one report, with an actionable roadmap highlighting key milestones and due dates to uphold accountability and keep the transition on track.  

• Facilitated meetings to synchronize actions, discuss and mitigate issues and risks, and report successes.

• Communicated the status and next steps to cross-Government audiences. 

• Identified and documented opportunities to re-engineer business processes.

Results

The agency successfully transitioned the workforce and began executing the expanded mission. Stakeholders across the agency proactively shared information, and with Rockwood’s support, engaged in productive conversations. Rockwood impacted individual growth and supported leaders in adapting to change.