Framework for Organizational Needs of Innovation in the Department of Defense

The Institute for Defense Analyses has developed a framework for understanding the organizational needs to support innovation at the Department of Defense. The framework lays out Bureaucratic Environment Attributes and Innovation Environment Attributes that serve to answer the central question of how to allow innovation to flourish while operating in a large-scale bureaucracy. These attributes describe the elements that need to be considered in order to support organizational decision making, whether in realigning the innovation ecosystem, aligning efforts or developing new strategies. This framework can assist in indicating what pieces should be centralized to allow more freedom for innovation at the Department of Defense — like hiring, budgeting, administration and acquisition management — that benefit from consistency. This framework may assist to build a case to measure innovation differently from the rest of the department but in a way that ensures oversight is still occurring. It serves to initiate the conversation to support efforts across the enterprise to consider new concepts of operations, new ideas for how old tools are used and balance the requirements of the systems.