# Land and Maritime establishes new People and Culture Directorate

/ Published Sept. 14, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio, 
DLA Land and Maritime’s focus on workforce culture just took an enormous surge forward by restructuring and strengthening its cultural initiatives through the establishment of the new People and Culture directorate. The agency is working through an organizational realignment to fully integrate the new directorate.

“I’m absolutely thrilled about the evolution of our efforts to improve our work environment for our Land and Maritime workforce,” said Navy Rear Admiral John King, DLA Land and Maritime Commander. “This command consistently demonstrates its keen understanding of how important the cultural aspect is to both our productivity and the well-being of our associates.”

Led by Air Force Col. Brad Tannehill and his deputy Dr. Robert Boggs, the new directorate is still taking shape. Together they will share the responsibility of implementing the new vision for all of Land and Maritime’s future culture initiatives. Land and Maritime’s horizontal and vertical culture council activities, as well as many of the responsibilities of the Human Performance division will be integrated into the directorate’s daily operations.

“We’ve had a tremendous run in shaping Land and Maritime's culture and we’ve drawn on the expertise of several of our senior leaders to keep us moving towards this milestone,” said James McClaugherty, Land and Maritime’s deputy commander. 

“We wouldn’t be where we are right now without the unselfish efforts of culture champions like Don Schulze, Todd Lewis and the numerous volunteers who have positioned our workplace culture to be envied by many and replicated throughout of the Agency. This new Directorate now institutionalizes our commitment in our formal organization to better serve our needs for continuous focus and continuity.”   

The new directorate is a result of detailed leadership visioning meetings involving key Land and Maritime senior leaders. Work on the concept began after a comprehensive assessment of the numerous Land and Maritime workplace culture initiatives achieved.

Working through that assessment provided the motivation to develop an even more focused approach to continual improvement of the work environment for all Land and Maritime associates.

Land and Maritime was using multiple culture teams working different subject areas of culture within its operations. The inclusion of additional initiatives like succession planning, opportunities for associates to participate in career broadening assignments through the its internal rotation program, social contract program upgrades and individual development plan improvements emerged as key requirements in fueling the organization’s determined culture evolution. 

People and Culture is identified as one of the DLA Director’s strategic goals in his recently released operations guidance. With that guidance as confirmation it was already moving in the right direction and Land and Maritime leadership pressed forward with its plan.

“With our culture councils becoming increasingly more active over time our culture program significantly expanded and we saw the creation of a People and Culture directorate as a natural evolution to help ensure the longevity of the culture we’ve established here,” said Boggs. 

“We’re bringing everything we do that’s related to improving our workforce culture together under one umbrella – it’s truly evolving into a one-stop shopping environment where the focus is entirely on equipping our workforce.”

From the introduction of the new Land and Maritime Way, launching the Culture Academy and proposed culture initiatives, Land and Maritime is positioned to remain at the forefront in DLA’s push to embrace the next evolution in improving the agency’s People and Culture commitment.

“Our job is to help associates achieve success within our organization. You can’t teach culture, you have to live it and that’s one of the key drivers for our leadership in creating this new directorate,” Tannehill said.