MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. – -- The Innovation Research Task Force is gives Air War College and Air Command & Staff College students the opportunity to explore the heart of military innovation in a 10-month immersive course. Throughout the course, students will hear from military and private industry innovation leaders about how they approach problems, and how they develop and implement processes to accelerate innovation.
“The idea would be, at the end, they produce a project, strategy, or a piece of doctrine,” said Dr. Joseph DeMarco, Chief of Innovation Development. “But to me, it's not about the endpoint. It's about what they learn as we go through the process.”
DeMarco believes future leaders having the ability to think critically and explore different thought processes is a necessity. While students attend the course, they practice futures literacy, design thinking, strategic analysis, and socially impactful innovation. These tools will help equip them to be proficient and effective leaders in an era of Great Power Competition.
“How do we think differently about problem solving?” said DeMarco. “Because it's not getting any easier. We tend to incentivize the way we've always done it, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but if we can train and educate some of these future leaders to just think differently, when they go back to the force, they can have impact because they will think, ‘oh, I've seen this before.’”