agility, ensuring that the DoW can deliver timely and effective solutions to support the Warfighter. Development of Program Structure The DoW’s Acquisition Innovation Re- search Center and its new Innovation Alliance Program (IAP) now offer warfighting innovators a decision- making model/tool that continu- ously monitors and identifies the barriers and facilitators to a healthy innovation culture. We developed this decision-making tool to interpret
these barriers and signals and target proven remedies through a variety of techniques, such as interviews, work- shops, stress testing, refinement, and scaling of high-potential innovations. In so doing, we address a critical DoW challenge: how to ensure that promis- ing local innovations are not lost but instead matured and mobilized to cre- ate lasting, enterprise-wide impacts. About the IAP Process The IAP process began by embed- ding systems thinking into both the assessment and design phases, thus
enhancing an organization’s ability to scale locally developed solutions and overcome systemic barriers to inno- vation. The process is lightweight yet analytically robust and supports early identification of innovative ideas, structured stakeholder dialogue, and data-driven refinement of implemen- tation strategies. A tailored suite of techniques elicits grounded insights into how individuals navigate complex, high-pressure work environments and create sustain- able solutions. Originally developed in the Cognitive Systems Engineering Lab
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