Accelerating defence: Rethinking change 

The UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) calls for an agile and integrated defence force to effectively address global challenges. But achieving this requires more than just advanced technology and firepower. Defence needs to surge, scale and sustain but how can this be enabled?  

Newton have been working together with multi-award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster Matthew Syed who is known for his work in complex high performing teams. Following a dinner held with senior defence leaders as part of DSEI, Matthew and Newton’s Head of Defence and Partner, Phil Sunley, reflect on some key themes that will enable defence to accelerate.  

So, how does defence  set the right culture, leadership, innovation, adaptability, and collaboration to be able to accelerate? How do we move from the SDR intent to action? 

Accelerating across the enterprise 

Phil: There is excitement building across defence to build momentum and action. Defence needs to accelerate. With increased investment and appetite for the defence sector to thrive, there is a real opportunity to break down silos and work collectively to achieve shared strategic goals. This means industry and authority working closer together and looking at what can support that, such as moving the boundary with industry on risk and assurance to unlock capacity.  

Matthew: It is evident that in any complex industry, fragmentation often stifles innovation and slows progress. Defence is no different. The closer industry and authority can work together the better, as it will harness cognitive diversity. Bringing different people with different skills, knowledge and perspectives is vital in solving complex problems effectively. Inclusive and collaborative teams outperform homogenous ones, so questioning each time who the right people are with the right mindsets for any team set up, will help move defence forward. 

The Culture Mindset: Fixed vs growth  

Matthew: My research and work with many large companies has shown that as people we tend to have a fixed mindset, where failure is feared and avoided. However, in complex and high-stake environments, of which defence is a great example, elements of failure are inevitable. The key is to turn those failures into data. Where can we learn and improve from them? This is called a growth mindset. The aviation industry is great at that. Every incident is logged, analysed and learnt from and it actually inspired my book on Black Box thinking. 

Phil: We see it in our change programmes. When teams embrace learning from failure; those teams become more resilient and innovative. It is amazing to watch that growth mindset in action, but it can be hard to achieve it. The key is to think about what outputs and outcomes you want from your processes and systems. By adding rigour to this you can remove unnecessary burden from teams. As we ensure we are collaborating and empowering defence to deliver the strategy, we need to assess what the blockers are to overcome, such as skills or communication channels.   

Recombinatorial Innovation and Interoperability 

Matthew: I really believe in “recombinatorial” innovation, the concept that innovation often comes from combining ideas across disciplines. The real magic happens when you combine knowledge, technology and cross-department collaboration to help solve complex issues. 

Phil: Those breakthroughs are evident when silos come together. We work across the defence enterprise, so we see how this works in action. That might be through managing demand across an industrial base, to aligning operational needs of frontline commands with capacity, or co-ordinating investment into industry capacity uplifts for when it is needed the most. We are often connecting people to work together in new ways. 

Matthew: That is the key – interoperability is not just about systems; it is about people and change. Without that cross-department collaborative approach and shift in culture, it is impossible to get the best results if you rely purely on the latest technology. Leadership and decision makers need to be open to change and development to influence and encourage teams whilst driving new ways of working. 

Final Thoughts  

Matthew: To help unlock defence and accelerate, it must put cognitive diversity, collaboration, innovations and a willingness to learn from failure at its core.  

Phil: UK Defence has a great vision and a bold ambition. Working differently across authority and industry, integrating the industrial load and demanding outcomes are the levers that will turn ambition into results. We need to maintain momentum to keep delivering results.  

Find out more about how we support our clients working across the defence enterprise here.