Boots Off the Ground

Steve’s work is at the intersection of operations and innovation with systems thinking and organizational learning. He focuses on the pained question: “Why is life unfair?” I’m in the same space, using the same core science and tech, holding to the same rules and regulations as everyone else, but there are the few who crush us every day! ‘They’ create so much value, quicker and easier, earning outsized rewards for all stakeholders. How can I be like ‘them’?” The answer is: “They’ve got the ‘social circuitry’ of routines, processes, and procedures—how individual efforts integrate into collective action, so ‘they’ see and solve hard problems better and quicker, creating solutions of great value and great reward. They’re deliberately designing their organization with people’s creativity and ingenuity in mind, and they’re winning big. Spear’s been immersed in world-class organizations, and he’s had impact across fields as educator, author, and advisor. He helped architect the Alcoa Business System and the DTE operating system; both won huge recurring savings while driving super gains in other metrics. He helped the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (“REF”) speed capability delivery to troops and the Navy speed overhauls of submarines. For the Navy, he also helped stand up the Unmanned Task Force and was advisor to the comprehensive review of 2017 Pacific Fleet collisions. Spear’s award-winning publications have had impact. These include Wiring the Winning Organization, with Gene Kim, and The High Velocity Edge, both of which received the Philip Crosby Medal from AME and one of Spear’s several Shingo Prizes. Spear earned his doctorate from Harvard, where innovation guru Clay Christensen was a longtime mentor, his masters degrees in mechanical engineering and management from MIT, and his bachelors at Princeton. He’s a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where’s he’s supported some 50+ masters theses, a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and founder of See to Solve, a business process software firm.

Maj Victor “SALSA” Lopez is an airman assigned to AFWERX Spark’s “Arc” Branch. He was previously assigned to the Department of the Air Force and Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator as part of the initial cadre. He received his undergraduate degree in Astronautical Engineering from USAFA and a graduate degree in Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech. SALSA is a distinguished graduate of his pilot training class and an active MQ-9 Instructor Pilot. He has accrued nearly 2,000 combat hours over the last nine years.

Mr. Robert “Bobby” Mathews is the Deputy Program Executive Officer (DPEO) for Special Operations Forces Digital Applications (SDA). He is responsible for supporting Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) in the rapid acquisition of software capabilities for United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). PEO-SDA’s mission is to deliver innovative, relevant, and dependable Special Operations-peculiar software and data capabilities for the SOF Warfighter to achieve information dominance and win in a complex environment In this role, Mr. Mathews is the principal advisor to the Program Executive Officer responsible for executing a $1.8B portfolio consisting of seven programs of record and managing a workforce of over 75 military, civilian, and acquisition support contractors. Mr. Mathews has served in numerous acquisition assignments during his 14+ year tenure at SOF AT&L . Prior to joining SOF AT&L, Mr. Mathews served in several acquisition assignments at Hanscom AFB, MA as both a United States Air Force Acquisition Officer and a Department of the Air Force Civilian.