Could. Stakes for coming this is your first day at the pentagon began quite a while someone to Start Talking about the future and personal reform so if you could talk about what are the accomplishments over the past year you are the most proud of . Cry was of the army is undersecretary and remember dr. Carter asked me to serve and be their 31 2 years as general counsel and undersecretary i spent time talking about issues and advocating for personal with very innovative thinkers in the army. It over the next year or year and a half they will be historic for personnel reform. We were pleased to add Sexual Orientation for example, since dead dont ask dont tell was is repealed did we added 401k to benefits that is new in the history of u. S. Military with that congress to support that it has had a massive impact and then transgendered service and we put together a plan what that may mean it and then the work we were already doing which is the extraordinary effort to put together reforms for of the military side that is 50 years overdue in this month we did women in combat. Is an ongoing process but it has been the most historic year for personal reform and i am grateful to dr. Carter on these issues it is often said the articles up meeting to be the architect i wish as the carpenter. Dr. Carter was the architect it is important to keep that distinctive is his vision and he will go down as a historically therefore the department. Then lets dig in and start with the origins. With the force of the future and solutions in then to try to fix that. In to talk about the most basic question what about those opportunities it is trying to solve . The problem isnt who it serves i had a chance to serve myself but we have a bureaucracy that people are bringing to the service. And after world war ii as they have radically converge. They acknowledged said keith to a competitive a village is not technology and how that is manifested. I dont think we have done the same thing. And i was in the army. With the getting nine going to the best schools. Going to Harvard Business or wharton. Wire you getting all . You were exactly the kind of leaders my vision was that i was never intending to stay. Put a large number said that they got me down. Stein met with a geneticist but she had to spend an extra year before moving. And the stories like that go on and on. With the developmental opportunities that is not a significant barrier. A woman in the air force for Kings College with those developmental opportunities with her chance to be a fire in the air force was limited. These are anecdotes about the problem. When you ask people, our best people are they staying or leaving . The new service can answer that question. We dont even know how ago about defining that. That is unacceptable. And unacceptable for us. Were we dont know our people will learn enough to read is a problem immediately. Use is almost immediately coming into office you come now with the first set of draft proposals in july so can you tell us more . What is the process that you use . What do to go through . With those additional set of proposals . Where he has gone for highschool with family that with the leader of the millenials generation. And us to be the undersecretary with working groups to understand what that might mean. In to read a holy scripture. Many were already working on it. So they saw in to that. Was very lucky. I do think it is revolutionary in nature. To say we can do this better. And then with 30 years from the institute and other think tanks and academics. With the war college how to improve that personal system. And to do everything there is with personnel. And then also referring to the gates commission. So we benefited from incredible amount of the intellectual work but it is about consolidating. One of the stories to be told to spend 31 2 years with the elaborate bureaucracy inside the pentagon with a strong sense of bureaucratic change. So we have to do Something Different about the things we have to do better. So with complicated issues like personnel. Arcade rules. So with those decisions makers for what they respect to say this is the right way to go and then talking to cs ism others give me your feedback to be a fellow traveler so that is the first thing. At the same time that this single day off in april in the day with the deputy secretary that he must have labor day off it is important so he took that off. To do we reform like this to say it takes years to given to the reforms than 90 days. If we have any more time we would have gotten it done. With a great chief of staff to be overwhelmed with bureaucracy and that is what the first three months are about to to try a touche do those things. To do that and intellectual underpinnings. If you had to summarize into a big idea is how would you summarize . For the military and civilian side it is about trying to bring greater equity and greater flexibility longer careers to get away from the path that it takes to rise to the top to bottom themselves to have different types of trading and ended is about being more efficient and using big data with the serious deficiencies. Ended to talk about more courage for show aspects. They have 60 million contacts per year. Of course, the army is downsizing itself. And then to dip into those programs of those 60,000 contracts they lose about 50,000 of the people and believe that 15 percent of the firstever service. With those 60,000 contracts. 3545 attrition rate. So that lovell of waste it is little the costly fight usually the without lost Human Potential is also unacceptable. To say you have to use big dated to predict to rethink a whole process. And to manage a day to day basis. And we have to do better. And to be more flexible to be consistent with operational leads. Other people say were not the private sector. Thats true. But it makes it more capable. So we have a better finding force and those are the big a deal is. So some of those run contrary to military tradition and those people currently serving like Senior Leaders. What type of resistance did you meet to . Here is a view that bureaucracy beats you down. For the secretary of defense it is the peacetime mission of the armed forces with the speech observers can it be changed . Lets think this through. This is important. There was a school of thought of past dependency nobody ever succeeded and there are people whose say it is like the keyboard is what we inherited and so to destroy expectations. So with this arrangement we still learn it because there is a path. But everything each redeye ever had with the major personnel reforms nearly share the views that i had for inspiration and. To be enormously farsighted but inspirations to me when i served, and the air force thought about these issues for a very long time. Bin to be a trans gender. Theyre willing to come back hard. There is the situation to demand that personnel system. And will argue with you could never a situation they save my dead body. I am understand what dr. Carter wants to do. His intuition is correct. With those initial draft reforms there were several versions that i enter stand and then secretary carter team now with these staunches. Then in january he can mount so what is in one hand it to and what does it mean . Ended in a very shortterm to be serving under president obama. But a very longterm issue in congress of the department to lend support that the leaders or very receptive to that. There was the notion to rollout very quickly to the things that we could do ourselves. And perhaps there were four charges identified early on. We should roll out three or four increments so people allow us to do the implementation that we were announcing a similar track and that is what we did. Number one was very important to ash carter as a brilliant academic to work certain jobs then go back and then come back. So the first is about that. With those internships and fellowships and expanding the corporate fellowship program. Part two is the Family Friendly reforms. Expanding childcare or sperm but free freezing. But with that Agency Action you have lateral entry and all the civilian reforms. So you have to work with and i think he will see a lot of action because they will tell you that creative inspiration to them. Is seems the officers system more flexible one of the cool things to look dash and reform is the defense for Personnel Management at a lot of people are not that familiar with and that really prescribes a lot of progression for military officers. It needs to be opened up up or out to talk about major consultancys so that isnt inherently bad but if you have an understanding of your people on exactly the right ones. That you have 30 seconds a minute. So in my mind to be more flexible. It is then the statute and department of regulation. As a colonel 16 years. Plus or minus one. So with those command positions completed in the window if and you dont then you passover to be forcibly removed the idea is about competencies baby it is different than what we ask people to do today. Or to take care of a sick Family Member that they are getting a ph. D. At stanford you will not miss out for certain to set period disciplines it would have to be made more flexible that is the addition so this comes back such know they are successful or not. But we do not yet have full repeal in that is true that isnt fully repealed but should be changed radically every five years from now. When i came into Office Nobody was talking about that. I was a first person to say publicly this needs to be made more flexible to open it up the secretary in his talks before the senate talks about looking at this promotion it has even come close to approaching that issue but now theyre looking at the work but one year ago that was not even on the table until we said that the situation so all the services now are on board with the kit is true to say to commented have better way than cyberbut we know there is broad consensus at the highest levels to be made more flexible steve mcfadyen as abeyance the debate quite a bit do you think the realization is a one size fits all system even if that works for some career fields it doesnt work . And talk about flexibility is the onesizefitsall is not compatible so what are you trying to do as a leader of personnel . In the end cultured matters more than policy we could have sabbaticals for young officers but if they are not promoted over time they will never take the sabbaticals that these are currier killers so changing the culture is what matters. So early on to do the things worth doing to change peoples ideas. Hey, we have to think differently. The 1950s admin system does not work for us anymore. Reopen checkboxes and make sure we are in compliance. And that is a remarkable achievement. I think we will be remembered for decades. Zero, we talked about the many things you have accomplished. You have been very busy. Now looking back over the past year talk about what you have learned this experience and if you had itsit to do over what you think you could have done better. Many of the ideas i had about bureaucratic change, constituencies, you have to be a fountain of ideas. You have to have Extraordinary Energy command command quick turnaround and not expect incremental change. I learned also something that is important that the renovation itself. I think by many commentators on the do a difficult job. It is not difficult job. And the organization is incredible. And the controversies we have been involved in, my goal which is an important thing, not to go and change. The organization designated. The expeditionary. Go out and make changes that i want to see done for that we all think your going to be done. The idea i get is a difficult organization to manage. They have remarkable people doing extraordinarily important work command for me the achievements we have done are about what pnr is about. So much of what i have done. And i think the reputation is entirely unjust. What you would recommend people that follow you to the next a ministration comeau what advice do you have for them based upon your experiences and based on where these ideas stands today. I think the ideas are going to prevail. Thinking about what it takes to have a 21st century personnel. Issues on their own account. Over the next few years there will be a breaking the system. Integration between the components and youre going to see that. And whether my time there is remembered as that we implemented all of these things i whether it is back from the mid 1980s, that will be determined later. The ideas stands. Something i came into command we took it and ran with it. In the end all say what these great ideas are. There going to see major changes. In my last peoples do it 1st of all. Way for the packages to arrive. And then there is the more aggressive approach. I want to do this, want to do that. Tell me how we can make this work pushing the agenda. If it does not work well, and then more than way to arbitrate. They kind of try to figure that out. It will be controversial. Does this work is extraordinarily important. If it is worth the time, someone disagrees. Everything you bring to me much a big argument about. Controversial a lack of controversy. My job is to take risk, to make controversial decisions. That would be my advice. A judge and said i have a vision for a better world. Thousands of people, dispersed gives you the chance to ask people. All right. Right. I want to open it up for questions now. My for the microphone to come around. Thank you very much. Josh rogan,much. Josh rogan my columnist for bloomberg. Thank you for your time in service. I would like to ask you talk about the politics. Has everyone in this room knows, chairman of the Armed Services committee came out against it. Alleging hostile work environment. Assume volitional whistleblower. Maybe was politically motivated. What went wrong . How to that congressional buyin not succeed as well as it could have . Which these me to the 2nd part of the question, isnt it the case that in the end secretary carter responded and his announced reforms were not as ambitious and he backed your nomination to a point but eventually you had to step aside. Do you feel that they eventually responded to outside pressure . What effect does that have on the program . Will now happen . This initiative has stepped aside. Just fine. Congressional criticism. Their questions about the process. Three decisional items. And so i think its just fine. No one is suggesting 14 hours a day. No one is saying that at all. Always at this level against the administration. You havent walk through. The personages targets before that. And doctor carter has come to me every single time you never asked me to say Something Differently. Ihave you back on this hearing in every respect. Something that has been much reported. Strange wizardry. I started off as undersecretary of the army. And three days before the hearing i became the Senior Advisor and could no longer. And so wait for what might or might not happen in the future. The only political appointee at that high level. And if continue on. It would be a great help. We hasten to finish up. Which is all been completed. The Transgender Working Group come all the sudden being finished. And since for me in the organization to leave. It is a work that matters. Not the slightest movement. All right. Very interesting. In my strategy we are not retain the trust by maintaining a critical unrealistic offer. Have many similar programs. The one thing you have not mentioned is constant. Within the British Defense budget is spent 25 percent of the budget. Under huge pressure to make sure that the curse. Very confident a few billion dollars. Then on the stress today. The center for naval analysis, recently. And over the last 15 years in florida a lot of money to solving. The late 1990s. So we have privatized housing, really well done. We have expansion try care benefits, g. I. Bill. The billion dollars each year. Maintain the force. Going forward can be real challenges. We dont have the money we did. Devoted to the question. And so i worry about these issues. The changes were talking about, deeply impactful. One of the things we have talked a lot about and need to think through so more whether is a waya way to compensate people in a better way than we do today. Young servicemembers, the benefits less Cash Compensation than the monetize benefit. So you can see we improve the quality of life and save us money as well. Controversial issues, to be sure. I think the larger point you raised, we have to change the value. If the generations to join up. And it is an ongoing process. It is not about coming down with new tablets. But michael was to throw a bolt of electricity and seeing what lifeforms would emerge. And that is whats happening. Compatible. And that is what we need to do. These people in these questions. I am confident about it. I want to follow up on that. Future initiatives have come out. It seems like that office, a small change, but it seems like that would be central class officially about changing the value proposition. Can you tell me a little more . It is being implemented. Right off the bat the mission was to recognize few organizations in the world have that kind of data. And if you asked that kind of question, want these people to separate from the army, we cant really answer that question. We dont have any kind of predictive model we can come in and say, this person is recently married and just finished of combat in these kind of things that you commanded is terrific. But when you do Something Special to reach out how to, reach out and give this person in particular packet and say stay with us. So we have all of this remarkable data. We should do is not simply make it. Separate from the pentagon. The employees who do this kind of work, volunteers of the world, and for my vision we go through all this data and tell me interesting things. And then we can draft policies to solve the challenge of they present. It has been approved and is being implemented. Okay. He mentioned the issue of transgender military. What about arguments . The top brass resisting, resisting change. Ill resist the idea that the top brass itself is resisting. We have consensus. There are still a few matters to be resolved. They dont agree. As you may know, the science around transgender is rapidly evolving. The waiting on that to come back in. A better understanding. And there is a natural assimilation process. I am extraordinarily pleased. They both believe it and understand secretary and cell phones. And so this is going to happen. Make sure they understand what we are doing and have a chance to comment on it and believe the Senior Leaders. So there is a natural process. Theres a major social change. Boom overnight to know kind of this assimilation. And people care about this issue. What does this article mean . There are modest disagreements. Gender marker change. Very technical questions that dont suggest any vast pushback. We have to work out. And soand so those are the kinds of things. How it might work for basic training, the marine corps that is a conversation that they would be proud of. People come in trying to understand the issues. Your willingness i really pleased. Its an important project. Secretary carter has said, will make a better fighting force. Thank you. The institute for defense analyses. Switching the cyber from an area where we are seeing recruitment and retention eddie issues, there are a lot of moving parts. Them the authority. What advice do you have the services and civilian organization. I think cyber comeau we recognize talent. In some ways its a greater challenge. He is the Services Taking an approach. We have to train you. And its very difficult skill to acquire for the flexibility and pay structure. If you go somewhere like Carnegie Mellon who willwill tell you Computer Science majors facebook, Google Dropbox and dod. The top graduates from last Years Program was offered a job for hundred 80,000. The average salary. They have more flexible authority. They might be able to. Parlor title x structure will be struggling with 50 or 60,000. And so it shows you we have to systems approach. We have that authority. Verizon we have gone down, people who do not want to go make a hundred and 20,000 for the cayman join us people dont want to do those kinds of things. If you want to do this kind of things are there. The kind of people we really need, we dont have the authority. Peggy c across the board. Cyber we identify clearly. The world is going to be more like cyber. A cognitive requirement of every career field. If youre in the infantry he will be wired in. The cognitive demands are going to be intense. I think thats the future. For every adolescent every grant. But they are the future for these reforms will be more. Very applicable to career fields. Space upward. Could we start of the private sector they already got the skills that that is a big change in the military model. I think that we have to. Enormous challenges. Thejust make a lot more money in the private sector. To me there is no reason you see high demand occupation in a good news is they have not mentioned the examination. This is not a world record show up at age 49. Part of army cyber. Sitting governor collins. Constructive credit. The chief of staff. Maybe it will make him a lieutenant colonel. Whatever the army my needed for. I want the chance to do this. That makes no sense to me. If he says i need the sky i would say we need to find a way to make that happen. The future, considering contracting out that they play a role . Absolutely. The civilian contractors are a key part of that. There are some that have to go into this. It will be a longstanding project. To say how many civilians . 744,000. Is it the right number, too many . They are all worked as it is. You have one in 600,000 contractors. His at the right number . Is that too much or too little . The philosophy of how this all works allows you to think through whether we have too many, too few to the right mix between military and civilian to the free goods, they dont have to pay for them. Perhaps we have more than we should. So a lot of preliminary work best to go into that key question. You have to think through the entire labor and come to grips. We actually have the ability to answer that question. One last question at the very back. My name is dan grazer the project on government oversight. The one thing you did not mention, combat and operations. Talked a lot. And it seems to me like the way the military operates has been clearly ignored. Specifically with warfare. You need to have a culture with courage, particularly when people are willing to take those big chances. Creates a bunch of functionaries. I must of that factoring . Lets stipulate this point. Thats an easy mean to make. People who have been away from their families they see themselves as a link in a long chain that goes back. While pursue century sense. Institutional conservatism. I dont accept that motion. Even the most fierce critics live my them immensely. Davidson bureaucratic intransigence. These changes come as a 21st century world of the civil rights movement. The question is we have retention issue. Not join the force. Women often dont get married. Contrary officer. Dual military couples in the extraordinary stress they are under. What can we do to remedy these problems . There are lots of things you can do. Raising my children. So well have Childcare Centers open 14 hours a day. Were going to have maternity leave, increasing. Late 30s, unmarried are childless, the opportunity. So these are the kind of things. Coming back, one of the jobs is to protect the maverick thinkers. There are many, many people. My job is to protect them. When you see the people, dozens of young officers from every service, people who we have tried to mentor and encourage. I will rise up. The Senior Leaders of the department doing the exact same thing. These are people who identify as maverick thinkers and do their best. So i dont accept the notion the unbeliever. And more of a believer, you can design i cant come out and say im going to change your. I hope you guys enjoy reading them. Its about saying, i need to change the way we think about these problems. That is what really matters. All of this discussion, he insisted that we think through these issues. And that would appreciate that. That is what we believe in. And so i will fellow traveler. All right. We will leave it there and thank you for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] had a couple of meals and i think again it is one of the other ironies, so rapidly antigovernment. Their entire fortune to the governments largess. Sunday night author an investigative journalist talks about her book the profiteers which takes a critical look at one of the largest engineering and Construction Companies in the world. The United States government will get projects throughout the world. I think it is fine. If the american taxpayers paying for the american taxpayer should have access to information about the contracts, the amount of money, the worker safety, the political relationships. Sunday night at 8 00 oclock eastern on cspan q a. [applause]