Findings & Recommendations of the Community Advisory
by Ben McMartin, Greg Sapp, Jesse Levin & Sean Heritage
The Community Advisory was established as test of community engagement and interest surrounding broader questions about what DEF does and why. The focus of this cohort was gathering feedback to shape and improve our work, ensuring connectivity with the volunteer Leadership Team and testing the concept.
Fellow Members of the DEF Community,
This report recaps the efforts and findings of the Community Advisory initiative. Our aim is for it to be concise and relevant, building on the overall concept and our unique experiences as members of the DEF community.
Three lines of effort were chosen and addressed simultaneously by members of the Community Advisory team.
The original charge of the Community Advisory was to interact with the DEF community, soliciting ideas, pain points, and feedback on the direction of the organization. Because it was an experiment, this concept was ultimately jettisoned in favor of a series of independent studies favored by different members of the CA cohort:
- A survey to conduct a general poll of community members perceptions, grievances and positives in regards to DEF.
- Conversations held with national security community leaders to improve support for enlisted service members to attend the annual event, particularly funding and official recognition.
- An article drafted with input from the CA and various DEF community members about the role DEF plays in the national security ecosystem (still seeking the right publishing outlet).
In many respects, the effort and output of the CA experiment is representative of our findings about DEF, the role we play in the NatSec innovation ecosystem, and all that people associate with the community.
It was hard to foster community engagement.
Everyone was generally appreciative of DEF, but getting people to interact with the “Community Advisory program” was like pulling teeth. Nevertheless, we are excited to present our findings.
Community Advisory Survey and Results
A total of 24 people responded to a simple six-question survey, with a number of additional individuals providing anecdotal feedback.
We extracted some graphic representations of the findings below, including thoughts on what they may mean.
We understand statistical significance, and so are not applying this information as part of some sweeping “data driven” change initiative… but also feel, given our challenges in gathering data, that it adds color to our understanding of the community.
1.This finding was encouraging, as it indicates that DEF fosters community in a way that produces benefits, however intangible or difficult to measure they may be to a given individual.
This chart is also related to Graph 2 (below), which addresses member satisfaction with DEF, and Graph 6 (below), which outlines the roles of surveyed individuals in the national security community.
2. Although it is unclear what expectations people have (or the connection to DEF’s stated mission), receiving positive feedback at least provides a simple sense of the generally positive sentiments of the DEF Community. Then again, one might expect that most people responding in this manner would likely have a positive experience.
It is worthwhile to think about this graph in relation not only to Graph 1 (above), but also Graph 6 (below), which outlines the national security roles of respondents.
3. One of the areas of great interest on the volunteer Leadership Team was how DEF’s programs are perceived by members of the community. Our findings indicate that most people have no idea DEF even has programs, much less how they are doing.
This feedback played heavily into our recommendations later in the report.
4. In line with the concern about awareness of DEF programs, members of the volunteer Leadership Team were very hopeful to learn about how the community perceived their responsiveness.
The fact that most people felt DEF was either “extremely” or “very” responsive (or just didn’t care about responsiveness at all) is a positive indicator of engagement between the LT and community, the measurement of which was one of the overarching goals of the Community Advisory pilot.
5. Understanding the level of exposure over time to the DEF community gives interesting context for some of the other questions in this survey, such as those pictured in Graph 2 (above) regarding expectations.
The feedback indicated most people had only been involved with DEF over the last couple of years, and many less than that. Their expectations are likely to differ from those who were around for three or more years and saw DEF pivot and make various shifts, to include adding a membership option, marketing of our purpose, and various other types of engagement.
6. Lastly, a very interesting graph indicating the background of individuals by role in the national security space, where the majority of people self-identified as government contractors, followed to a much lesser degree by DoD civilians and active duty enlisted personnel.
Survey Take-Aways
Using a survey to gather feedback was as much about expediency and ease as it was gathering data; the challenges presented by engagement and the relatively low rate of participation could have been hampered by any number of factors (such as limited visibility, lack of understanding about the goal, or just apathy).
Some of the interesting insights include the overlap between Graph 1, Graph 2, Graph 5 and Graph 6, which collectively suggest that government contractors (2/3 of those responding) involved in DEF were happy with the community (measured by expectations and willingness to recommend it), but had only been involved for a short period of time (only the last two of DEF’s seven years of existence).
Additionally, the combined information from Graph 1, Graph 2, Graph 3 and Graph 4 suggests that most people surveyed did not consider things like programs (about which 75% said they were unfamiliar) or responsiveness (which 20% found not applicable) to be of great consequence to their expectations or willingness to recommend DEF to others.
More research would be needed to further refine and build on these recommendations, but we leave the correlations here for your consideration.
If would like to get involved in further trying to understand who the DEF community is serving and how, feel free to let the LT know.
Our Collective Findings as the Community Advisory
The Defense Entrepreneurs Forum plays a unique role within the emerging national security innovation ecosystem. Unique to the organization is its core competency as a non-branch, non-mission-specific, non-partisan convener.
DEF provides a welcoming platform that facilitates critically important inter-agency, inter-initiative, inter-disciplinary, and cross-sector collisions. The non-competitive environment disarms typically competitive and culturally biased norms that prevent interaction. It is the most prominent unbiased collaborative platform within the NatSec innovation sphere.
DEF provides a welcoming platform that facilitates critically important inter-agency, inter-initiative, inter-disciplinary, and cross-sector collisions.
The welcoming and respectful nature of the community attracts subject matter experts and professionals that might not otherwise interact with the national security ecosystem. DEF provides an easy point of entry for individuals seeking fresh perspectives. The DEF sphere remains uncharacteristically open, humble, and collaborative: behaviors the organization expects of and fosters in its members.
The culture of DEF, its capacity to pierce rigid protocols and archaic competitive dynamics, is among its greatest strengths. What DEF is exceptional at is functioning as a convener: full stop. That is the organization’s super power and unique contribution to the NatSec community.
Convening is the one function the community perceives DEF to do better than all others and the unique value it brings within the space.
While the outputs that result from collisions at or through DEF may be hard to track, qualify, or quantify, the value is felt deeply by the community and was articulated by many.
What DEF Might Work Towards
DEF should stop soul searching and trying to find its fit. The organization has been around long enough to have found its role. To not celebrate its competency only hurts the effort, confuses the community, and throttles the potential impact potential of the initiative.
DEF should stop soul searching and trying to find its fit.
Feedback indicated that DEF should vocally and clearly define its position in the arena to its members, partners and other organizations — planting a flag and owning the piece of the puzzle DEF brings to the table.
The mission statement is accurate enough for what the organization does:
“Inspire, connect, and empower people by convening events, forging partnerships and delivering tangible solutions to promote a culture of innovation in the U.S. national security community”
However, these ideas are not backed-up in such a way as to codify the organization’s role and purpose in the minds of its members, or the NatSec community in large.
The value DEF brings to the community was often viscerally articulated based on experiences of those interviewed, who often made statements like:
“DEF is a place where I have met so many incredible individual that have helped me in so many ways.”
Those interviewed would go on to try to explain the nuances of how DEF made things happen and how what DEF offered fit into their experiences, the result of which tended to lead only to confusion.
Sticking to an explicit narrative that permeates throughout every effort of the organization at every touchpoint will help to quiet people’s minds and codify DEF’s place. Perhaps something along the lines of:
“DEF is as a collider that brings collaborative individuals and organizations interested in national security together for mutual benefit. The outcome and outputs are largely up to the community: DEF just provides a platform.”
Article on the National Security Entrepreneurial Movement
An article has been drafted by members of the Community Advisory with input from a number of DEF community members. The intent of the piece has morphed over time with different inputs and through conversation.
- Initially, when the CA first started, it was intended to serve as an instigation piece: a way to incite response and encourage interaction with a community notoriously hard to get to engage.
- It has since been adapted to serve as a thought piece, incorporating the findings of the Community Advisory and intended for publication through a third party to highlight DEF’s role within the ecosystem.
The article has been reviewed by members of the Community Advisory and other volunteers, with a number of quotes included from DEF community members. Once published, it can be shared to demonstrate the type of output that can be generated by a community-led effort.
If you would like to help find an appropriate publishing outlet for such a piece (more in line with The New Yorker than Defense One), we would love your help! Shoot the LT a note with your ideas or potential connections.
Triple Bottom Line
It is the recommendation of the Community Advisory that DEF should focus on its convening efforts and consider not pursuing programs that, while additive, seem to confuse and detract from DEF’s unique value.
Those surveyed recommended that DEF further clarify its stance as an agnostic convener focused on positively impacting the national security community.
Based off everything we have seen, we believe DEF should refrain from initiating further programs that do not directly facilitate the core competency of convening, whether digitally (Slack, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) or in person (Agoras, DEFx events, the Annual Conference, etc).
We hope our work to improve support for enlisted members in attending large DEF events, like the Annual Conference, will continue and inspire similar efforts to increase the diversity and engagement of key demographics.
Thank you for your support over our six-month journey, and we look forward to seeing you (virtually or in-person) around this wonderful community.
Onward,
DEF’s Community Advisory was envisioned to disrupt the disruptors, bringing in fresh ideas about what is needed in the DEF community. This cohort was the Beta test of a concept, which may or may not continue. If you are interested in a future iteration, or undertaking something similar, we would love to hear from you! Just shoot us a note and we will get back to you — thanks for reading.
The Defense Entrepreneurs Forum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that inspires, connects and empowers people by convening events, forging partnerships and delivering tangible solutions. Our mission is to promote a culture of innovation in the U.S. national security community.
If you are a civil servant, military member, academic, entrepreneur, policymaker, or technologist (or just find the idea of helping solve tough problems enticing), we’d love to have you join the DEF Community!
