The Pentagon's new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) tangled with the Defense Department onboarding process and lost. Being new to the five-sided building and unfamiliar with how things work puts first-timers at a real disadvantage. To paraphrase a quotation from John Wayne, "The Pentagon is tough. It's tougher when you don't know how to work it." That's what Dr. Craig Martell, the new CDAO, found. To enter the Pentagon, everyone needs an escort or an appropriate Common Access Card, or CAC. Part of the in-processing or onboarding procedure is obtaining a CAC. Without such a card, people having business in the Pentagon make appointments with the appropriate offices, go through the Pentagon Visitors' Center, get properly credentialled each time, and wait for the escort from the office being visited.
When the morning opening bell sounds and all the defense contractors show up, the Visitors' Center can be a quagmire of bodies. The CAC is not just the swipe card to gain admittance to one of several entrances to the building; the credit-card-size, plastic document with embedded chip also allows the bearer to access their computers, their offices, and the executive parking lots. Basically, without a CAC, a defense employee is an observer regardless of the level of responsibility.
The new CDAO is not just anyone visiting the Pentagon but a direct report to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, according to the February 2022 memorandum establishing "Initial Operating Capability of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer." He serves at the Principal Staff Assistant (PSA) level, as do the undersecretaries of defense. Despite the impressive title and extensive defense portfolio, Martell spent several days navigating the bureaucratic process before being issued his CAC. "So let me say honestly that the bureaucracy is real. I've been here three days. I still don't have a CAC card. I still have to wait in line at the visitor's entrance," an exasperated Martell told Breaking Defense's Jaspreet Gill.
There are some lessons to be learned from Dr. Martell's experience. First, the new CDAO fell into the trap of confusing bureaucracy with process. A bureaucracy simply provides a platform for processes or functions and is agnostic to their value. In this case, the process either failed or is flawed, or both. So, what should have happened on Dr. Martell's first day in his position? We assume that all the pre-hiring administration had been accomplished – security clearance paperwork, etc. Also, to have made the first-day process work smoothly, the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense should have alerted the Defense Department's Director of Administration and Management (DA&M) that a new PSA would be arriving, and please extend him every courtesy.
The DA&M owns the Pentagon Protective Services (the Pentagon Police and Facilities Security – gate guards, Pass and ID). The guards at the gate to River Entrance parking should have been alerted to Martell's arrival and given an auto description and license plate number, and the Pentagon's River Entrance guards should have been given notice of Martell's arrival and received his personal identification information. Martell should have been given directions to the River Entrance parking, bypassing the Visitors' Center, like most distinguished visitors. When the new CDAO arrived at the River Entrance, the guards would then be able to provide directions to parking and quickly move the new CDAO inside the Pentagon, where Pentagon Entrance guards would have issued a visitor's badge, no escort required.
Additionally, a responsible person from his new office should have greeted him and taken him to his new digs. After introducing his immediate staff, he should have begun the security in-briefing and onboarding paperwork. Then a call from his new office to the Office of Pass and ID should have alerted them that a PAS-level executive was coming down for his CAC, and he should be given priority.
The senior administrative assistant from the Office of the CDAO would then take him to Pass and ID. Martell would have gone to the first available Pass and ID administrator, the CAC would have been issued, and Martell would have been bonified, CAC in hand, with any luck, all before noon – on the first day. That's what should have happened. But, because it didn't, the process broke down. Most likely, the Pentagon didn't work for Martell because the people responsible for executing the process failed to do their job or, more likely, did not know it was their job. Or, worse yet, they knew it was their job and did not know how to make the process work.
Like it or not, the Pentagon is a bureaucracy, and yes, "bureaucracy is real," with processes run by people. The process works when people know their jobs and do them well. The best advice for the new CDAO is to learn from what happened and surround himself with people who know how the Pentagon works and have a track record of getting things done.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
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