By Bailey Toombs
NAVAIR Public Affairs Office

Significant overall improvements are evident in the results from NAVAIR’s second alignment assessment taken in May. The alignment survey was open for two weeks to all NAVAIR civil service and military members. More than 13,700 members of the workforce participated, sharing how well they understood and supported new initiatives within the organization and the broader Naval Aviation Enterprise.

“We were very pleased with the number of participants this time around, and especially pleased with the results,” said Robert Ghisolfi, Project Manager for the alignment assessment effort. “Every PEO and competency increased alignment to NAVAIR goals and processes,” he said, “and new areas of strength were developed.”

According to Ghisolfi, the survey also showed increased ability to execute AIRSpeed; improvement on the organization’s ability to execute other initiatives; and modest overall improvement on NAVAIR’s five goals. Those goals are to implement fleet-driven metrics, to balance current and future readiness, to ensure alignment, to reduce the cost of doing business and to improve agility.

The survey measured progress against the baseline information obtained from the first assessment completed in November 2004.

“That assessment provided a good baseline for new command initiatives and showed what was working well and what needed improvement,” said Ghisolfi.

Action plans developed by each competency and PEO based on the results from the last alignment assessment proved successful, as every unit increased their overall alignment score.

“We believe the action plans helped the different competencies and PEOs maintain alignment where they previously scored well and also improved many low-scoring areas,” said Ghisolfi.

NAVAIR’s overall alignment score increased by 2.3% - a healthy increase, but one that also leaves room for improvement, said Ghisolfi.

The most significant alignment improvements were in the categories of AIRSpeed, Total Force Readiness (TFR) and Leadership. AIRSpeed saw an alignment increase of 7.7%, which in turn tripled its execution capability. TFR increased by 5.8% and Leadership increased by 5.6% since 2004.

The Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) initiative was measured for the first time in 2006, providing baseline information that a future alignment assessment can be measured against.

“This alignment assessment provided good information on the successes of NAVAIR,” said Ghisolfi, “and will allow us to plan new ways to improve in areas that were low-scoring.”

According to Ghisolfi, the next steps for the Command will be to identify areas of strength and expand their scope. Barriers that are common to many units will also be identified and action will be made to remove them.

Each PEO or competency will be required to identify how they will maintain the behaviors of their individual key strengths; remove barriers to execution; and improve alignment to major objectives. In addition, they will identify their best demonstrated practices to share with others in NAVAIR and the NAE. As with the previous alignment assessment, action plans will be proposed to implement changes and to continue the increases that have already been seen.

The next alignment assessment will be held in March, 2007.

For more information about the alignment assessment, contact Deb Guido at [email protected].