Cultural Change: Deficiency of Leadership Development and Operational Planning Training of Sailors in Navy Diving Abstract

 
With a strong tradition of service and excellence, the United States Navy is one of the most renowned and potent armed units in the whole world. Even so, the Navy is not exempt from the leadership blunders that may happen in any institution. Navy diving is one instance where these shortcomings have come to light very strongly. Navy divers carry out various crucial jobs, including search and rescue missions, underwater maintenance and repair, and salvage operations. These duties and technical proficiency also call for strong leadership and operational planning abilities. Regrettably, the Navy has had trouble lately giving it’s divers the instruction and assistance they need to hone these abilities. Lack of funding for leadership development and operational planning training has been one of the most significant leadership failures in navy diving. Several Navy divers have felt unprepared for their work difficulties, citing poor leadership, decision-making, and communication training. This lack of exercise can result in ineffective decision-making, greater risk, and decreased efficacy in diving operations. Lack of responsibility for commanders who fail to give their divers proper assistance and training has been another leadership failure in navy diving (Baran et al., 2019). Notwithstanding proof of subpar performance or inability to complete training requirements, leaders have occasionally been permitted to remain in their positions.

Introduction
The absence of accountability can foster a climate of complacency and thwart initiatives to raise the standard of leadership in navy diving. Concerns have also been raised concerning the leadership culture in the military diving community. A lack of respect and trust for their superiors, as well as a feeling of seclusion and separation from the larger Navy community, have been reported by several divers. Navy divers may experience a lack of enthusiasm and involvement due to these cultural concerns, which will make their work more difficult. In conclusion, the Navy and its men are gravely concerned about the leadership shortcomings in military diving. The Navy must invest in operational planning and leadership development, hold leaders accountable for their work, and endeavour to enhance the general leadership culture in Navy diving to meet these difficulties. The investments can be actualized using Lewin’s change agent strategy and John Kotter’s eight-step change model (Baran et al., 2019). The procedures ensure divers have the knowledge, resources, and assistance they need to be successful in this crucial and demanding sector.

Cultural change: Accountability by focusing on the process, not the result.
Navy diving leadership has seen substantial failures, resulting in a lack of investment in leadership development and operations planning training, challenges with accountability, and worries about the leadership culture. In this case, Lewin’s change agent strategy and John Kotter’s eight-step change model are applied to address these issues. The article focuses on leadership methods in Navy diving, considering organizational culture, leadership behaviours, and existing training initiatives. Furthermore, it develops a pathway for transforming the leadership in Navy diving using Kotter’s model once the problems and failures have been recognized. The steps in this paradigm involve developing a feeling of urgency, assembling a steering coalition, putting the change into effect, and maintaining it. The article will use Lewin’s change agent methodology to successfully implement and sustain the transition ( Kotter, 2023). To successfully implement the changes indicated through the Kotter model, the study will use Lewin’s change agent.

The strategy focuses on locating and supporting change agents who can aid in creating momentum and support for change in the Navy. The U.S. Department of Defense divides the Navy into operational and administrative units. The functional team has approximately eleven combatant commands, each with specific operations or exercises. For example, the central, cyber, African, and European base has subsidiary component commands such as fleet forces, pacific fleet, fleet cyber, and naval forces orders. Therefore, to effectively manage the unit’s several tools and approaches for managing change, including communication, engagement, and evaluation tactics, Consultation for Organizational Change will be a crucial resource for comprehending and implementing successful transformation (Kotter, 2023). The strategies offer a thorough approach to revamping Navy diving leadership that may establish a culture of strong leadership and operational planning in its diving operations, better preparing its divers to carry out their vital jobs with assurance and efficacy.

Organizational Change
Lewin’s change agent strategy and John Kotter’s eight-step change model propose an organizational change that emphasizes the process rather than results in the Navy. According to Kotter (2023), the focus on process rather than outcomes is simplified into eight steps. The first step is to generate a sense of urgency within the organization. The Navy’s organizational structure is designed to produce results since the US has been an essential participant in the global war on terrorism for approximately 21 years. Therefore, to ensure success in subsequent inevitable wars, Kotter suggests urgency to inspire purpose and passion in the navy diving recruits. It helps them build momentum, vision, and cohesion to achieve a better future together. Secondly, Kotter suggests building a guiding coalition. The coalition will comprise people within its ranks who can lead, organize and disseminate its operations. As a result, navy divers are exposed to different scenarios and parts of the organization, helping them explore their passions at the workplace.

Thirdly, the organization needs to formulate a strategic vision. The vision should clarify how the future will differ from the past and how the end can be realized once the organization’s initiatives are linked to the image. The fourth step is enlisting a volunteer army. It implies rallying people around shared opportunities to achieve a goal. For example, the United States Navy should address issues collectively raised by trainee sailors. Collective bargaining power actualizes organizational changes faster compared to individual views. Therefore, the navy sailors should discard their individualistic ideas, team up, and join the journey to make their footprints. Fifth, the organization should enable changes by alleviating or removing set barriers. Although the navy sailors may champion organizational changes, the upper-level management is influential in effecting the changes. Lower and mid-level management have limited power to address changes in the policies and structures of any organization ( Kotter, 2023). Therefore, given the company’s scale, the consistency of the enlisted Soldiers, their capacity to implement change across the organization, and their familiarity with it, the top-level management should also participate in organizational change.

The sixth step is to generate short-term wins. Although the organization’s primary goal is to change from result-based to process-based leadership, small wins are essential in tracking progress and energizing the soldiers in their pursuit. Small successes should be communicated, recognized, rewarded, and often collected to motivate the soldiers to champion organizational changes. The seventh step is to devise ways to sustain acceleration toward change. Most changes within governmental entities such as the Navy are riddled with corporate and constitutional restrictions which hinder organizational changes. As a result, they persist with the same structures despite continuously failing. To ensure this is not the case, it is necessary to ensure every step and learning is implemented (Military units: Navy. U.S. Department of Defense). Lastly, soldiers should promote changes within themselves. For instance, they should establish links between new behaviours and organizational performance and encourage them to persist until they are powerful enough to supplant ingrained ones. Make sure management practices support the new behaviours, attitudes, and methods of working you invested in by evaluating systems and processes.