No-100-002 October 3, 2008 FACILITATOR S GUIDE Discussion The Transition Training Academy: Helping the Wounded Get Back to Work The case, The Transition Training Academy: Helping the Wounded Get Back to Work, addresses the issues of veterans employment. It describes a program that is helping wounded service men and women who are returning from the war in Iraq and the conflicts in Afghanistan and looking to move into the civilian workforce. Particularly useful for classes in organizational behavior, general management or for human resources personnel, the case presents the history and mission of the Transition Training Academy (TTA) and describes how private sector companies are working with the program. As well, the case details what kind of career trajectories graduates of the TTA might consider. Key discussion points include company programs, recruitment strategies, career trajectories, and developing a qualified entry level employee. In addition to being used to address and discuss corporate practices, the case could also be used to inspire military personnel who are in medical hold and to bolster their morale. Prospective students and students already enrolled in the TTA program may be interested in understanding the history and mission of the program and what opportunities graduates have found in spite of their combat disabilities, particularly a non-visible disability such as a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The case The case helps the reader understand the strategies for retraining and re-entry into the civilian workforce, and could also be used as a jumping-off point for a discussion of social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship can be described as an activity that pioneers innovative and systemic approaches for meeting the needs of a marginalized, Senior Researcher Sylvia Sensiper, PhD, prepared this facilitator s guide for class instruction and discussion. 2008 09: The Regents of the University of California, Davis campus University Extension. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express permission of UCD. For more information contact: copyright@ucdavis.edu.
disadvantaged or disenfranchised population that lacks the financial means or political clout to achieve lasting benefits on their own. 1 The seed of the idea for the TTA was germinated at Cisco Systems by Vice President Michael Quinn and then carried forward by Alex Belous, a manager with a great deal of experience developing the Cisco Network Training Academy. But the effort to develop the TTA was also supported by the concern and efforts of many people in agencies that deal with military personnel: the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Labor (DOL), the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the California Employment Development Department (EDD). Employees of these agencies had already recognized a growing need for career intervention and re-direction and had set up the Balboa Career Transition Center (BCTC) at the hospital. The case represents social entrepreneurship in a diffused way; it was the entrepreneurial vision of private sector employees in a number of corporate entities that led to the development of a viable plan to train and re-train wounded and exiting service men and women. This ad hoc network, made up of primarily older veterans, has resulted in jobs for many of the recently wounded who are just returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Abstract In mid-february, 2008, Richard Reynolds watched the graduation of the second class from the Transition Training Academy (TTA), an innovative career transition program based at Balboa Hospital in San Diego, CA. As the Director and instructor for the program, Reynolds was the front man for a goodwill effort that involved private sector companies both big and small, government agencies and the military. The case is an explication of that effort; it describes the genesis of the idea at Cisco, the development of the courses, the involvement of two different companies in hiring veteran TTA graduates, and the experience of one returning veteran as he struggles to get back to work. The case implicitly poses a management question, asking readers to think how they might involve their companies or enterprises in the effort to ensure veterans a professional transition to civilian life. There is a great need for private sector effort: the recent statistics from the war in Iraq put the number of deaths at over 4,000 and the wounded at over 30,000. 2 1 This definition is adapted from a definition found on the Skoll Foundation website. http://www.skollfoundation.org/ 2 Figures differ depending on what organization one consults. Globalsecurity.org cites 4,070 (American) deaths and 30,182 wounded as of June 18, 2008. The DOD site states 4,101 deaths and separates wounded in action and returned to duty into two categories, WIA and RTD. The figures are WIA RTD = 16,806 and WIA NOT RTD = 13,441. The combined total is 30,247 (as of June 18, 2008). No-100-002 2
Pedagogy The case illustrates the successful implementation of an innovative program that fills a gap in the life trajectory of wounded service men and women returning from combat and particularly, in this case, from the war in Iraq and the conflicts in Afghanistan. A need to do something is found among the agencies that deal with the veterans on a regular basis. It is also found among former military personnel employed in various corporations and companies, many of whom are Vietnam era veterans who remember how difficult it was to integrate back to civilian life when that conflict was over. The case illustrates a private sector effort, but one that includes many other stakeholders. The combined effort of those concerned unearthed obstacles to career employment and fashioned a program that overcame those obstacles. The case covers these topics: 1. Company strategies and programs 2. Social entrepreneurship 3. The TTA as a method for developing entry-level employees 4. Career trajectories for injured service men and women 5. Motivational stories and morale-building efforts 6. Retraining and re-entry Teaching Plan The class discussion should revolve around these six teaching points. The order will depend on the population the instructor is teaching and the particular points the instructor wishes to emphasize. Teaching points: 1. Developing a company or corporate program to recruit returning veterans 2. Cultural competency in dealing with returning military personnel 3. An effort in social entrepreneurship 4. Morale building and accommodations 5. Planning a new career 1. Developing a company or corporate program to recruit returning veterans The main thrust of the case is a description of the TTA program and the organizational efforts in companies and corporations to recruit wounded service men and women. Depending on the audience, a good place to start the discussion would be to look No-100-002 3
at the components of the Northrup Grumman project, Operation IMPACT. Operation IMPACT is a recruitment project that seeks to help returning veterans by offering various kinds of training and support within a career placement program. Hardesty contacts the wounded soldiers and helps them in a variety of ways. He acts as a coach, a résumé builder, an advocate, and a liaison. He is a recruiter for Operation IMPACT, but not necessarily for Northrup Grumman. Once a soldier is enrolled in Operation IMPACT, his or her résumé is circulated in the company and the program has champions in each sector of the business. The champions have military experience so they are more familiar than a civilian would be with the capabilities and issues of exiting military personnel, and can act as advocates and liaisons for incoming veterans (see discussion point about cultural competency in #2). Due to its many contracts with the military, Northrup Grumman can make use of DOD s program for assistive technology, CAP. But even if a returning soldier is not a likely candidate for Northrup Grumman, Operation IMPACT still tries to put him or her on the trajectory to sustainable income, through career placement and help with résumés and boosting morale. In some cases, the company hires a family member if the veteran is still incapable of working. Hardesty also uses his wideranging contacts with other military personnel and corporations to help veterans make connections. Metzger s effort at UULLC is much more modest, since he owns a smaller company, but UULLC s use of Cisco products makes his offer of employment a good next step for a soldier who has completed the TTA. Metzger has developed a personalized program for Penn, allowing him to work at his home in Kansas City, Missouri. A company is just a virtual idea these days anyway, Metzger remarks, noting that his company is really a partnership between two entities that are located in two different cities. Metzger knows from his own experience that Penn will probably not be able to work some days, but also knows that people change; he is willing to take the risk, in part because of his loyalty to the military but also because he finds value in having Penn on his team. Gorman has brought some intangible teamwork quality to the company, Metzger says. The TTA has been an intervention in career planning for veterans exiting the military and has provided valuable entry-level computer training. In order for the program to be successful, however, private sector companies need to see the graduates of the TTA as viable entry-level employees. In addition to participating in job fairs, companies could become more substantively involved in the program. The TTA is a model that could be used to train employees specifically for entry-level positions in any industry, either by adding onto the existing computer courses with more specialized training, or developing other kinds of training programs within the format TTA has pioneered. We ve developed a template to build granular learning modules that reflect No-100-002 4
the job skills and entry-level skills that would be required for entry-level employees in any industry, explains Belous. As of the writing of the case, Belous is currently working to develop remote instructors to provide specialization to the regular TTA curriculum. 2. Cultural competency in recruiting returning military personnel Veteran Gorman Penn likens his return to the military to a return to family and community. Says Penn, In the military you are not only a small, close-knit community but you are almost like a family, and everybody looks out for everybody else s property and looks out for each others spouses and children when someone might be gone. This communitas, or the feeling of an everlasting bond, was key to the development of the TTA and is key to the development of a corporate or company program. It is also important in on-going relationships within an organization. In order to think about cultural competency, the facilitator should point to the instances in which military personnel cite their reasons for becoming involved either in the TTA or in an effort at their own company. Penn s clear articulation of the feeling of family and community in the military is echoed in Hardesty s words about helping returning veterans. My motto was, not on my watch, says Hardesty. What happened after Vietnam was not going to happen to these guys if I had anything to do with it. And Metzger confirms, there s a sense of responsibility with military people, there s a sense of a team. Even the initial impetus behind the TTA came from a former serviceman, Mike Quinn, the Cisco Systems VP. His insistence that Cisco be on the lookout for qualified candidates came from his own experiences returning from a combat zone. Throughout the case there is much evidence of carrying through on military community and any company or organization needs to understand the advantages of having former military personnel within their company speak to a veteran they might be interested in hiring. There is a value in taking advantage of that unspoken bond. At the same time, it is important to understand that military rank might matter even in a civilian situation. 3. An effort in social entrepreneurship The case details the impetus for the program and the efforts that were made to create this missing link in integrating military personnel into the civilian workforce. While there is no information on the financing that helped create the effort, some time should be spent discussing the collaborative nature of the project and the different agencies, organizations and private sector companies involved. The responsibility for the idea came from Cisco Systems VP of Consumer Advocacy, Mike Quinn, but the agencies usually involved with veterans affairs were No-100-002 5
already engaged in a process of increasing their services for veterans. The DOL, the VHA, the DOD, and the EDD had collaborated to establish an on-site center at Balboa Hospital modeled after the one-stop career centers located throughout the state of California. The pilot project of the TTA was more easily accomplished at Balboa Hospital than at other military facilities around the country because the Balboa Career Transition Center was already established. Still, it took the entrepreneurial thinking of Alec Belous at Cisco Systems to identify the issue that there was no process for translating the skills and experience of military personnel into civilian equivalents and to structure and develop the solution. The TTA was developed by a private sector goodwill effort, placed in a government facility and is now administered by a non-profit, The Wounded Warrior Project (http://vetstta.org/). 4. Morale building and accommodations Returning from war disabled physically and/or mentally can be a devastating experience, especially for young enlisted men and women. Students should pay close attention to what is said in the case about improving morale. It works both ways many of the activities mentioned boost morale for returning soldiers but there is also evidence that having highly disciplined and well-trained military personnel can also add to teambuilding on the corporate level. War in the modern era often results in invisible disabilities, so accommodating for TBIs or PTSD might appear to be a different challenge for a company or organization than accommodating a physical disability. In this case, John Metzger of UULLC has employed Gorman Penn in a virtual role and given him free rein to take the time he needs when he feels disabled by his TBI. In part, this is due to Metzger s own experience when returning to civilian life and his attitude that he needed to accommodate himself. In other words, he was motivated to work, but knew he had to be flexible in order to deal with his back injury. In a more structured or corporate environment, accommodating for a TBI might include some of the strategies outlined in the other cases in our series. Smith Barney has provided Gena Harper with a flexible schedule and a home office, and the company as a whole has an excellent disability policy. Crossroads provides on-the-job coaching to the employee in the work situation itself, as well as other coaching outside the workplace. 5. Planning a new career The case was created to address MBA students, executive education students and company and corporate personnel, but the case also might be useful to stimulate No-100-002 6
discussion among returning veterans. There is a great deal of implicit information about the careers of former military personnel as well as details about the career trajectories of Gorman Penn and John Metzger. In a teaching situation with veterans, facilitators could draw students attention to the stories of both these men. Penn enlisted in the Army as a young man, served for fourteen years and then reentered civilian life, taking a job as a truck driver. After ten years driving trucks, Penn decided to reenlist with the Navy and was hurt when he was stationed in Iraq. In medical hold, Penn realized he could not continue in the military nor go back to his civilian position as a truck driver. Enrolling in the TTA gave him a morale boost, and, taking inspiration from Mike Quinn, the Cisco VP, Penn decided to pursue a career in IT and took the job with UULLC and Metzger. Metzger hurt his back in military service and carved his own path in the world of work accommodations, gaining a tremendous amount of experience in the areas of work disabilities and government contracts. Ultimately, with the passage of the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003, Metzger devised a particular business strategy that caters to his strengths and knowledge. He is the 51% owner in UULLC, so that the company can compete for government business under the rules of a preference program, and the sales, marketing and human resources strengths of UULLC complement the engineering capabilities of his son s engineering company, Vonetex, to get the work done. Both men s career trajectories indicate creative strategies to move forward in life despite a combat-related disability. No-100-002 7
Abbreviations and acronyms used in the Balboa case Balboa Hospital: Naval Medical Center San Diego BAMC: Brook Army Medical Center, Houston, Texas BCTC: Balboa Career Transition Center EDD: California Employment Development Department (EDD) CAP: DOD s Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program DOD: Department of Defense DOL: Department of Labor MLO: Materials Liaison Office Network Academy: Cisco Network Academy Operation IMPACT: Career transition program at Northrop Grumman TBI: traumatic brain injury TTA: Transition Training Academy UULLC: Universal Understanding LLC VA: Department of Veterans Affairs VBA: Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 WWP: The Wounded Warrior Project No-100-002 8