Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg Issues Memo on Workforce Acceleration & Recapitalization Initiative Organizational Review

U.S. Department of Defense ^ | April 8, 2025 | Eric Pahon

[cgbg]

Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg's directive launches one of the most ambitious efforts in decades to modernize how the Department is organized and operates.

This is about more than efficiency — it's about designing a workforce and structure that move at the speed of today's challenges.

We're taking a clear-eyed look across the Department to ensure every role, every office, and every layer of management is aligned to what the mission demands right now: speed, precision, and operational impact.

By streamlining structures and focusing roles where they have the greatest impact, we are empowering our civilian professionals to contribute even more directly to the Department's core mission.

The result will be a more agile, responsive, and mission-focused Department — one that delivers for the warfighter and supports our national security priorities with greater clarity and speed.

As the Secretary of Defense has said, credible deterrence starts with credible structures. This effort is how we get there.

[cgbg]

This is long and boring but very important.

My interpretation is that it is a zero base budgeting approach to the Department of Defense.

"Every role must now meet a simple test: If this position didn't exist today, and we were at war tomorrow, would we create it? If the answer is no, it should be consolidated, restructured, or eliminated."

It is a solid plan.

Implementation will be a major challenge--but it is doable.

[cgbg]

The long and boring part is the attachment:

https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/08/2003685574/-1/-1/1/WORKFORCE-ACCELERATION-RECAPITALIZATION-INITIATIVE-ORGANIZATIONAL-REVIEW.PDF

[RoosterRedux]

That's pretty sterile.

Here's my take from reading the actual memorandum. It seems to be a DOGE-like streamlining of personnel only:

The Department of Defense is launching a major initiative to streamline and optimize its civilian workforce in support of military readiness. Called the Workforce Acceleration & Recapitalization Initiative, this effort aims to eliminate bureaucracy, cut redundant or outdated roles, and ensure every civilian position directly supports the military’s core missions: lethality, readiness, and strategic deterrence.

Each DoD component is required to review its organizational structure and submit proposals to reduce inefficiencies, consolidate overlapping functions, and right-size the workforce. Leadership is instructed to ask a clear, guiding question for every role: If this position didn’t exist today, and we were at war tomorrow, would we create it? If the answer is no, the role should be consolidated, restructured, or removed.

The review will focus on flattening hierarchies, removing excessive layers of management, accelerating decision-making, and aligning operations with current mission urgency. Functions that are outdated, duplicative, or provide little value—like some administrative offices or legacy review processes—are likely to be cut or privatized. Civilian jobs will also be evaluated for modernization potential through digital platforms and artificial intelligence.

Ultimately, this effort is about realigning the Department around warfighter needs, restoring military strength, and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent on capabilities that enhance America’s ability to deter and, if necessary, win future conflicts with speed, precision, and efficiency.

[RoosterRedux]

Here's something else that's very positive:

• Managers who only supervise 1 or 2 people may be demoted or removed.

• Offices that exist just to pass paperwork or coordinate should be shut down or absorbed.

• If a research office hasn’t produced anything valuable in 5 years—it’s gone.

• Functions like retail, recreation, etc., may be privatized.

[cgbg]

I have worked on teams that had great success in improving efficiency—in some cases getting rid of 90% waste while improving objectively measurable results.

The main challenges were not the workers. They had many great ideas for process improvement.

The managers were the issue. They loved their empire building and endless meetings and emails.

I am always reminded of the famous scene from “Wall Street”:

“You are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDV-ryLLkiU

[RoosterRedux]

Love Gordon Gekko. He was like the best investment bankers I knew. I just wish he had played the game straight instead of being a crook.

He gave Wall St a bad name—one I don't think it deserved. But, of course, I'm biased.;-)

[AZJeep]

At this point of time, every gov department needs restructuring.
Yes, we need our armed forces, and actually, we need a lot more of them.
Yet, there is a lot of bloated paper pushers, who could be eliminated, and the money used for the real warriors!

[cgbg]

Wall Street is like so much of life—on a normal curve from super high integrity to super crooked.

Lol.

I wish I were younger—fixing the organizational issues of the DOD would be a lot of fun.

The key is to move as quickly as possible—before management mission creep starts to re-emerge in the new organization.

The timelines I have seen for major process improvement are something like this:

Year 1—Process improvement groups identify areas for improvement and draft plans to implement them.

Year 2—Implementation—most goes well but there are glitches from time to time

Year 3-8—Incredible efficiency. The plans worked. Some tinkering around the edges gets the machine humming even more smoothly.

Year 9—Some key people retire or move on and bureaucrats replace them. Everything is still running smoothly and the new bureaucrats cannot believe how easy their new job is—no customer complaints!

Year 10—The new bureaucrats reach a shocking realization. The organization does not need them. Everything is running smoothly and they have just spent a year doing nothing. They panic. They need to prove to senior management they are needed. They then make proposals to improve the process further. These are all stupid proposals but senior management hired these people and listens to them. The new stupid proposals get implemented.

Year 11-12—The gradual degradation takes place and workers begin to get demoralized. Momentum keeps the process running smoothly regardless.

Year 13-15—The workers start quitting or retiring or doing minimal required. They are demoralized because they know the bureaucrats are pretending to be in favor of efficiency but in fact despise it and just want more power. The organization gradually collapses into dysfunction.