Tailored Interventions to Foster Acquisition Innovation: Piloting the Innovation Alliance Program

Abstract

A key challenge in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is aligning, prioritizing, and adopting acquisition innovation. This research explores the underlying systemic pressures that both impede and enable innovation in the acquisition workforce and proposes a structured intervention program, the Innovation Alliance Program (IAP), aimed at promoting a healthy innovation culture. Piloted at the Department of the U.S. Air Force, the IAP develops capacity through training and strengthening the collaborative networks within the organization to enhance the scalability and adoption of innovative practices, which addresses a critical issue of promulgating micro-innovations for larger-scale impact across the DoD.