{"id":27259,"date":"2016-03-15T20:21:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T20:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/03\/15\/top-innovators-say-it-s-getting-easier-to-change-the-navy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:13:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:13:46","slug":"top-innovators-say-it-s-getting-easier-to-change-the-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/03\/15\/top-innovators-say-it-s-getting-easier-to-change-the-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Top innovators say it’s getting easier to change the Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“The way we’ve always done it” \u2014 a familiar refrain those seeking to improve things must contend with.\u00a0\u00a0is a familiar phrase to officers and enlisted alike. Making change is slow in an organization built on process and tradition, but winners of this year’s SECNAV Innovation Awards are making headway, they say.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the tradition-bound Navy isn’t easy, but some of the service’s top innovators say they’re making headway. This spring, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recognized sailors and Navy civilians for ideas in robotics, additive manufacturing, data analysis and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’s office recognized sailors and Navy civilians in nine categories in the program’s inaugural year, rewarding ideas in robotics, additive manufacturing and data analytics, as well as individuals from the enlisted and military education communities and a leader for championing the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My old senior chief, if I would’ve\u00a0told him this 12 years ago, he would’ve laughed at me,” Chief Sonar Technician (Surface) (SW) Benjamin Lebron, the enlisted innovator awardee, told Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lebron was recognized for building <\/span>using web coding to rapidly analyze sonar for patterns indicative of a submarine, a process largely done by hand. He recommends the Navy empower sailors by offering optional coding courses online.\u00a0to cut out the steps of measuring and drawing data points when analyzing sonar. Instead, he plugs in the information and his formula spits out submarine tracking information.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An innovation scholar recipient is now\u00a0Now an information system security manager on staff at 7th Fleet, after his stint at the Naval Postgraduate School, innovation scholar winner Lt. Brendan Geoghegan is <\/span>looking in<\/span>to getting<\/span> involved with the new <\/span>Far East version of Project Athena, a Navy-created initiative that brings sailors together for short periods to work on their ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

“Project Athena is amazing and I think that is the platform that we need to be pushing, because it doesn’t take two years out of someone’s career to come up with a good idea,” Lt. Brendan Geoghegan told Navy Times. “It takes 15 minutes for a sailor to say, ‘Hey, this is a great idea, let me go bring it.’\u00a0“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geoghegan admits his project, which used augmented reality to help drive ships, is pretty pie-in-the-sky, but that the Navy’s recognition is motivating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sometimes you get down because you work so many hours and you think, ‘Ah I’m just part of the routine,’ ” he said.\u00a0“Winning something like this tells me that the Navy puts its money where its mouth is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cmdr. Jeffrey Heames, who was recognized for supporting innovation as the commanding officer of the destroyer PrebleFitzgerald<\/span>, the biggest challenge is getting out of his own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Honestly, I felt like I was the impediment,” he said.\u00a0“And mostly, that’s because it was harder to keep an open mind in some areas.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his case, his sailors persevered, and some of the ideas he initially rejected are now being evaluated for wider use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My hindsight is, I need to keep an open mind, as do people who are senior, not just in what’s coming in, but having the vision to identify\u00a0things earlier on is key,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even if the ideas don’t change the Navy, just encouraging innovation is key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One of the things that the process gives you is, obviously there’s the potential to find a great idea that’s lasting, but the side benefits are that you have a crew that engages in their environment, with critical thinking and a questioning attitude about why we’re doing certain things the way we’re doing them and how we’re employing our ship,” Heames said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to speed up that innovation, Lebron offered, would be to encourage sailors to learn to code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s just where we\u2019re going. We\u2019re getting away from the old compiled languages, where there\u2019s only these certain wizards who know how to do everything,” he said. “Offer something like [Navy Knowledge Online]\u00a0NKO<\/span> language training. Instead of doing human languages, do coding languages.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u00a0wants younger sailors, he said<\/span> to know that between Project Athena and SECNAV’s Hatch website<\/a>, an online submission tool, their ideas are wanted and needed.\u00a0are there if they have ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m just an example of the success and opportunities that are out there,” he said.\u00a0“There are people that are willing to help you develop it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Changing the tradition-bound Navy isn’t easy, but some of the service’s top innovators say they’re making headway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3308],"class_list":["post-27259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"C37IKK7B3JCIVLEBBCRXFWCV6I","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/03\/15\/top-innovators-say-it-s-getting-easier-to-change-the-navy\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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