Thoughts on moving IMCOM September 11, 2009

The following exchange between an IMCOM employee and Executive Director John Nerger addresses some of the questions on many minds as IMCOM prepares to transform to its new structure. The text is altered slightly to preserve the writer’s privacy. If this strikes a chord, feel free to post your own comment to this post.

Dear Mr. Nerger,

I appreciate you and IMCOM Leadership sharing the information from the command climate survey [distributed to IMCOM employees by email] in April 2009. I came on board in June, so I didn’t have the opportunity to participate, however, based on your presentation in the IMCOM New Employee Orientation that I attended shortly after coming to IMCOM, I wanted to add my thoughts.

Like many of the survey respondents, I do not understand the rationale behind the move of IMCOM to San Antonio for several reasons:

#1 – IMCOM is abdicating its geographical proximity to the Pentagon decision-makers on both sides of the river. Telephones and VTC are nice innovations and great tools for enhancing cooperation and collaboration on the tactical and task levels of an organization, but I’m not sold on the idea that strategic planning and decision-making can take place using those mediums. Nothing beats “face-to-face” conversations whether they take place in the office, on a golf course, in the gym, or over lunch. I think it’s instructive that none of the other military services are “giving up” their access to those decision-makers.

#2 – I’m hearing numbers like, “only 300-400 present staff members have committed to moving to San Antonio with the Command, but the Command requires 1200-1500 people to be effective and meet the mission.” If those numbers are even close to being accurate, where will IMCOM find a workforce in San Antonio that has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to help the Command accomplish its mission? What will be the cost in lost productivity by IMCOM–a “young” command that is still working to earn the respect and cooperation of the Army’s other commands and the garrisons that we serve–especially with so many of our war fighters actively deployed in harm’s way or moving back-and-forth between combat and rehab back home? Or the erosion for the credibility that IMCOM has earned to date across the Army when its “talent pool” takes such a massive “hit”?

Just some of my thoughts. If you’ve made it this far in my message, I thank you for “listening.”

Nerger Response

[Greets the writer]

I appreciate your note, and sharing your perspective, as a newcomer, on the changes we are experiencing.

The simple answer on our movement to San Antonio is we’re required to do so IAW BRAC law. I agree with you on the value of proximity, though some might argue many of the Army’s commands (FORSCOM, TRADOC, etc) have functioned well outside of the DC area. VTCs and emails do have their limitations. I haven’t examined all the deliberative documents used by the BRAC Commission to arrive at its decision but I suspect the following were among their considerations: dispersion of DoD elements outside of the NCR post-September 11; movement out of leased space into available permanent facilities on Army installations; lower cost areas for employees. And, quite honestly, the only way the Army would ever get new HQs built for any of its commands is through BRAC. I’ll leave it to others to judge the wisdom of moving so many command HQs (AMC, FORSCOM, TRADOC, HRC, IMCOM, etc) at one time.

The disruption caused by a loss of personnel greatly concerns me. This is one of the reasons we authorized a group relocation incentive for those willing to move, something no other command has done. Historically, organizations that realign because of BRAC see retention of about 20% of their workforce. I’m cautiously optimistic, because nearly 50% of our personnel have declared their intention to move. The rate is even higher for F&MWRC – 71%. Nonetheless, we will see a loss of much talent and experience and have to do a considerable amount of hiring. Being the optimist that I am, I think the fundamental mission of IMCOM will continue to attract quality talent, wherever we may be. The biggest challenge we face as a command is not taking a step backwards from the progress we’ve made since forming a few years ago. This is the primary reason why we decided to lease space in San Antonio in advance of our facility completion date at Ft Sam Houston, in order to mitigate some of the risk by staging our move over 2 years. We’ll also have to depend greatly on those parts of the community which will remain stable, namely OACSIM & the garrisons.

Thanaks again for your note. If you’d like to discuss this further, feel free to call on me. Thanks for being part of our team.

John B. Nerger
Executive Director
U.S. Army Installation Management Command