We love our acronyms in the MOD, but here’s one I’d like you to know, ODC. It’s not a typo, but stands for Operations Development and Coherence. Still not sure what it is? Let me explain…
If the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) were a car, then ODC would be the sophisticated engine management system at the heart of the vehicle; boosting performance and maximising fuel efficiency.
Huge Range of Specialities
I lead the ODC team and we’re a pretty diverse bunch of people, over 700 strong. For ease of understanding though, I’d like to group my colleagues into three distinct groups.
Firstly, we have a wide range of technical specialists. These range from Airfield Pavement Engineers to Foresters; Health and Safety experts to Weapons Effect on Structures specialists; Town Planners to an Explosive Ordinance Clearance team and everything in between. Some of these colleagues have explained in other Inside DIO blogs what their specialist jobs involve.
Secondly, functional teams providing Land Management Services for the leases and rentals; a Utilities team providing power, heat and water and the Security Services Group providing bespoke security systems across the Defence estate both in the UK and overseas.
Finally, my team includes a group of people with a clear strategic, planning and delivery role, whether in the Programme Development team, Service Coherence team and the Army Basing Programme Management Office. The Programme Development team takes strategic plans and infrastructure requests from our Armed Forces - whether Army, Royal Navy or Royal Air Force - and makes sure we deliver these in the best way. The Service Coherence team makes sure we provide the same service whether you’re in Catterick, Portsmouth or Cyprus. The Army Basing Programme Management Office is coordinating the planning and management of re-basing the British Army from Germany.
This adds up to quite a variety of people, but just like a finely-tuned orchestra their strength is them coming together. Together ODC refines strategic plans and turns them into discrete projects to be delivered, whilst also supporting delivery. The team also has strong links to other functions such as Finance and Commercial.
Seeing The Bigger Picture
ODC is a new group within DIO and the challenge for me is embedding them within the evolving organisation. That not only means explaining to my team how they fit in, but enabling the wider organisation to understand the role that they play.
This is vital to DIO’s ongoing success, as our new operating model is designed to work with different parts of the organisation working smoothly together, rather like a car’s engine.
The satisfaction I get from embedding our team into the organisation is knowing we are setting resilient plans and helping our colleagues to deliver projects that support our Armed Forces. That’s a great feeling.
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