Strategic Planning for Execution: Assessment and Risk (SPEAR) Program Manager Dr. Paul Stames, standing, facilitates a team discussion during the latest edition of the SPEAR workshop at NPS' Center for Executive Education (CEE), Jan 27. Some 55 senior participants from across DOD are attending the workshop to hone their strategic planning skills, with a focus on risk mitigation.

Stames, an Executive Tailored Support Course coach with the CEE, explained what he believes to be the course's appeal.

"We are not dealing with hypotheticals here, we are dealing with real challenges in order to help command teams to sustain their missions, to improve their long-term strategies, and to increase their mission effectiveness," he said. "This workshop allows command executives and leaders to step away from the immediate challenges that their commands face, and to focus on their long-term strategic needs."

CEE Acting Director Winli McAnally added this year's workshop is unprecedented, with nearly double its usual attendance. "I believe the effectiveness of this workshop is spreading and the requests for team attendance are hitting our maximum capacity at NPS," she noted.

And the SPEAR workshop makes good business sense too, according to McAnally. Disparate commands are often working on similar issues, and workshops like SPEAR offer an ideal venue for the exchange of ideas, lessons-learned and best practices.

"Attendees come to realize that commands are facing similar challenges and are given the opportunity to benefit from the work that other teams are doing," said McAnally.