Chief of Naval Operations' learning line of effort advanced at Naval War College lecture

NEWPORT, R.I. – In response to the Chief of Naval Operations’ call for the Navy to focus on specific lines of effort to advance the service, U.S. Naval War College (NWC) Newport, Rhode Island, welcomed a leader on High Velocity Learning to address the faculty, students and staff at the school. 

In CNO Adm. John Richardson’s document “A Design for Maintaining Maritime Security” released in January, he asks for the Navy to concentrate efforts on four specific areas. The second of these lines is to “Achieve High Velocity Learning at Every Level.” 

The NWC guest speaker, Steven Spear is a senior lecturer at the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and is an expert on the methods that exceptional organizations use to get and hold an advantage through the strength of their internal operations.

During his remarks, Spear emphasized the importance of realizing that people are the biggest factor in success.

“When you go to make a car and buy a coil of steel, anyone can buy that same coil of steel. When you go to buy plastic pellets for injection molding, they are exactly the same as your competitors can get,” Spear said in his address. “So if everyone has the same stuff, the only possible difference has to be the person using the stuff. It is these folks giving you the advantage.”

Spear went on to stress that his ideas are in line with the CNO’s directives. 

“Being better simply cannot be purchased because anything you can buy, someone else can buy it too,” he added. “My presentation connects into these initiatives by the CNO both the learning piece and the leadership piece.”

Spear is the author of the book “The High Velocity Edge” and spoke at the ongoing Evening Lecture series at the school. High velocity organizations manage processes based on internally generated improvement and innovation.

His articles have been widely read and have become part of modern manufacturing. 

Spear won a McKinsey Award for one of the best Harvard Business Review articles in 2005 and also earned four Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence.

He has been published in medical journals as well and has written op-ed pieces that ran in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Fortune.com, and Industry Week. He has been interviewed by various print, magazine, and television news outlets addressing high velocity learning and optimizing organizations.

Spear’s academic degrees include a doctorate from Harvard Business School, masters degrees in management and mechanical engineering from MIT, and a bachelors degree in economics from Princeton.

Other lines of effort the CNO is emphasizing are Strengthen Naval Power at and from Sea, Strengthen our Navy Team for the Future, and Expand and Strengthen our Network of Partners.

NWC is a one-year resident program that graduates about 600 resident students and about 1,000 distance learning students each year. Its missions include educating and developing leaders, helping define the future of the Navy, supporting combat readiness, and strengthening maritime partnerships. 

Students earn Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) credit and either a diploma or a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies or Defense and Strategic Studies. Established in 1884, U.S. Naval War College is the oldest institution of its kind in the world. More than 50,000 students have graduated since its first class of nine students in 1885 and about 300 of today’s active duty admirals, generals and senior executive service leaders are alumni.