Purepost Learnings from the Use of Management Science

Our systems science learning also reflected our understanding of different organizations' operating structures within broader systems, including the military and comparable civilian worlds. The Army is one of several large complex systems within the Department of Defense (DOD), the DOD being the mega system. Likewise, Yoplait manufacturing is one of several large complex systems within General Mills, with General Mills being the mega system. In short, using the management science discipline, Purepost could understand and document the operating structures and contextual identities of the Military and Civilian Worlds. Subsequently, this breakthrough enabled us to segment military and industry operating structures inside systems and sub-operating structures inside larger operating structures. With a solid understanding of the nature of military and civilian operating structures, we could examine these organizations' common and divergent features in structure, tasks, technology, and people. Purepost then built essential generalized military-to-civilian translation guides (templates) by military grade (rank), military position title, and civilian job title. These guides enabled the crucial design of a detailed job specialization and skills crosswalk between military and civilian operating structures. We constructed this detailed job specialization and skills crosswalk through our proprietary crosswalk factors: 1) military branch, 2) assignment type, and 3) rank/grade. Had Purepost not made this realization through double-loop and triple-loop learning during its iterative and collaborative prototyping process, we would not have solved this problem and succeeded in building a reliable and replicable solution throughout all five service branches and hundreds of military operating codes.

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