By Danial Dzulkifly | 12 Apr 2018
PETALING JAYA, April 12 — US-based Centre for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) is eyeing a possible partnership with Genovasi Malaysia to enhance the capabilities of human capital development of the Malaysian Armed Forces.
CCMR through their Defence Governance and Management Team (DGMT) programme has been tasked with conducting a series of workshop with the Malaysian Ministry of Defence, aimed to provide defence personnel with new skill sets in a constantly evolving military environment.
During a discussion at the Genovasi Design Thinking School here today, DGMT representative Michael J. McNerney expressed interest in the ethos of Genovasi and how it can help military officers with the right tools in complex problem-solving.
“Our way of dealing with problems are more structured such as planning, programming budgeting and is more process oriented. We can do more human-centred solutions.
Genovasi seems to have expertise in the area,” said McNerney. Genovasi has vast experience in training design thinking to uniformed officers in the Malaysian civil service. McNerney who is also an associate director of the International Security and Defence Policy Centre at the RAND Corporation said the concept of design thinking is also taking hold in combat commanders in the US military.
“If you take the US Pacific command, for example, they are beginning to realise the importance of human-centred issues and have started to focus more on human capital development,” he said.
Another DGMT representative Brian Kawamura said design thinking can help to alleviate the traditional warfighting role of the military to a more diverse role during peacetime.
“Any military has always been gearing for warfighting, however, there are other prospects for the modern role of the armed forces such as search and rescue, responding to disasters and even providing local security.
“Perhaps we could find ways to reduce redundancy and utilise other branches of the military, such as the reserve, to take on a more active role,” he said. In the discussion, Genovasi Malaysia Manager for strategic partnerships Kamaliah Kasmarudin said although the military by design is very rigid and restricted, there are officers who see value in design thinking.
“Design thinking is re-framing the problem for a human-centred approach. It might be difficult for those in the military to adjust or accept, but some have started to view our approach as a more conducive approach to problem solving,” she said
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