Every member of a crew has a duty to each other. Each time we begin a Coast Guard mission, crew members go through a process of evaluating risk, with an honest assessment of each other and their operating environment. When we do suffer a mishap, we investigate and openly evaluate what went wrong. Then we fix it.
In the same way, the Commandant, Adm. Linda Fagan, directed the Accountability and Transparency Review (ATR) to assess the Coast Guard’s culture, policies, and processes following release of the Operation Fouled Anchor (OFA) investigation. Following the ATR, she directed 33 initial actions focused on strengthening the Coast Guard’s culture, and ensuring a workplace climate that is intolerant of sexual assault and other harmful behaviors. To date, 18 of these directed actions are complete.
It’s important every Coast Guard member understands their role in this effort. As we Strengthen our Service Culture, we are focused not just on duty to mission, but on duty to each other. We are having tough conversations and initiating corrective actions by strengthening policy, expanding training, and reinforcing our expectations for leaders at all levels.
You can read more here about the Coast Guard’s progress, and how you can contribute. You’ll see even more work on these issues as we continue to strengthen the Coast Guard workplace environment we – and our nation – deserve.
Cultural change rarely takes place quickly. But we’ve made a great start. You’re already seeing some early progress, like the new mandatory sexual assault/harassment training we rolled out this year, and commands proactively pulling their teams together to have tough conversations about how we treat one another.
As we move ahead, every member needs to help shape this transformation. Here are some examples:
These are all things you can do right now to foster change in our Service. You’ll find more ways to get involved – and all the latest announcements about new policies, initiatives and programs – over on the new Strengthening Service Culture site.
You can also pitch in simply by staying “in the know.” Help address misinformation by reviewing the FAQs about the Coast Guard’s efforts. (New FAQs are added often!)
And there’s more to come!
The culture of any organization needs to be continuously cultivated and nourished to ensure that all members of the workforce embody and espouse values and principles of the organization. That takes time, as well as the participation of every Team Coast Guard member. But we have made great progress and are setting the foundation for enduring change.
As the Commandant recently said: “We are a better Coast Guard today than we were a year ago, and we will be even better a year from now.”
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