Senior Sailors Symposium - Delegates group.
19 November 2007
Last week Master Chief Petty Officers and Warrant Officers from 14 navies gathered in Auckland for a Senior Sailors Symposium.
Hosted by the Royal New Zealand Navy, representatives came from Australia, Canada, Chile, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Turkey, and the USA (from both the US Navy and the US Coast Guard).
This was the inaugural Senior Sailors Symposium, instigated after numerous informal discussions between Chiefs of Navy of several different nations over the past few years suggested it would be a good idea. The Symposium is about strengthening collaboration and cooperation among sailors throughout the world.
The Symposium kicked off with a cultural welcome, before the two days of substantive presentations and discussions. It concluded with a formal gala dinner. The Symposium hosts were Rear Admiral David Ledson, ONZM, New Zealand's Chief of Navy and Warrant officer Neil Roberts the Warrant Officer of the RNZN.
The Keynote speaker at the Symposium was Dr Geoff Lorrigan from the NZ Strategic Leadership Institute, who focused on stepping up to 'Level Three' leadership, i.e the strategic leadership exercised by top management.
Dr Lorrigan pointed out that lessons in leadership are derived from international experience and generally cross both organisational and cultural boundaries.
His discussion became the touch stone for the symposium as the other navies' presentations showed that most navies were incorporating their senior enlisted leaders into the top management stratum, previously only accessible to commissioned officers or senior civilians.
The common goal is to bring senior enlisted staff experience, particularly of the deck plate and technical aspects of their navies, into their strategic planning and decision making.
The US Navy has instituted a Senior Enlisted Academy, in Newport, Rhode Island, where they are making changes to facilitate attendance from various foreign navies. The Academy serves to prepare US senior enlisted sailors for posts on fleet staffs across the US Navy.
In the course of the discussions and presentations it was clear that the 12 navies are undergoing parallel experiences and the Symposium served as a valuable opportunity for exchanging ideas and sharing lessons learned.
ENDS