I could discuss a large list of initiatives and different activities that we're undertaking. There is no one single silver bullet for culture change. It's a number of initiatives top down and also bottom up.
I will say, at its root, we need to address the exclusionary aspects of our culture. Traditionally we come from a homogenous group. We've been recruited from homogenous group, but the face of Canada is changing, and our armed forces, if we are to be successful in the future, has to be able to attract and retain talent from whatever segment of Canadian society it may come.
If operational effectiveness is predicated on cohesion, cohesion is predicated on teamwork. The way we build our teams has to change. We have to have a much more inclusive approach to leadership. What I mean by that is that we just can't have a cookie-cutter approach to building teams. Leaders at every level have to understand the unique backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses and developmental needs of each one of their individuals so they can weave them together to form that team. Every member of that team has to believe that they are in an organization where they belong so that they feel psychologically safe to contribute, to share their ideas and to point something out if it doesn't look right.
We've started to operationalize this. Last fall we issued an inclusivity directive, how inclusivity is going to be operationalized and assessed down the chain. We're changing our leadership training at all levels to have more focus on the human domain, emotional intelligence, power dynamics and inclusion.
We're about to publish a revised military ethos called “Trusted to Serve”. Previously we focused on competence, which is still very important, but even more so is character. Character has to lead; competence can follow. One of the new military values we're bringing in is inclusion because it is so important for our operational effectiveness going into the future, not to mention that it's the right thing to do.