 Good morning everyone. Good morning. Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon. So let me be the 15th, 20th, 30th person to welcome you to the United States Naval War College. I think you would agree that today is kind of a big deal. You represent the best of the best of the best of your services, your agencies, your nations. You are among the chosen few. So certainly it is appropriate to celebrate this milestone achievement. So go ahead and give yourselves a hand. Now I'm going to encourage you to get all that celebrating out of your system because the academic smackdown is probably on your horizon. We have folks like Dr. Sally Payne, no pun intended, but Colonel Bill Hartick, Dr. Derek Revron. They're waiting for you. So this is why I happen to think I have one of the best jobs today. My job is to help set you up for success as you begin this academic journey. The reality is that many, if not most of you, have not had academics at the forefront of your primary responsibilities in your most recent assignments. So a significant shift in mindset is required for you to continue your success in this intellectually elevated environment. Today's ethics symposium is a perfect example. This is not an ethics stand down. We're not going to have briefings on rules and policies, right versus wrong, or commanders telling you not to do stupid stuff. Well, all of those things are certainly important, as how pointed out, and as he and Dr. Cropel further defined, we are challenging you to broaden your understanding of ethics through the lens of your professional responsibilities. That is your ethical obligation as members of the profession of arms. So to that end, we unintentionally, several years ago, started a tradition with what is now being called the car wash lecture, where we use the analogy of the car wash to frame your time here in terms of those professional ethical responsibilities and offer some nuggets of wisdom that can serve as a path to success in this learning environment. Apparently, your predecessors have found it to be a useful way to approach the academic challenge. So hopefully the analogy will resonate with you as well. And you will find it useful as you begin or in some instances continue your naval war college journey. So with that, I present the car wash lecture. So I hit upon this analogy a while back as I was driving through an automatic car wash. And like most car washes these days, this one has one of those large metal units where you swipe your credit card to pay or enter code if you prepay. Well, this particular unit also had a speaker, where very pleasant voice comes through the sound box and provides instructions for how to proceed through the car wash. The voice very politely instructs, please put your car neutral. Remove your foot from the break. And please fold in your mirrors. Now, if the instructions are properly followed and you successfully maneuver your car into the rails, the car then slowly proceeds through a series of car wash stages, you know, the pre soak, the wash the rinse the wax the dry, all depending upon which level of service is chosen. Ultimately, the expectation is that the car will be in a better state upon exiting the car wash than it was when it entered. Well, this got me to thinking, doesn't this whole car wash experience accurately reflect a year spent at the United States Naval War College? That is students intern one state with the expectation that you'll exit a year later, hopefully in a better state. But the mark pondered the analogy. What really stood out to me was not so much this notion of entering one way, getting switched around for a while and exiting another way, but rather the criticality of the instructions for proceeding through the experience. Things that make you go, hmm, as you have already heard many times already, one of the primary missions of the United States Naval War College is to develop students into future strategic leaders. And we are most fortunate to have some of the best seasoned and expert faculty to help students do just that. And while each of you are already successful leaders in your own right, in order to become even better leaders, in order to enhance your standing in this profession of arms, there are some things that you as students can do as well. You can put your car neutral. You can remove your foot from the break, and you can fold in your mirrors. You see, there are certain actions and efforts that will enable you as students to contribute to your own learning and further your own development as strategic leaders. And indeed, it is your professional ethical obligation to do so. With me so far. Fold in your mirrors. So let's take a look at that last instruction first. I think it goes without saying that everyone in this room is most likely an overachiever. Clearly, you have attained some level of success, or you would not be sitting here in Spruin's Hall Auditorium at this amazing institution. Over the course of your career so far, you've developed your technical competence, your tactical expertise and certain leadership abilities. Some of you have led sailors or soldiers or troops or teams or forces in very difficult and challenging circumstances, while others of you have functioned effectively as very significant contributors in your respective organizations. However, this is not the time to rest on those laurels. Quite the contrary. The goal here is for you to strive to become an even better leader in order to prepare for the more complex challenges of your next level of leadership. You see, that successes and previous achievements are not the things that are going to help you become a strategic leader. In fact, moving towards becoming a strategic leader is dependent upon the development of more advanced abilities. Let me borrow a phrase from the title of a popular leadership book to bring this point home. The title of the book is What Got You Here Won't Get You There. Now, the general premise of Marshall Goldsmith's book is that as people pursue future success and they assume the responsibilities of higher order leadership, they must recognize that certain actions, behaviors and ways of thinking that may have served them well as lower level leaders can in fact become hindrances as more senior level leaders. For example, taking a tactical approach with a strategic issue. In fact, during a very recent leadership discussion among a large group of admirals, the four star challenge these senior leaders to guard against this very thing, conflating the tactical with the strategic. What that affirms for us then is in order for you to become that strategic leader, a complementary set of new skills is required. So let's apply that line of thinking in the world that we live in. That's the VUCA world, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, where the required thinking is nonlinear. The decisions are interdependent. The in state is unknown and in certitude is the expected norm. In the VUCA world of global security, those who are positioned to be senior leaders, that's all of you in this room, must strive to develop more sophisticated skill sets, a higher order way of thinking and broaden strategic perspectives. So where's a fold in the mirror part come in? Think about it this way. Side mirrors on a car are designed to help drivers see what is behind them. They provide a rear view perspective. Yet in order to build upon existing leadership strengths and personal abilities, it is important to spend time developing a forward-looking perspective. During your Naval War College journey then, there will be occasions that necessitate folding in those rear-facing mirrors in order for you to develop the ability to look forward through future facing windows. Follow? Remove your foot from the break. So along those same lines, when we become wedded to existing knowledge and know-how, in my mind, that's akin to riding the brakes, essentially remaining in the same place. But when we remove our foot from the bend there, done that break, the aperture for learning is expanded. Here's what I mean. When it comes to seminars, for example, some students place great, great, great, great, great, did I say great emphasis on how you might be evaluated on your participation. Of course, that's to be expected when you're dealing with the room full of competitive over-achievers. That would be you. So what sometimes happens is students scope out the topics in which they are most familiar and have the most confidence and then target those particular seminar discussions for their active engagement, as well as reverting to and camping out on that same topic whenever possible. Now don't get me wrong, it is a good strategy. At the same time, however, if you just park on what you already know, effectively you are selling yourself and your classmates short. Absorbing and synthesizing new information that is elevating the level of learning allows for learning environments that may be different from what one is custom. You. Captain John Meyer and I teach the Critical Thinking for Adaptive Leaders course. This course is particularly designed to push students out of their learning and thinking comfort zones. The goal is to further their mental agility and cognitive abilities in order to prepare them for the next level of leadership. It's a challenge. The course requires students to be open to learning and thinking in new ways. Now here let me use this as an example of what I mean by putting on the learning breaks. In this particular class there is one student several years ago who had a very hard time adjusting to the requirement to think and learn in new ways. This student had an impressive professional and academic background and obviously had the potential to contribute significantly to the intellectual discourse. Unfortunately, however, this student just seemed to be fixated on demonstrating his existing wealth of knowledge. So much so, he would do assignments not in the way instructed, but in the way he thought the assignment should have been given in the first place. You're right. During class discussion, he would at times flatly reject the directed discourse and instead wax eloquently on tangential and sometimes unrelated subject matters. Now arguably, there is a distinct difference between showing initiative to push the learning envelope and simply being resistant to learning. I can think of another student had a very hard time pushing the I believe button unless she was provided with irrefutable proof presented according to her expectations and based on how she told me she thought the course should be taught and delivered. In both instances, these students seemed so resistant to learning in a new way and being challenged to think beyond their expectations that not surprisingly they got very little out of the course and perhaps disappointingly out of the overall naval war college experience. I would argue that both of these students essentially slammed on the brakes for developing any further as professionals. Opening the aperture for advanced and expert knowledge does allow for learning environments that might be different from what one is accustomed. Or subject matter that might be completely unfamiliar, maybe even uncomfortable. Or perhaps even the reconsideration of certain tactics and techniques that have previously proven successful. Indeed, removing your foot from the brake goes hand in hand with putting your car in neutral. Another student from the same critical thinking course wrote this on a class evaluation and I quote, this class requires an open mind and a student willing to surrender their way of thinking to learn even more. I love that. Love it, love it, love it. I still remember when the student first made similar remarks during class I applauded his insight and recognized this as an important learning moment for him because he definitely resided in the prove it to me camp. I also very much value the moral courage he demonstrated by voicing this moment of self-awareness among his peers. Here's the thing. Even though surrender may be an anthem to the military mindset what the student hit upon was that in this challenging naval war college learning environment surrender equals trust, not losing or giving up. That is trusting the process for an outcome that might not be immediately evident. Think about it this way. The car wash is specifically designed to keep the car on track. When we release the gears put the car in neutral, take our hands off the steering wheel we are trusting that the car wash is going to carry us through to the desired end. And so it is with the naval war college experience. In surrendering a student listens to learn rather than listens to refute. Think about that one. A student becomes a sponge rather than an impermeable surface. In surrendering a student suspends judgment challenges his or her own assumptions and even recognizes his or her own biases. In surrendering it is you as the naval war college student who becomes the victor because there is just so much to be gained from this naval war college experience. Now, if you have selected the drying option and as the car approaches the end big red light flashes the car pauses and some instances the car comes to a complete stop. And as the car is paused giant blowers flow back and forth over the car to complete the car wash process. This notion of pause before exiting brings to mind for me something that we in the naval war colleges college of operational strategic leadership mouthful there that we in causal here over and over again in our leader development work with flag and general officers. And that is the importance of building in reflection time or as Lieutenant Ward, Admiral Howell's aide describes executive time into their regular battle rhythms. In other words creating the white space in their daily schedule to think and reflect. I challenge you to do the same as a matter of course throughout your naval war college journey. Keep track of what you are learning how you are being challenged areas on which you might improve and perhaps most importantly how you might translate transfer and apply all that you are gaining as your career progresses. I can absolutely guarantee you that taking the time to think and reflect will in fact make you a better leader. So finally now that we have gone completely overboard with the car wash analogy let me offer just one last piece of car wash wisdom and that's this. The state in which one exits the car wash depends upon the level of service chosen upon entering the car wash. If you choose only to be rinsed then your exiting state is likely to be only marginally different. But if you choose the full service scrub, soak, wash, wax and dry then your exiting state is likely to be considerably better. Now certainly it is the full service option that will enable you as naval war college students to enhance your standing as a member of the profession of arms. It is the full service option that will best prepare you for senior leader responsibilities and it is the full service option that will enable you to fulfill your professional obligation to be as prepared as possible to meet the needs of the nations you serve. Have fun enjoy this journey. This is your year and a great experience lies ahead. Thank you very much.