In architecture, a keystone is the final piece placed during construction that locks all other stones into place and increases load-bearing potential. For Defense Contract Management Agency, Keystones are developmental team members who undergo a three-year program to enhance their job knowledge and skills, strengthen leadership principles, and fortify the agency’s talent pool.

Their similarities justify the program’s branding. After 26 years of success, the Keystone program (login required) maintains a critical role in professional development.

“The Keystone program was created by DCMA with a very specific goal – to build internally a deeply capable, rock-solid workforce tailored to our unique mission requirements,” said Navy Vice Adm. Stephen Tedford, DCMA director. “From day one, it was meant to be a cornerstone of how we develop talent, and decades later, it is exactly that. Around 2,000 people have successfully completed the Keystone program since it began, with about 800 still serving the agency. To put that into perspective, we have 8,800 civilian employees, so roughly 9% are Keystone alumni.”

In June, the agency added 72 new graduates during the program’s first agencywide celebration of its graduates.

“Today, we gather to celebrate a significant milestone in the careers of a remarkable group of individuals,” said Dee Foty, DCMA’s Keystone program manager. “For the past three years, these graduates have been immersed in the Keystone program, a rigorous comprehensive developmental journey designed to forge the next generation of our acquisition leaders through a comprehensive curriculum of virtual instruction, professional certification, on-the-job training, rotational assignments and cohort-based learning.”

The graduating class included contract administrators, quality assurance specialists, engineers, property specialists, industrial specialists, traffic management specialists and interdisciplinary earned value management engineers. These job series all serve critical roles in the agency’s warfighter support mission, but Gabriel Gonzalez, DCMA Total Force Directorate executive director, asked graduates to serve the mission while embracing their new roles as emerging leaders.

“The future belongs to professionals who can learn, adapt and lead through change,” said Gonzalez. “These experiences you gained over the last three years have prepared you to do exactly that. Today marks the completion of one journey. It also marks the beginning of another. With achievement comes responsibility. Beginning today, others will look at you differently. Not because of a certificate. Not because of a title, but because of the example you’re going to set. People will look to you for guidance. They will look to you for encouragement. They will look to you for leadership.”

With more than 30 years as an officer, Tedford spent three decades in leadership roles as a naval aviator while accumulating flight hours in 40 different aircraft. Balancing that level of complex training while instilling leadership traits in young sailors makes him well-qualified to advise Keystones on future expectations.

“For the past three years you’ve all had essentially two jobs, as functional specialist and as students,” he said. “But you didn't just do your day job and finish your homework, and the results speak for themselves. You’ve tightened up contract management office surveillance records and saved American taxpayers millions through performance analysis. You’ve been overseas working face-to-face with foreign contractors. You’ve brought real innovation and outcomes to your offices.”

The members of this graduating class contributed to application development and were recognized throughout the agency’s global network of acquisition professionals with quarterly awards, annual awards, command coins, on-the-spot awards and time-off awards for innovative and meticulous work. They also provided editorial and production support for the Keynote Newsletter, provided analysis of performance and analytical skills, recommended cost avoidance of more than $27 million, and participated in a 90-day overseas rotation acquiring skills to interact with foreign contractors.

“All of this experience and training has fast-tracked you into highly specialized acquisition careers,” Tedford said. “Just as importantly, it has positioned you for next steps like the DCMA Emerging Leaders Program and has given you the preparation and tools you need to make your careers exceptional. You are now the future of the agency. That sounds cliché, but I want you to understand and appreciate the weight of that statement, because I mean that as both a compliment and a transfer of responsibility.”

For new graduates, that combination of praise and expectation carries a heavy burden, but Gonzalez believes their final steps as Keystones signal the start of the career-long march toward improvement.

“My challenge to each of you is simple,” he said. “Continue learning, growing and investing in others. Share what you have learned. Create opportunities for those who follow. Help others succeed because some of the most important leadership moments you have will not occur in a conference room. They will occur when you take the time to develop another person. When you help a teammate overcome a challenge, when you encourage someone to believe in their own potential that is leadership and that is how organizations become stronger.”

To further strengthen the program itself, Total Force professionals recently launched the Keystone Rotation App (login required) to improve the rotational assignment process for commanders, supervisors and Keystones themselves:

• Centralized Marketplace: A one-stop shop for Keystones to seamlessly browse, filter and apply for available rotational assignments.
• Automated Workflows: Streamlined processes to save time and reduce administrative burden.
• Enhanced Supervisor Engagement: A direct avenue for rotational supervisors to post and manage new training opportunities.

The Keystone program falls within the agency’s Operational Learning Center (login required), which leads the development, management, and delivery of training and education across DCMA’s global network of acquisition, contracting and sustainment professionals.