As project director for the Army’s Logistics Modernization Program, I found that proactive, targeted and consistent communication across the program’s audiences created an environment receptive to change and primed for success.

LMP is replacing two principal supply chain management systems. More than 30 years old, the legacy systems had evolved into a complex web of software that was difficult to use, expensive to maintain and hard to adapt to the changing needs of a modern Army.

Live since 2003, and one of the largest enterprise resource planning implementations in the world, LMP provides managers at the Army Materiel Command with asset visibility and accurate planning tools to deliver supplies to the warfighter quickly, efficiently and at low cost. While this speaks to the commitment and expertise of LMP’s delivery teams, positive metrics alone can’t guarantee broad organizational acceptance and program success.

People are often reluctant to change. They identify more closely with tradition, even if the previous way of conducting business is no longer the best way to support the warfighter.

Change is afoot with LMP. In March, the Army’s Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems assumed operational control of the program, although the Materiel Command still works closely with PEO EIS on LMP matters. Last year, the Army put LMP under review to assess program performance and deployment strategies. Like all large ERPs, LMP faced significant challenges and, I must tell you, it still does. It’s not at 100 percent. But the last six months have seen noteworthy accomplishments in program performance and deployment, and the LMP is addressing issues head-on.

What the Army has learned is that a large part of securing support for change throughout an organization requires dissolving the ties between an organization’s unchanging mission and the ever-changing, ever-evolving processes and systems used to accomplish that mission. Strategic communications, particularly from a program office, can help forge the needed link between an organization’s people and its mission—and open the door to change.

For LMP, the team hit the communications circuit, putting out newsletters and fact sheets and holding town meetings to make sure everyone understood why the change is necessary and why they should embrace it. When integrated into a broader communications strategy, these tools reinforce a common message from program leaders and encourage feedback, participation and cooperation. That buy-in is invaluable to any transformation effort.

Most recently, I targeted LMP’s communications at Defense Department decision-makers. These high-level efforts will help LMP stay closely aligned with DOD’s vision to integrate Army logistics—a vision, I might add, that can’t happen without the successful implementation of this program.

Program leaders and I felt like the Rolling Stones on tour because of the number of LMP briefings we held in June. Now, logistics, financial and acquisition leaders in the Army, as well as the undersecretary of Defense for business transformation, support LMP. DOD also is considering it for a spot within the Business Transformation Agency’s Enterprise Risk Assessment Model. ERAM will help LMP deliver business capabilities rapidly and at reduced cost by identifying and mitigating risk.

It’s essential that as the Army and Defense implement large-scale systems such as LMP that program managers embrace communications and the role they play in achieving not only acceptance of change, but use, return on investment and national security objectives. By using communications to build a commitment to a common goal across widespread organizations, the Army will remain on track to realize the benefits systems, such as LMP, have to offer.

Col. David Coker just finished a tour as program manager for the Army’s Logistics Modernization Program. He now works as a program manager for the service’s broader logistics information systems initiatives.

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