Changing Culture Through Visionary Thinking: Applying the DARPA Hard Test for Innovation

Changing an accepted organizational culture can feel like rolling rocks uphill. It can seem impossible to escape the inertia built up over decades of accrued behavior and entrenched beliefs. Yet an evolving, dynamic culture is critical to success in today's world. People can find a model of successful cultural change practices in an unlikely place -- a US government agency. The author's research into DARPA -- the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- explores how the agency has steadily pursued radical innovation since its founding 57 years ago. DARPA uses its program visions as a way to drive quick change without upsetting the organization's broader internal balance. At DARPA, every employee contributes to the agency's cultural ethos and helps define its vision. That vision can be captured in the phrase "DARPA Hard," which she heard repeatedly during her research into the agency's culture.