By Leila Sami, Program and Business Development Analyst, Three Wire Systems

When I signed up for the Capital Region Workforce Summit, I was truly excited. On December 5, 2018 at 9am, I walked into the Inova Center for Personalized Health, ready to gain more knowledge about what this Summit was really going to be about.

The goal of the summit was for me to gain more knowledge about Workforce, Recruiting and Retaining. Right from the beginning, panelists began expressing how important it is to prepare our future employees. Paint the picture early! We should mentor and expose students to career path ideas and reach out earlier to start Community Partnerships. The point was made that our young folks are not always aware of their opportunities and career paths. Educate and expose students on career paths before they even enter the workforce. For example, providing Internship opportunities that deliver experiences and knowledge for their future.

One of the panelists, Patricia Porter, Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton made an interesting point that not all future employees are going to attend college. She said we need to educate and focus more on non-traditional talents to provide career paths for individuals that are not going to be attending college. Another panelist, Alison Corazzini explained how Capital One (the company in which she is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources) started a Capital One University in which folks can obtain college credits and gain insight on topics within their career paths early.

Recruiting and hiring the right fit for a position does not complete the job. Retaining is just as important. Jon Salmons, Vice President at NestleUSA, another panelist at the Summit expressed how important it is to provide flexibility for your staff; he mentioned how Geographic Mobility is something that we need to do better with. Allowing employees to have flex hours and work from home when needed goes a long way. Moderator Scott Ralls, President of Northern Virginia Community College said, “when you have good leaders they want to stay”. He then said, “how do we get good leaders and make sure they are supported to keep an environment that is engaging?”. Geographic Mobility is something that I believe Three Wire Systems does a great job utilizing. As a Three Wire employee, you are able to get your work done in the most effective way as well as having a flexible schedule. Employees are able to work from home 3 days a week with flexible hours the other two days which allows employees to beat rush hour traffic, get their day started earlier and have a work life balance.

Additional panelists also discussed how providing proper leadership in house in crucial when it comes to retaining. We need strong and experienced leaders to mentor employees and keep them content. Providing employee’s with family benefits goes a long way as well. Patricia Porter explained how at Booz Allen Hamilton, their Military Recruiting includes the spouses as well. It was inspiring to see a company who not only supports Military members careers but their spouses as well. An important point to note about adding these additional resources for employees is that it enables companies to recruit internally more as their current workforce now has more skillsets and more certifications to meet new mission needs.

My biggest take away from the Capital Region Workforce Summit was if companies follow a few easy steps, we could, our workforce could become even more economically successful. Those steps include:

• Keeping a constant and up to date candidate pipeline
• Educating and exposing our future employees early
• Flexibility amongst company regulations
• Recruit within when appropriate
• Proper leadership training
• Access to content and certifications for your employees

This discussion showed me how Recruiting and Retaining do indeed go hand in hand, they are equally important. I am excited to spread this information and practice what I have learned within my career path!

Want to discuss further? Contact me at lsami@threewiresys.com.

Located in Falls Church, Va., Three Wire Systems was ranked fifth.

“We are extremely grateful to be named as one of the Washington Business Journal’s Largest Cybersecurity Companies in Greater D.C.,” said Dan Frank, CEO of Three Wire Systems.

To see the full list on Washington Business Journal please click here.

About Three Wire Systems

Founded in 2006, Three Wire is the trusted source to protect and maximize America’s most important investments; from the people on the front line, to the hardware and software online. From application development to performance analytics and uniformed personnel coaching, Three Wire reduces wasteful government spending and increases ROI on what matters most to federal government decision makers. Trusted by the Army, Air Force, Marines, USDA, Veteran Affairs and other leading agencies, Three Wire is a service-disabled veteran owned business (SDVOSB) on GSA IT Schedule 70, SEWP, and CIO-CS. For more information about Three Wire Systems, visit https://www.threewiresys.com/.

By Katie Koehler, 

After attending the American Council for Technology and Interagency Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) #ImagineNation2018 Educate – Lead – Collaborate (ELC) conference (14-17 October 2018), I now, more than ever, am inspired to continue leading Human-Centered Design (HCD) efforts.  This supercharged experience, designed to spark the imagination, inspire bold thinking and fresh ideas, foster collaboration and dialogue, and spotlight the newest and most relevant technology truly brought home our need – across Government and Industry – to focus on the human elements of technology.

The intended outcome of the event was to:

• Collaborate and bring forward new innovations that drive further advances in IT modernization, designing the blueprint for tomorrow’s workforce, creating new business models that take advantage of emerging technologies and fortifying our nation’s data networks to achieve enterprise resilience.
• Explore actionable approaches for leadership excellence in the midst of exponential change, technical training that improves the way we work, and collaboration opportunities for meaningful exchange with peers.

This outcome was accomplished across the myriad of sessions I attended. From “Tools to Transform Mission Delivery through Technology Business Management (TBM)” to “How Culture Can ‘Eat’ Innovation for Lunch” to “Avoiding Bias in AI and Machine Learning”, the human aspect remains and always will remain at the center of everything.  I see it time and time again, when looking at ways to become more efficient and effective, organizations and people often jump to the solution without adequately defining the problem, the question, and the desired outcomes. A tool or technology is only as good as the human processes it assists with and makes easier for all of us. If we start choosing the technology before understanding why it is being implemented and what it is solving – how it is making humans more efficient – we run the risk of never truly solving our problems.

Existing Challenges

This ranges from technology decisions to workforce development.  If you’re looking to recruit and retain top talent, you have to look at what they want and what type of organization they want to work in.  As discussed by Chief Information Officer for the Department of Defense, Dana Deasy, current Federal technologists are aging out with only 3% of current technologists being under the age of 30.  To his point, the Federal government needs to start thinking about how to inspire young people to ‘imagine’ joining the Federal Government. How about for mid-career private sector? How about for those retiring from private sector?

It is the same challenge the DoD is facing with recruiting for the military.  Currently, there are less than 1% of the population serving in the military.  While this may not seem like a huge impact, it is important to note that, historically, those serving had a parent serve.  In prior generations, 40% of young adults in the United States had a parent who served, today it is less than 15% of young adults who have a parent who has served.  The WHY for joining the military is changing and we need to start looking at what is going to motivate the next generation to join our military.  It may mean using technology to start talking about our military in a way someone without having a parent serve can understand and be intrigued. The DoD has already rolled out informational videos that will inspire the next generation.  Check it out à  https://www.defense.gov/Watch/Video/videoid/629899/ . Loved it! Hope it speaks to others as well as opens minds to all DoD does for us!

What a phenomenal example of leveraging technology and human attention spans to inspire and motivate the potential other 99% to join or learn about the DoD, our Service branches, and support our nation.  Just from that Opening Keynote, I was hooked on #HowMightWe and #ImagineNation2018!

A common theme throughout the #ELC was focusing on bridging the gap between business and IT.  How can we increase efficiency?  How can we make people’s lives easier?  It is usually a combination between business and technology, which often times, if not always, requires a translator.

A translator can help both the business and its IT department understand the tradeoffs and collaborate more efficiently and effectively. They can do this through documentation such as writing down requirements or creating a more visual story-telling document to mirror how the business sees the issue.  A translator helps the business see themselves in the solution – and then when tech sees it – they see the requirements and the ‘why’ for why they are needed.

This type of work also requires people to be humble, to ask a lot of questions, and not let pride get in the way.  It will help to remind you to ask ‘Why’.  A lot of times businesses and users will ask for something only because they have the context of current technology – they are only thinking about the current issue.  Start using the method of 5 Why’s – asking “Why” 5 times to get to the root of the problem will help to ensure you’re not implementing the wrong thing!

Major Highlights / Amazing Speakers

There was more than enough to write a book about all the amazing pieces of information shared throughout these two days. For the sake of time, I’ve highlighted just a few sessions and individuals throughout the event who truly inspired me to come back to Three Wire Systems with renewed energy and gusto for pushing and always keeping HCD at the center of our emerging technology.

• Paul Gibson, US Department of Agriculture – For sharing how enabled science outcomes through Advanced Networking, High Performance Computing, and Data Analytics by aligning the right inputs for your scientists to be innovative in the lab and successful in the real world through utilizing HCD through interviewing and finding out what was most important to your scientists, techs, and farmers!
• Justin Wear, Liquid Hub – For the Minority Report movie reference (Tom Cruise using his hands in the air to move / swipe images and data on screens) to explain how if that were reality, it would it would be extremely tiring, if someone had to do that all day long.  What a phenomenal and quick way to showcase the necessity of understanding the context of use for the technology and how someone will actually use it!  Fact – 84% of companies fail at digital transformation.  How do you succeed?  Utilize HCD – find out what is desirable, feasible, and viable first!
• Michelle Weslander Quaid, Sunesis Nexus – For reminding us those companies who continue to be innovative never lose track of their WHY, and for challenging us to pursue our passion, use our purpose, engage culture, and change the world!  (Honestly – I could have written an entire piece about your session alone. One Word: Energizing!)

• Dominic Delmolino, Accenture Federal Services – For making us think about how we need to train the teams (the humans; enter in HCD) who are building AI to understand it needs to be auditable and transparent – if someone challenges a decision AI makes – what data was considered when it was trained? The algorithm needs to be transparent! #EmergingTech
• Last but not least, Amy Hasetline, Executive with the Department of Health and Human Services for sharing what emerging tech excites you the most – Human Centered Design! I couldn’t agree more that keeping the person in the middle, that aspect of empathy in business will help us move emerging tech even faster down the road.

Resounding Question I heard in every session:  How do we get more buy-in to HCD and implementing change?  How do we start to make this more ubiquitous in Government?

Resounding Answer: Workshops!  When people feel like they have been heard, they will be more amenable to buying-in to the change.  And create Customer Experience Offices!

• Involving people throughout the way – being able to iterate on what you have, something that people can react to as quickly as possible and then allowing them that time to react really helps with the buy-in.
• Early science workshops brought together like minded, motivated people who wanted to solve the same problem. It also created a candidate pool of advocates and change advocates

BIGGEST HCD TAKEAWAYS

• Question your goals and start tech or solution agnostic.
• Solve the right problem by learning from your users.
• Document early, iterate, and visualize.
• Involve all the roles through the process!

Thank you to everyone who shared their experience and to those in attendance who push us all to be better and more innovative every day.  It’s because of you I stay inspired and ready to change the world! #ChangeAgent #BelieveintheImpossible

Side Note: I learned The Lab (a practice and a space that fosters innovation through human-centered design with a goal to teach human-centered design across the Federal Government and to help deliver innovative solutions that address complex public and cross-sector challenges) within the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is looking for designers! If you’re interested, check it out: https://lab.opm.gov/

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to intern at Three Wire Systems. From listening to networking events to sorting and analyzing data to creating social media content, this blog post could not summarize the immense amount of experience I gained from my short three months at Three Wire. The experience that had the most impact on me, however, was the Speed of Trust presentation by Three Wire’s Director of Human Resources Lynn Huggins. Although many professionals today may scoff at the necessity of team cohesion events during work time, I found Three Wire’s employee involvement during the Speed of Trust presentation to be one of the most rewarding days of my time with Three Wire. The presentation was so impactful, I walked out of the meeting room knowing I had to bring this with me to Elon University. Consequently, I gathered my Speed of Trust deck of training cards and brought them down to North Carolina for my Junior year.

As Vice President of Member Development of the Sigma Phi Epsilon NC Mu chapter, it is my job to ensure the development and growth of the members of my chapter. I decided it was imperative I take my Speed of Trust training and teach my seventy-two brothers the importance of trust in any organization. I began the presentation with the importance and impact of trust. Stephen Covey the author of The Speed of Trust stated, “Trust means confidence.” As elected officials on the executive board of a fraternity, we are elected to make decisions that best represent the chapter as a whole. We do our best to instill trust among all of the members of our chapter through transparency and credibility. Stephen Covey breaks credibility into two sections, character and competence. Whether it be Three Wire’s CEO Mr. Dan Frank, or myself as an executive member of a fraternity, it is our duty as leaders to ensure we are being honest with our teams by instilling trust and clearly stating the intent of any activity or project. A leader’s competency draws on the ability to inspire trust in others to get results. It is statistically proven that a higher rate of trust among employee and boss achieves not only increased job satisfaction, but also the production of higher value projects for client’s, consequently, increasing performance.

Following our chapter discussion on the four cores of credibility and how they apply to us, we moved onto the thirteen behaviors of high trust. I will not steal Mr. Covey’s thunder by listing them all out, but the chapter found it intriguing that every behavior could not be fulfilled without the use of another behavior. This showed how closely intertwined each trust behavior is, and how even small actions can promote or derail our trust in others. I ended the conversation by explaining the importance of Speed of Trust not only within our four years here at Elon, but also in our professional relationships and future careers. Ensuring we are honest, respectful, accountable, and trustworthy are fundamental components of Sigma Phi Epsilons core principles of virtue, diligence, and brotherly love. I am extremely glad to have received a character training event that correlated so closely with the core beliefs of my Greek organization.

In conclusion, I hope I can stress the importance of developing trust among employees, teammates, brothers, etc. No matter the organization, there is always room for improvement to make operations more efficient and, in turn, more economical as well. At times, Stephen Covey discussed how beneficial trust is in the financial sense. However, he stressed the greatest impact of trust comes in job satisfaction and employee-boss relationships. Three Wire Systems has a fantastic work environment that allows its employees to excel and embrace creativity through a tight-knit group of employees. I want to thank Ms. Lynn Huggins for presenting the Speed of Trust this past summer, as well as all the members of Sigma Phi Epsilon NC Mu for attending my presentation. I am beyond thankful for Three Wire’s impact on my development as a leader and am excited to see the implementation of the Speed of Trust on an annual scale here at Sigma Phi Epsilon NC Mu.

By Wes Jackson, Director of Solutions Engineering

Keith Foley and I got a chance to attend this year’s Red Hat Partner Conference at the Gaylord National Marriott in beautiful Baltimore, Maryland.  Red Hat puts on a good event, and this year was no exception.

All conferences share some similarities – the Expo Center where attendees meet and mingle with sponsors and learn about new product offerings, keynotes and session breakouts to deep dive into vendor subject areas of interest, and after-hours events where the social atmosphere lends itself to more networking.

The most important takeaway for us this year dealt with Red Hat’s capabilities around DevSecOps. Keith and I support the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and this is a topic of great interest as VA continues to modernize is application portfolio.

Each workload – whether it lives in the public cloud, a private cloud, or hasn’t yet been modernized – has a security footprint that has to be managed well in order for the enterprise to remain secure. The VA is modernizing applications at a rapid rate, meaning the team has to know how to incorporate a workload-centric app dev viewpoint into a holistic enterprise cybersecurity framework. That framework has to meet Information Assurance (IA) rules and requirements, while still supporting automation/orchestration imperatives and ongoing audit activities.

Red Hat’s solutions that center on Open Shift solve many of the problems organizations such as the VA face.  However, by themselves these products can introduce new paradigms that can be hard to manage. For instance, when you replace a legacy application with one running in Kubernetes, what preparatory steps do you need to take to ensure compliance and reduce false positives that can be caused by a lack of communication with the security team?  This is where DevSecOps can help an organization, and Red Hat’s consulting practice can help to put the pieces of the puzzle together for a much faster return on organizational investment.

At the conference, we had a chance to sit down with Steve Gamelin, head of Federal Channel for Red Hat, for a conversation about enabling DevSecOps in the Public Sector. Jim’s team is committed to having the right resources available for partners, such as Three Wire, and was very supportive of our work promoting DevSecOps as a way of working rather than just as a set of tools (as is often how DevOps and DevSecOps are perceived). Knowing what has worked well in other Federal organizations, Red Hat and Three Wire are a good resource for any customer interested in modernizing the way they deliver applications.

If you remember one thing from this year’s conference, remember that DevSecOps is a way of working that motivates an integrated team of developers, security personnel, and operators to bring benefits to the end user. It’s everyone’s job to ship code often, have it be secure, and have it be able to work well in production. Buggy, insecure or unstable code is everyone’s problem, because everyone supports the end user’s needs, and their success is the team’s success.

We look forward to our continued work with Red Hat as their capabilities continue to grow and open source container adoption continues to spread.

FALLS CHURCH, VA. – October 2, 2018 – Three Wire Systems, LLC (Three Wire), and Revelations Counseling & Consulting, LLC announced today they have formed MyRevelations, LLC a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Joint Venture (JV).

MyRevelations, LLC is a health solutions practice pursuing excellence in both personal well-being and organizational performance. Clinical counseling and assessments are offered in-person through therapeutic office settings and virtually through established call centers – both of which are supported by an in-house technology services division. This innovative JV is supported by Three Wire, a leader in integrated technology and human-centered advisory services, and Revelations Counseling & Consulting, a psychological health and wellness practice specializing in licensed clinical counseling and professional consulting for health and social service organizations.

“By combining the strengths of our two companies, MyRevelations creates a new model we describe as Health Solutions as a Service,” said Dan Frank, Three Wire CEO. “Our clinical counselors and technology experts collaborate daily in determining how evidence-based practices can be more effectively applied at the point of service through the use of emerging technologies.”

MyRevelations will employ a unique organizational design to improve quality of life and behavioral health outcomes; its staff will be empowered with the ability to deploy telehealth services, case management systems, mobile applications, and other enabling technologies at the point of service. This business model has wide-reaching implications, opening the door for the use of telehealth for easily accessible health care, the creation of automated, patient-friendly behavioral health assessment tools, more effectively leveraging “Big Data” for upstream suicide prevention, the use of virtual world technologies for treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS), and even more practical administrative tools for patient referrals and appointing.

“Dan and I have shared this vision for a long time,” says Guy Strawder, LMFT, and Managing Member of MyRevelations. “Our services improve the quality of clinical counseling through the use of emerging technologies that can all be organized and implemented within a single organization. Our JV integrates licensed professional counselors with specialized training, call centers, brick-and-mortar office settings, and sophisticated technologies like telehealth to promote more effective, person-centered diagnostic and treatment services.”

MyRevelations emphasizes the advancement of psychological health best practices, but the operations model is designed to accommodate diverse healthcare solutions. The company integrates multi-disciplinary clinical staff, health-enabling technologies, established treatment facilities, and emerging best clinical practices, which animates the “Health Solutions as a Service” model. The deployed clinical technologies are also supported by IT experts within the company who readily modernize the underlying infrastructure, cybersecurity, and cloud-based hosting requirements.

This JV provides an extensive portfolio of proven performance in mental health treatment services and non-clinical coaching support (e.g., career transition, financial wellness, health and fitness), primarily towards enhancing the resiliency of military service members, veterans, wounded warriors, and employees assigned to hazardous duty assignments (e.g., law enforcement, intelligence, fire, rescue and emergency medicine). In addition to these services, the JV also maintains qualifications in referral management and appointment services, examinations and assessments, and training. Whether in an office or call center setting, MyRevelations offers technology-enabled counseling and coaching practices designed to meet the customer where they are to provide value through person-centered solutions that enhance quality of life.

About Three Wire Systems
Founded in 2006, Three Wire is the trusted partner for government agencies and enterprise corporations looking to modernize with innovative and efficient technology solutions. From application development to performance analytics and uniformed personnel coaching, Three Wire’s cost effective solutions modernize and secure government and enterprise information, infrastructure, and assets. For more information about Three Wire, visit https://threewiresys.com/.

About Revelations Counseling & Consulting
Revelations Counseling & Consulting, LLC is a Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) specializing in psychological health and wellness through both licensed clinical counseling and professional consulting to organizations seeking business solutions for their health systems and social service programs. For more about Revelations Counseling & Consulting, visit http://revelationscounseling.org.

FAIRFAX, VA – July 18, 2018 – Three Wire Systems, LLC (Three Wire) is pleased to announce its Chief Executive Officer, Dan Frank, has been nominated for two 2018 Northern Virginia (NoVA) Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Awards. Frank is nominated for both the Meritorious Veteran Owned Business Award for Established Business and the Veteran Business Mentorship Award.

Veterans face many challenges when returning to the community from tours abroad. The Distinguished Service Awards presented by the NoVA Chamber of Commerce works to recognize the unsung heroes in the Northern Virginia community that have dedicated time and resources to making this reestablishment process easier and to providing employment opportunities for those who served.

“I am unbelievably honored to be considered for the Distinguished Service Awards in such a prestigious area like Northern Virginia where there is a lot of great work being done in support of our veterans,” said Dan Frank, CEO of Three Wire and the VetAdvisor® Program, a program leading the nation in veteran-centric integrative care coaching program.

After serving eight years on active duty in the Navy and five in the Reserve, Frank

founded Three Wire Systems, LLC (Three Wire) and the VetAdvisor® Program. He built Three Wire on the belief that technology can be harnessed to change the world, and in VetAdvisor® he has found a way to use his expertise to improve the lives of military Veterans and their families.

Along with proactive coaching services across behavioral health, wellness, financial, and all other aspects of transition and career development for Veterans, VetAdvisor’s® future goals include incorporating clinical tele-behavioral health services to allow Veterans to access such services any place, at any time. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) calls this the Anywhere to Anywhere model, and VetAdvisor® looks to lead the way in its implementation. Additionally, VetAdvisor® services are in the process of being rolled out to all professionals who serve in uniform through the MyAdvisor program, allowing access to integrated health programs to those who need them most.

In prior years, Frank has also participated in the Veteran Entrepreneur Training Symposium (VETS), making himself available for one-on-one mentoring sessions with Veterans interested in starting Veteran-owned or service disabled veteran-owned small businesses that contract with the federal government. He’s also served as a mentor at the annual Inc. conference, meeting one-on-one with budding Veteran entrepreneurs. Apart from volunteering at conferences, Frank currently works pro bono as a mentor to several veterans who are in the process of transitioning and are interested in founding small businesses.  Most recently, Frank is devoting time to working in San Diego with a Veterans Makerspace, where Veterans are sharing ideas and learning how to rapidly prototype those ideas.  Makerspaces foster entrepreneurship and are often being utilized as incubators and accelerators for business startups.

Representing nearly 700 companies with 500,000 employees region-wide, the NoVA Chamber of Commerce is the largest chamber of commerce in Northern Virginia and has been working hand-in-hand with regional business, government and academia to build a robust and innovative business community for more than 90 years. The Distinguished Service Awards honor veterans, businesses and leaders for their service to veterans in the Greater Washington community.

Winners to be announced at the Awards Ceremony today, Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner.

For more information about Three Wire, the VetAdvisor® and MyAdvisor programs, visit https://www.threewiresys.com/.

To view all of the nominees and their stories, visit http://www.novachamber.org/blog.

About Three Wire Systems

Founded in 2006, Three Wire is the trusted source for government agencies and military organizations looking to modernize with innovative and efficient technology solutions. Part of the Three Wire Health and Human Solutions offering, the VetAdvisor® Program provides proactive, one-on-one services to Veterans and their families. As the nation’s expert in Veteran-centric holistic care, VetAdvisor® resources help corporations recruit and retain valuable military Veteran and Service member personnel.