ADF COVID-19 Task Force recognised

The ADF COVID-19 Task Force received an award from the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) for the way it managed lessons learnt during the pandemic.

CAPTION: Vice Chief of the Defence Force Vice Admiral David Johnston, centre, presents award to Major General Kathryn Toohey, left, and Deputy Director Defence Lessons Wing Commander Alan Hunter. Story by Leading Seaman Kylie Jagiello. Photo by Jay Cronan.

Awarded based on innovation, benefit, contribution and impact, the Lessons Management Award was presented to a Defence representative attending the AFAC conference in late March.

Vice Chief of the Defence Force Vice Admiral David Johnston presented the award to the task force team on June 9.

“Within my experience, the area that is most difficult for an organisation to deal with is lessons learnt,” Vice Admiral Johnston said.

“Not just capturing them, but more importantly actioning those observations.”

Within a month of forming the task force, staff from the Force Integration Lessons and Doctrine division were assigned to develop a lessons framework and lead lessons management.

These whole-of-government COVID-19 lessons framework positioned Defence to support the response.

Receiving the award, Head of Force Integration Major General Kathryn Toohey said it recognised the efforts of her team and the broader department.

“The lessons collection for COVID-19 was a whole-of-Defence activity and the repository had over one thousand observations to work with, many of which were from APS-dominant groups not previously involved in enterprise lessons learned,” Major General Toohey said.

“This has done much to initiate reform and promote organisational learning in Defence.”

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