Dan Joyce uses humor to connect with people

Dan Joyce, our assistant PEO for the business mission area, is excited about modernizing the Army’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. A retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, Joyce is an Army acquisition expert and natural-born teacher. Joyce’s distinguished Air Force career culminated in an assignment as a satellite communication action officer on the Joint Staff/J6. After leaving the Air Force, Joyce supported the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology), Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense and PEO EIS. To relax, he enjoys spending time with his family and riding his Kawasaki ZR-7 motorcycle. Joyce, today’s #PEOEISTeammateTuesday, answered nine questions about his career and life.

Where did you grow up?
My father was an Air Force officer. I was born at March Air Force Base in Riverside County, California. My family lived in Germany, Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Dakota. In my freshman year of high school, my dad retired from the Air Force and we settled in Maine. I am one of seven children. My mother had seven kids in seven years and 51 weeks. One year when my dad was a tanker pilot for Strategic Air Command, he was deployed for 300 days. That was the year my brother, Chris, was born.

How do you let off steam?
I like to use humor to connect with people. If something is going badly, you can say something humorous just to break the tension. I find that really helps. I like to use analogies like, “This is like a three-legged stool with one leg missing.” Of course, I don’t sit around and laugh all day, but sometimes with really tense stuff, I will say, “Hey, they can kill you, but they can’t eat you.”

How did you get so smart about acquisition?
When I was hired as a Department of the Army Systems Coordinator (DASC) at ASA(ALT), I understood satellite communication systems, but I didn’t know anything about Army procedures or the acquisition process. I had an inferiority complex and feared I would be found out as a fraud and let go after a month. So I dug in and learned everything I could about the annual planning, programming, budgeting and execution process. I learned a lot on my own in the college of hard knocks. I also took Defense Acquisition University courses. I developed a lot of knowledge over 16 years observing the annual Program Objective Memorandum (POM) process.

A lot of majors rotated in and out of ASA(ALT) and wouldn’t be there for more than 18 months. As a result, they only saw one full cycle of the POM and acquisition process. Unless you have seen the entire acquisition process more than 15 times like I have, you have to learn about it the hard way. That’s why Bill Realgel and I began hosting in-house training sessions, much like PEO EIS lunch and learns. We put together 12 hours of training. If you really want to learn something, make yourself smart enough to teach it. At ASA(ALT), I learned my craft really well.

Who has helped you thrive in your career?
Ms. Chérie Smith recommended that I replace her as the Deputy Assistant to the ASA(ALT) Deputy for Acquisition Systems Management (DASM). Her confidence in my abilities had a major impact on my career path. I am grateful for her support.

What does a good leader do?
A good leader says, “Here is a clear description of what I want you to do, not how I want you to do it.” A good leader doesn’t tell you how to suck an egg. A good leader says: “I want you to get all of the yolk out of the egg without breaking the shell. Figure it out.” That’s what a good leader does. A good leader mentors, teaches and provides top cover. I ascribe to that school of leadership.

I have learned a lot from bad leaders about what not to do. A bad leader rants and raves and beats people up. I have worked with our new PEO, Ross Guckert, for many years. He is a great example of a leader I want to follow. He is unflappable. I have seen him get chewed out—when he is right—and remain calm.

What advice do you have for industry?
I recently graduated from the Eisenhower School of National Defense Resourcing. The school was formerly called the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. The school was established in 1924 because we didn’t know how to work with industry. During the first year of World War I, the U.S. military did not use one piece of U.S. gear. We acquired French or British equipment. We sent U.S. Soldiers to Europe, but we didn’t mobilize an industrial base to send U.S. equipment to the battlefield.

The Army and industry need to understand each other’s problems. Once we do that, we can work together to solve the nation's national security problems. We need to understand that industry has stockholders and motivations and won’t do things for free. They have training and retention problems, just like we do. They have a profit motive. It doesn’t make them bad Americans. We don’t want industry to price gouge us, but we owe them a fair compensation for the goods and services they provide.

Sun Tzu said if you know yourself and know your enemy, in 1,000 battles you will not lose. Industry is not our enemy. But we need to understand what motivates them and why they behave the way they do.

What was your proudest moment?
Marrying my wife was my proudest moment. I met her in Maine when I was 13 years old. She was 14 years old. She didn’t like me at first, but I wore her down.

If you could thank one person for the role they played in your life, who would it be and why?
My dad, Air Force Major Robert Joyce, was a great role model. He was a bomber pilot in Korea and served in Vietnam. He told me, “Don’t hit your sisters.” In a family of five boys and two girls, my sisters could get away with everything because of the don’t-hit-your-sisters rule.

My dad retired from the Air Force in 1973 when the military wasn’t popular. After the Vietnam War was drawing down, there were no big parades for Soldiers and my dad had a hard time getting a job. He tried to get a job as an airline pilot, but he couldn’t because his military service was scorned. He became a stay-at-home dad and my mom went to work as a nurse.

Who inspires you?
Every Soldier, Marine Corps Guard, Sailor and Airman inspires me. Tom Brokaw called the World War II generation the “greatest generation.” And they were great, but I would argue that today’s generation of Soldiers are equally as great. Soldiers who are doing two, three or four deployments and putting their lives on the line are my heroes. Soldiers motivate me every day.