Daryl Lewis takes pride in DIBS Strategic Management Plan

Daryl Lewis is the deputy project manager (DPM) for Defense Integrated Business Systems (DIBS) at PEO EIS — a role he assumed in August 2022 after being in the Department of the Navy for most of his career. One of his key focus areas as the DPM is the implementation of the DIBS Strategic Management Plan. Lewis recently shared his interests with us and discussed how the strategic plan came to be through the input of the entire DIBS team. 

So how do you like being an Army Civilian?

One thing that I love about being an Army Civilian is that the Army is focused on taking care of our people and watching them grow and succeed, so we can have the best Army possible.

I also appreciate the organizational culture of the Army, PEO and DIBS. It’s one that's very supportive and very connected to the bigger strategies that we're hearing about in the Pentagon. It’s a great place to work, and I think we're seeing that in our climate survey results.

I think the development opportunities are great here, too. We have an Army to develop at all levels, from the newest intern to the most senior executive, and PEO EIS is committed to ensuring our workforce is provided with developmental assignments, access to digital transformation training, and encouragement to work on cross-functional projects. 

Finally, I love being part of this team  — interacting with PM DIBS and believing in the mission, where we're going and the systems we're delivering. It’s all been a great experience.

What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of the office?

One of my main hobbies is playing with my English bulldog, Pepperjack. He keeps me busy and is a lot of fun to be around. I love traveling and watching sports and attend a lot of NBA All-Star events.  I enjoy fantasy football and basketball, too. Sometimes that’s better than going to the actual event, and it’s a good way to relax.

Another thing I enjoy is taking time for some self-care to try to stay as healthy as possible. My wife and I enjoy working out together and taking scenic walks with Pepperjack (although, he’s walking us most of the time). And I really love hanging out with family and friends. 

I've also started a doctoral program in engineering. It is a huge interest of mine centered on digital transformation, so I want to learn more about it and get that level of expertise from an engineering standpoint.

Tell us how the DIBS Strategic Management Plan came to be.

DIBS Project Manager Kevin Curry and I are both very focused on and cognizant of making sure that we take care of the workforce — our top priority.

We started discussing how our organization moves out to become the best organization now and in the future. Part of that discussion led me to taking on this challenge and letting the PM know that we’d start our strategic planning effort in alignment with his vision.

It was very important to us that this document be built by the organization and the people who are doing this mission every day. This ties back to the Army’s people-focused approach that I mentioned earlier. To pull that off, we leveraged the DIBS leadership off-sites to develop our mission, vision, motto and all the elements of the strategic plan. And then those leaders talked to their sub-organizations. We did a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis and conducted surveys in the organization to ensure the product would reflect the voice of our organization.

I’m proud to say that we created a strategic plan that allowed all 340 members of DIBS to weigh in on how it was developed. And they will continue to help us shape the plan because our focus remains on the people within our organization.

We have a great team that is working this regularly along with myself and the PM. With our strong organizational culture, I'm confident that we'll think of out-of-the box ways to overcome any challenges, and this will be a success. As our motto states, we will deliver business excellence at the speed of relevance!