This week, Allied Command Transformation (ACT) welcomed participants from the NATO Executive Development Programme to Norfolk, Virginia, as part of their wider nine-month leadership journey designed to strengthen NATO’s future civilian leadership. Organized by the NATO International Staff since 2009, the programme brings together a yearly cohort of around 30 high-potential international civilians from across the NATO Enterprise. It is designed for NATO Staff Officers who have demonstrated the potential to grow, lead, and contribute to Alliance objectives.
At its core, the programme reflects a clear institutional priority: NATO must continue investing in its people if it wants to remain agile, credible, and ready to address a more demanding security environment. The programme helps participants deepen their understanding of NATO’s mission, values and challenges, while also developing greater self-awareness as leaders.
Why the visit of the NEDP to ACT matters
NEDP participants received a closer look at how ACT is helping NATO prepare for the future. Over the course of the week, and under the wider theme of “transformation, complexity, creative thinking, and experimentation”, the cohort engaged with ACT leadership and subject-matter experts on issues linked directly to military transformation, including Force Lethality Enhancement and its connection to the NATO Defence Planning Process, deterrence and escalation simulation exercises, Beacon Projects, Audacious Training, Strategic Foresight, future force options, and leading organizational change. The programme also included a senior leaders roundtable focused on accelerating adoption, adaption and innovation to credibly deter and defend.
That focus aligned closely with the message delivered by Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Aurelio Colagrande. Welcoming the cohort to ACT, he underscored the purpose behind the programme and the responsibility that comes with it: “You are here because your organizations identified you as people worth investing in – leaders with the potential to shape the Alliance’s future.”
ACT’s role is not simply to study change, but to help NATO respond to it in practical ways. By exposing participants to the Command’s work on foresight, innovation, capability development and institutional change, the visit helped participants discover how ACT is driving agility within the Enterprise that they are called to lead in their different organizations.
From leadership development to practical outcomes
A major part of the programme is its strategic group project work. Each team is sponsored by a NATO body and asked to tackle a real challenge with relevance for both the sponsoring organization and the wider Alliance. This year’s projects focus on building a front door to industry, empowering a realistic opposing-force capability, breaking down silos to create stronger enterprise risk management, and optimizing the NATO Support and Procurement Agency business model. These projects are intended to do more than generate ideas. They help participants practice the habits NATO increasingly needs: collaboration, strategic thinking and problem-solving across organizational lines.
Building a network for the future
The programme also contributes to a growing alumni network of more than 300 professionals across NATO. That network helps sustain shared learning, professional relationships and a broader culture of leadership across the Alliance. In practical terms, it strengthens NATO’s ability to adapt by connecting talented civilians who can carry new ideas and common purpose back into their own organizations.
As NATO faces strategic competition, rapid technological change and growing demands for speed and coherence, programmes like this are a direct investment in the Alliance’s future. Developing stronger, more agile civilian leaders today is one way NATO ensures it is better prepared for tomorrow.
