Culture of Excellence 2.0 focuses on building Great People, Great Leaders, and Great Teams, with the knowledge that this is the best way to prepare for victory in combat, innovate and solve hard problems, and prevent harmful behaviors. It is designed to simplify, streamline, and align traditional Navy programs with new concepts in order to close the gap between the Navy’s highest and lowest performing commands.

“I am releasing Culture of Excellence 2.0 (COE 2.0), the foundation by which our Navy builds its Warfighters – our People, Leaders, and Teams – as a key enabler of delivering the decisive combat power I talked about in ‘America’s Warfighting Navy,’” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti wrote in the naval administrative message.

Culture of Excellence 2.0 is written for command triads and leaders at all levels, but it can also be used by every member of the Navy Team, including civilians, to define what great culture looks like at every Navy command. 

Several products accompany the launch. These include a new COE 2.0 visual placemat that serves as a concise explanation of “what right looks like,” and a playbook that serves as a comprehensive guide to implement COE 2.0 at the command level.

“By being boldly transparent and self-aware, we build combat Teams that are ready for any contingency in any domain,” Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea wrote in the COE 2.0 playbook. “In order for COE 2.0 to be truly successful, every Sailor must see themselves in this document. We must recognize through COE 2.0 how we make ourselves better, how we make our Shipmates better, and how we make our combat Teams better. Leaders must clearly see this and ensure others do as well.”

Building on Get Real, Get Better principles, the Navy recognized COE 2.0 as an opportunity to empower Navy Leaders with new resources, such as the Commander’s Risk Mitigation Dashboard (CRMD) and the Virtual CO’s Suggestion Box.

These tools intend to help command triads better understand how they can recognize and act on the needs of their People.

“Culture of Excellence 2.0 will be implemented in every Navy command, in order to have a direct and tangible impact on the Quality of Service of our Sailors,” said Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, Director of the Navy Office of Culture and Force Resilience. “It’s not a new requirement or checklist, but a radical simplification of traditional Navy ideas, ideals, and programs combined with newer concepts in order to provide every command with the tools necessary to build warfighters and teams ready to fight and win.”

The COE 2.0 integrated framework incorporates programs already familiar to Sailors, such as suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention and response, and Warrior Toughness, as well as more recent initiatives, such as the Navy Women’s Initiative Team (Navy-WIT) and the Mental Health Playbook.

In 2019, the Navy released initial guidance for building Culture of Excellence in NAVADMIN 254/19. This effort provided a series of tools for Sailors to strengthen fleet wide culture. However, it did not achieve its desired effect for several reasons, to include the impact of COVID-19, too much complexity, and an incomplete approach to building culture. The new COE 2.0 guidance intentionally refrains from creating new tasks for commands, and instead prioritizes a realistic, holistic approach.

For more information on COE 2.0 concepts, visit Culture of Excellence (navy.mil).

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