Tom (also known by “Neo”) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Command, Leadership, and Management at the U.S. Army War College, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the U.S. Tom earned a Doctor of Education from The George Washington University in the field of Human and Organizational Learning. His dissertation was a phenomenological study of Army lieutenant colonels and colonels who underwent an identity transition from tactical (e.g., unit/organizational) leadership to positions of strategic leadership. He retired from the U.S. Army at the rank of colonel after twenty-nine years of service and now teaches courses in organizational change and strategic communication in the War College.

Tom’s earlier degrees were in mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence; so despite being well into his 50s, he is a relative newcomer in organization studies and management. His focus is strongly on the practical side. Most of his works are how-to guides and educational textbooks aimed at War College students and graduates. His overarching goal is to better prepare the next generations of military and government leaders to assume their roles as leaders and managers of the defense enterprise.

Tom serves as the content manager and co-administrator for the TAOP website. He previously served as the inaugural Managing Editor for WAR ROOM, the online journal of the U.S. Army War College which produces articles and podcasts on enduring topics of national security, warfighting and campaigning, and defense leadership and management. Tom has published several essays in WAR ROOM based on his experiences working ten of his years in service as speechwriter and special assistant to several top U.S. Department of Defense commanders. These experiences inspired him to pursue his doctorate in the field of organization studies.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Galvin, T. P., & Allen, C. D. (2020). Diversity Management and the Postdiversity Vision: An Applied Pragmatist Approach. Armed Forces & Society, 0095327X20920311.

Galvin, T. (2019). Communication campaigning: Primer for senior leaders. Carlisle, PA: Department of Command, Leadership, and Management.

Galvin, T. (2018). Leading Change in military organizations: Primer for senior leaders. Carlisle, PA: Department of Command, Leadership, and Management.

Galvin, T. (Ed.) (2018). Defense management: Primer for senior leaders. Carlisle, PA: Department of Command, Leadership, and Management.

Galvin, T. and Hill, A., (2017). Educating our defense managers: A way ahead, Journal of Military Learning 1(1), 31-43.

Galvin, T. (2016). Enhancing identity development in senior service colleges. Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College Press.

Galvin, T. (2017, May 9). “The practice (and problems) of military ghostwriting,” WAR ROOM.

Galvin, T. (2015). “Assignment: Special assistant to the commander,” Military Review 95(2), 33-38.

How I got involved with the podcast

Ralph invited me. Ralph Soule and I were members of Cohort 24 of the Executive Leadership Doctoral Program within the Department of Human and Organizational Learning at George Washington University. We completed our classwork phases and stayed in touch as we each pursued our dissertations. Then in 2016, after TAOP had gotten off the ground, Ralph sought me out to join the team. Having very high respect and regard for Ralph, I said yes without a second thought. It was afterwards that I listened to all sixteen of the episodes released to that point, which only confirmed that I made a good choice.

Some of my favourite episodes

• Episode 27. Context and Action in the Transformation of the Firm. This was the second episode I participated in, but it was the one thus far with the most lasting impact. I was unfamiliar with Pettigrew’s Triangle previously, but now I use it constantly as the basis for teaching new managers about strategic change to get beyond the idea that X number of steps will magically being about transformation. 
• Episode 39. CMU Series #4 on the Garbage Can Model. It was amazing for this old artificial intelligence guy to converse about a classic model of organization studies that had as an appendix a complete computer program written in FORTRAN 66. I tried (without success) to replicate it, but it reminded me so much of some old AI-related projects that have implications for our understanding of organizations — as I discuss in this note.
• Episode 35: The Managed Heart by Arlie Russell Hochschild. The idea of emotions as commodities is fascinating to me, and even more so now that I am retired from the military and reflecting back on various episodes in my career where one’s “presence” was paramount. It was the episode I felt like I had the most fun with.

OK, SO WHERE DOES “NEO” COME FROM?

Various segments of the military (especially the aviation communities) have traditions associated with nicknames, or “callsigns.” Neo is mine. But, one does not choose one’s own callsign — it is conferred by others, and usually callsigns are not intended to flatter — unless you earn a good one like “Maverick” in Top Gun.

I earned mine as a U.S. Army War College student in 2006. We were doing a resource management exercise where we had to figure out how many tanks, ships, planes, and other things we were going to purchase with a constrained budget. We had a full day to pore over hardcopies of tables and charts. Nearing one of the breaks, I asked the instructor if he could send me electronic copies of the data. He sent it to me. During the ten-minute break, I converted all the data files into comma-separated value files, imported then into Excel, set up formulas to calculate total costs by manipulating the purchase quantities, and ran three courses of action — Army/Air Force-heavy, Navy-heavy, and balanced. We completed the exercise objectives by mid-morning and got the afternoon off.

A week later, one of the Air Force students in our seminar took it upon himself to issue callsigns to us. He named me after the Matrix character. I’ve used it ever since.