The Critical Mass (TCM) is a SWaM-certified Small, Woman-owned business dedicated to the optimization of global security assistance. Located on the waterfront of Old Town Alexandria in Northern Virginia, TCM maintains an elite, agile, and experienced corps of security and sustainment experts spanning the public, private, civilian, and military sectors.
A diffuse and evolving global threat landscape combined with the rapid pace of technological advances, increasing accessibility and vulnerability of weaponizable and dual-use assets, and an expanding and diversifying security stakeholder community will challenge human and fiscal resources and outmoded engagement models. It is critical that assistance efforts adapt to ensure individual and institution partners are set up and equipped to independently yet cooperatively pursue and achieve shared, long-term security outcomes.
VISION to realize an authentically connected, cooperative, synchronized, and productive global threat reduction community that achieves mutually beneficial, agreed upon, and appropriately designed security assistance outcomes.
MISSION to transcend existing global security assistance silos by supporting a critical mass of professionals with the capabilities and sustainment architecture needed to meet and defeat persistent and emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
CORE COMPETENCIES AND SERVICES
TCM offers security and defense assistance policy, program, and project professional and technical support to U.S. and other donor Government sponsors, implementing stakeholders, foreign assistance coordinators and recipients.
Beyond T3: Modules and Skills Coaching Designed for Train-the-Trainer (T3) "Trainers"
E-CCEL Framework for Security Assistance Process Implementation, Coaching, and Workshops
National Security Enterprise/Sector Assessments
Strategic Policy, Action, and Sustainment Plan Development
Institutional Security Practices Integration and Adoption
Stakeholder Engagement Evaluation, Design, and Facilitation
Stakeholder Impact Strategies and Skills Training
Security Assistance Program Lifecycle Design and Advising
Project Continuity and Contigency Adaption/Assistance
Technical, Operational, and Policy Capacity Building Subject-Matter-Expert (SME) Support
OUR METHODOLOGY
TCM defines sustainability in the security assistance context to be “consistent and demonstrated individual or organizational capacity and self-driven commitment to acquire, practice, adapt, and leverage knowledge, skills, or competencies.” Full sustainability can be considered achieved when all these conditions are present.
To this end, TCM offers a proprietary security assistance framework, known as E-CCEL©, that serves as a roadmap for realizing transformational and sustainable outcomes. E-CCEL is premised on the “Competence Corollary” – the explicit and active recognition and integration of resident capabilities, practices, cultures, and expertise throughout the lifecycle of any assistance effort.
Evaluate Competence
Occurs outside of and is applied throughout the framework sequence.
Cultivate Competence
Information gathering, contextualization of goals, expectation setting, and awareness-raising phase.
Coalesce Competence
A representative group of stakeholders is identified and convened into meaningful bodies or acting entities.
Empower Competence
Augmentation, creation, or activation of authorized and recognized organizational mechanisms that serve as vehicles for the adoption and practice of new or enhanced processes or capabilities.
Leverage Competence
A "Critical Mass" of stakeholders demonstrates the ability and intent to apply new or enhanced processes or capabilities in support of broader or previously unaffiliated teams, organizations, sectors, or efforts.
