Make this year 'the year of why'

  • Published
  • By Col. Michael S. Stough
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Commander
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  The "Year of Compliance" is finally coming to a close.
After a multitude of inspections - Information Assurance, Air Traffic System Evaluation, Weather, Aircrew Standardization and Evaluation, and of course, Unit Compliance - you can finally look forward to a well-deserved respite.

And you earned that respite, earning an overall "Excellent" in our UCI, with an "Outstanding" squadron (way to go 100th Security Forces Squadron) and 10 "Excellent" squadrons as well (not to mention the "Excellent" overall rating for the Wing Staff). As I said at the outbrief, I couldn't be more proud of your performance.

This is the point at which I'm supposed to offer words of encouragement and ask you to make sure all your hard work doesn't go to waste.

While I do want you to make sure that your processes are sound and the current state of your programs doesn't depend on the sheer force of your personality to remain in good shape, I want to offer a slightly different viewpoint on the idea of compliance.

When we began our preparation for the UCI, I told your commanders that I didn't just want to mindlessly bring the wing into compliance.

Rather, if there was something we were doing that didn't make sense, or if we had a better way to do something, I wanted to raise it to headquarters for an exception to policy or a waiver. Naively, I thought I'd get lots of inputs. I got zero.

I now know that my expectation was unrealistic. You were simply working much too hard just to bring everything into compliance with existing directives to worry about brainstorming new and better ways. It didn't matter if something didn't make sense; it just mattered that you complied.

Given the limited time available before the inspection, I have to say you made the right choice, but now that the inspections are behind us, I'd like to shift your focus.

It's probably safe to say that your programs are more compliant right now than at any time in the past three years. You have policy letters, checklists, review documents, continuity books, and all sorts of other minutiae.

Or, depending on the inspection and its findings, you have a "get well plan" that will generate the required policy letters, checklists, review documents ... you get the picture.

You're compliant. But are you doing your job in a way that makes the most sense?
My proposal is that we make the next year the "Year of Why."

For every job you do, start asking "why." Don't just ask why you accomplish each step; ask why you're doing the job at all.

If it doesn't add value, let's find a way to eliminate it. If the job adds value, but you find steps that don't contribute to the bottom line, let's find a way to streamline the process. If either the job or the intermediate steps are required by AFI, let's ask headquarters for relief.

In my perfect world, supervisors and commanders would be driven crazy by the chorus of "why" rising from the experts - the Airmen who get the job done every day. That's not to say I'm encouraging insubordination.

Obviously, we have a mission to accomplish, and we'll continue to comply with directives as we make sure we have the right jet in the right place at the right time with the right fuel load.

But, if we can get those jets in place by working smarter instead of harder, we can make a huge difference for the Airmen who follow us. It all starts with a simple question: "Why?"