Commentary: The only constant in life is change

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Davis Maulding
  • 100th Comptroller Squadron
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  As human beings, many of us get set in our ways and fall into a comfortable routine. When we are comfortable with the status quo, we don't want to get away from it. In fact, that word "change" often spawns fear in us, mainly a fear of the unknown.

But, let's think about it for a minute. Where would we as a nation or Air Force be today without change? Had the early proponents of Air Power not been so persistent in exploiting the capabilities of aircraft we all might still be yelling HOOAH!

Instead, there was a change on Sept. 18, 1947 that established the Department of the Air Force as a separate service. As you know, ever since then, the Air Force continues to experience change in ways like downsizing, AEFs, the end of Cold War missions, SAC/TAC/MAC, ACC/AMC, AFGSC ... the list goes on and on.

All of it boils down to one thing: change.

With all the change, it might behoove us to understand a little more on how to deal with it. Every person deals with change in a different way, and there are a number of ways organizations can deal with change. In a book by John P. Kotter entitled, Leading Change, he addresses eight common errors that organizations make when implementing change. While Kotter focuses mainly on the errors made from a corporate aspect, his points hold true for institutions like the Air Force and are also applicable to changes occurring in our personal lives.

I will touch on several that I believe can be applied to changes we face at work, as well as the changes that we face at home. As I highlight several of the reasons that change fails, think to yourself about a recent change you have gone through, whether the change was at work, home, school, church, or wherever. Think about how you approached it and if you fell into some of these pitfalls. Did you become part of the resistance to change?

First, change fails when we allow too much complacency. When a change is forced upon us, such as new PT standards, one of the first things we do is resort to the status quo. Many of us think "I pass this test now just fine - why should I change my PT program?" We think that just because our current regiment gets us a passing score, we'll get a passing score when new standards are applied. For over a quarter of us, that isn't the case; we are actually seeing increased failure rates. Perhaps it's time that we make a change in our personal PT program. Let's get away from being complacent in our day-to-day operations and accept the changes as they come.

Next, change fails when we permit obstacles to block the new vision. Has your organization ever had a leader at the top that wanted to implement a new vision? That leader probably had an idea of changes needed, but had to have buy-in from all the management levels below. Imagine you have a mid-level supervisor that talks-the-talk of the 'big boss' but doesn't allow you to alter your processes.

Your supervisor is now the obstacle blocking the vision. If you avoid confronting obstacles, change will come to a halt and new visions might never be achieved. In this case, you could confront your supervisor and explain how what you do can help achieve the new vision. By not permitting obstacles to block the new vision, the changes needed to achieve that vision are possible.

Finally, change tends to fail when short-term wins aren't created.

If you were here last year, you experienced this wing undergoing a huge transformation as it prepared for the ORI. We had to go be able to show our ability to go from 'normal' ops to a surge and then prove our ability to survive and operate in a simulated deployed environment. The changes needed for success were many and a progression schedule had to be established. The numerous OREs tracked our progression and were like milestones or 'short-term wins', as Kotter describes.

The OREs allowed wing leadership at all levels to avoid getting overwhelmed with the grand vision of the ORI. Instead, they could focus on smaller pieces of the multiple operations that had to occur in unison in order to be successful.

As you deal with change, remember some of the larger changes won't happen at all once. You might need to attack the change in small pieces and reward the unit for its short-term wins. We must learn to crawl before we walk, and walk before we run - short-term wins are important.

Overall, change tends to be a good thing. Next time someone mentions a need for change or you are faced with changes occurring without your control, I urge you to pause and think about how to deal with them. Will you avoid changes or embrace them to make them work for you?

As the old saying goes, "the only constant in life is change" - so make the most of it!