Innovate and overcome Published Nov. 1, 2010 By Col. Kimerlee Conner 21st Mission Support Group commander PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- As most of you may have noticed, money and manpower have both become extremely constrained. Over the last four years, the Air Force has cut an estimated 40,000 members. Additionally, just a few weeks ago our Chief of Staff, Gen Norton Schwartz, said our budget is likely to continue to flatten and our buying power is likely to decrease. Money and manpower are both ultimately controlled by Congress, so what can we do to improve our situation and help ourselves? We can address what we can control and we can innovate to overcome. There are a few key things we can do to save time and money - be vocal, learn everything you can about everything you can (be a sponge), know what resources are available to you, and empower your people. The need to save time and money has never been greater and will continue to be imperative. Don't be a bystander; you can make a difference if you put forth the effort. The first key is to be vocal - make your observations known. If you see time is being wasted with a process - speak up. When you identify a time-waster, there are several possible outcomes. Two are most likely; the first would be that you were correct, and just identified and corrected a problematic process. The second could be you were mistaken, and then educated on why that particular process functions the way it does. In either scenario, there is nothing to lose - the cost of not speaking up when an area can be improved could be considerably high in wasted time and resources. As I have often told folks, the answer is always "no" if you never ask. The second key is to learn everything you can about everything you can (be a sponge). Every new experience, responsibility, and event is an opportunity. Learn everything you can from each experience and from the people you work with. If you apply this continuously, you'll be able to apply concepts, principles and/or efficiencies from one subject to other subjects. I recall one day speaking with one of our senior Air Force leaders and I was amazed with his ability to read something quickly and to almost instantaneously get to the heart of what the issue was. It did not matter if it was one or 50 pages, he could immediately sort it out. I asked him if this skill was something they taught him in General school...he just looked at me, smiled, and said it was experience, that after you have been exposed to and learned from situations, they are easily applied and generally relate to new situations. The longer I have been in the Air Force; the truth of that statement has continued to grow. Here's an example you may have heard of - Ockham's razor - "Plurality is not to be posited without necessity" - more commonly interpreted as "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one." This is a concept from a 14th century logician that has been applied to myriad areas such as science, biology and medicine. So, people have applied something they learned from the subject of logic to all kinds of other subjects. Too technical? Here is a simpler example: everyone knows what Velcro is - it's commonly used in clothing. You use it instead of laces on shoes, to Velcro your hat closed, or to Velcro patches onto your flight suit. It was originally conceived after a farmer noticed how burrs stuck to his clothing. Velcro got its first break when it was used in the aerospace industry to help astronauts maneuver in and out of bulky space suits. Later, some smart astronaut was irritated that her chess pieces kept flying around in zero gravity. So, she applied the Velcro concept (from clothing) to her chess pieces (to gaming) and now she can play the game without her pieces flying around. The third key to saving time and money is to know what resources are available. Many of you have heard of the "Knowledge Operations Management" career field. Did you know they are required to "develop, provide, and educate users on workflow capabilities and create/develop ad hoc courses of action?" These experts are trained specifically to assist you in automating your processes. Do you have a spreadsheet you spend hours working to reproduce each week? Maybe there is an automated way to develop it. Do you spend endless hours scouring through your e-mails? Maybe there is an easier way to display, file, filter or organize them. Contact a knowledge ops troop in your organization, be innovative, and see if there are any processes you can automate or improve. The last thing I'd like to talk about is empowering your people and being empowered. Empowerment is absolutely critical to the efficiency of an organization. I'm talking about pushing decision making to the absolute lowest feasible level. I know sometimes it may feel like the boss is putting too much pressure on you, or delegating things you don't feel should be delegated. I want you to step back for a second and think about how you would run things if you were in charge. Take a look at the big picture. Those times when you've been afforded the opportunity to make decisions for or recommendations to your boss - think about the possible outcomes of your decision and recommendation - making sure to include second and third order effects as well. From a subordinate perspective you'll likely glean insight you might not otherwise have had (and be able to apply that insight to your own processes). It will also prepare you for the challenges you are certain to face in your career. From a mentor's perspective you'll be developing your subordinates into stronger leaders. Every single one of you can be a leader. Rank and career field are not discriminators here - how well you learn and do your job are. I'm sure everyone has noticed that Facebook is now open for use on our government networks. You can even follow Maj. Gen. Basla's facebook page (www.facebook.com/AFSPCViceCommander). The open, free and transparent flow of information from the highest levels to the lowest (and vice versa) is imperative. Empower your people to make decisions so they may learn and develop into better leaders themselves. So - be vocal, learn everything you can, know what resources you have available and empower your people. Doing these things will help us innovate and overcome.