Balance

By Maj. Wesley Wade, 56th Maintenance Group / Published October 05, 2015

LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- Whether we're talking about our life, family, or career, it boils down to balance. Having a healthy balance is the only way that we can sustain effectiveness. I can recall times as a young officer when working 14 hours a day was common. There are times when the mission will drive us to work extended hours, but it shouldn't be the norm. Getting married and starting a family is what helped realign my priorities because it became readily apparent that if I wanted my family standing next to me when I leave the Air Force, I better find a healthier balance of my time.

One of the best commanders I had the pleasure of working for made it a point to work reasonable hours. His perspective was that his work hours would drive the behavior of the squadron. In other words, the later he worked, the later his Airmen would stay at work. He enjoyed an active family life and ran an effective squadron. Under his leadership was when I had an "ah-ha" moment. If he can accomplish such balance as a squadron commander, then why can't I do the same as a captain?

Throughout the past year I found that I struggle disconnecting from work outside of the office, specifically with putting down the infamous BlackBerry. My wife graciously brought this to my attention a few months ago. My normal routine consisted of walking in the house, emptying my Airman battle uniform pockets and immediately start scrolling through emails on my BlackBerry; because you'll never know when the next earth-shattering message will hit your inbox. She soon realized that when my BlackBerry was in front of me, I wasn't paying attention to her or the kids. I've changed what I call my home-life reintegration method and deliberately choose not to check my inbox until after talking about our respective days, how the kids' days went and so on.

When the Air Force published the Comprehensive Airman Fitness program, it spoke to my conundrum of achieving a better balance. Achieving mental, physical, social and spiritual fitness allows us to optimize our duty performance as well as enhance our family life. Being disciplined and focusing our energy in these four domains enables us to develop competencies within the readiness and resiliency realms.

Why do I think this topic is important? It's about leadership. All of us are leaders, whether formal or informal. Achieving balance in your life translates into being a more effective leader. I can see it in my leadership development. Now that I have a healthier balance, I'm better prepared to tackle not only the challenges that arise in my personal life, but I'm also better equipped to assist and lead my Airmen.

Negotiation a core capability for all Airmen

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published October 02, 2015

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The secretary of the Air Force announced a commitment to formally solidify the Air Force Negotiation Center as the focal point for negotiation research, teaching and outreach efforts while speaking at the Women in Negotiation Summit in New York City Oct. 1.

“Building negotiating skills into leadership training throughout our Airmen’s career ensures that all Air Force members have the skills needed to succeed in our complex and diverse environment,” said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James.

As a core competency, adaptive negotiation skills will foster collaborative relationships to enhance success in the joint environment, build partnership capability, increase cross-organizational communication, and achieve better results for both the Air Force and taxpayer.

“Adding new tools to help us ensure our Airmen have the right negotiation skills to make better decisions will ultimately help keep the Air Force the strongest on the planet,” James said.

By adopting the center’s negotiation model service-wide, Airmen will have a common frame of reference when developing individual skill sets and while mentoring others. The standardized model facilitates the development of an enterprise-level capability allowing Airmen to use lessons learned to inform future negotiations.

The negotiation model helps Airmen think critically as they recognize the initial conditions and understand the most productive negotiation approach for a specific problem. Airmen will gain both ongoing and situational understanding to adapt their strategy as the negotiation environment evolves.

The Air Force Negotiation Center offers both in-residence and distance learning coursework across all Air University schools and colleges. Coursework ranges from introductory skills through advanced cross-cultural negotiating techniques.

In fiscal year 2016, the center will continue providing negotiation education and training to more than 35,000 Airmen. With the added resources and support, this number will grow to 200,000 in addition to reaching a wide community of federal agencies and the public.

Innovation: Never stop improving

Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station commander / Published September 30, 2015

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN AIR FORCE STATION, Colo. (AFNS) -- "Another article on innovation?" you say. I don't have to tell you that there are more challenges across the Air Force than any time that I can recall: manning reductions, reduced budgets, infrastructure we can no longer afford, new requirements; response to advanced cyber threats, and the cherry on top, sequestration. As a result, our leaders navigate the Air Force through and around the turbulent air these challenges create. However, maintaining the best Air Force on the planet, through these challenges, isn't solely the job of our leaders, nor is it a one-time thing. We must continually innovate.

The Air Force is renowned for innovation. There are historical markers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where the Wrights innovated flight controls. At the end of the last century, the Air Force developed technology that made aircraft virtually invisible to radar. Your Air Force developed and maintains global precision navigation and timing that not only assures the accuracy of weapons and maintains the ability of networked computers to communicate, but has permeated our daily lives. The Air Force has been innovating since we were born from the Army Air Corps 68 years ago, and we keep innovating, at all levels.

This year, the Air Force is innovating by consolidating mission support under the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center. Major commands are innovating by consolidating staff functions; wings are finding innovative ways to prioritize missions and resources. At the unit level, each of us can be innovative in the areas within our span of control. A civil engineering squadron might develop processes for leveraging infrared imaging technology to reduce the number or frequency of hands-on inspections, disassembly and reassembly they would have done in the past. Maintenance squadrons are leveraging technology for electronic technical orders. Logistics readiness squadrons have streamlined supply and deployment processing. However, none of us should settle on these things or ever think there are no more improvements to be made.

Effective innovation starts in the areas you know and can control. For example, all of us may have a good idea on how to shorten the wait at the pharmacy, but only those in the medical field understand all that has to go into filling your prescription in compliance with the law and Air Force instructions. You will be able to find more ways to improve within your own work center than the pharmacy.

Second, challenge the way it's always been done. There may be a valid reason that put into place the instructions, procedures, tech order, manual or Air Force instruction to do things a certain way, but there is probably a better way.

Third, run innovative ideas past your coworkers, supervisors or leaders, and benefit from their experience. They can help refine and improve upon your proposal.

Fourth, there are various ways to put innovation in place. An Air Force Technical Order Form 22 can improve a tech order or exceptions to manuals and instructions are possible.

Over the last few years, our wing successfully used a wing-developed Requirements Assessment and Compliance Tool and achieved nearly $500 million in cost savings and avoidance, mitigated more than 200 manpower billet cuts and shortfalls, and advocated for and received more than $300 million in funding. The program was highlighted as the best by secretary of the Air Force, SecAF/Headquarters Air Force organizations, Air Force Space Command, 14th Air Force commanders and AFSPC/Inspector General. It is a "highly effective" Strategic Planning Process and Continuous Process Improvement program. ReACT helped achieve 48 Air Force-level best practices and has high impact for the 21st Space Wing. In fact, here at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, we are pursuing some of those ReACT benefits in our communications and civil engineer squadrons.

The best Air Force-wide resource is the Airmen Powered by Innovation program. It enables ideas, vets and validates them through experts, leverages Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century where needed, provides a process for implementation, and tracks the best ideas to completion. API, released in 2014 and codified in AFI 38-402, “Manpower and Organization” seeks input from every Airman on how to make our Air Force more effective or more efficient.

The bottom line is that you are the key to innovation. Together, each one of us has the knowledge to improve ourselves and our mission. We must figure out how to do the mission with less people and fewer dollars, yet maintain the best Air Force on Earth. Each of us can play a part. The tools are available to help us get better. With your help, we will always improve. Never stop innovating!