50% Reduction: A Review of the Basics, The

Mobility Forum, Sep/Oct 2004 by Meeks, Bayne

Maintaining human assets. This is absolutely critical to high integrity organizations. Too many accident reports are filled with descriptions of inadequate training, inappropriate tasking, fatigue, job-related stress, boredom, and burnout. High performance teams take care of their people. In aviation, all personnel need to be considered part of the system because a failure by any one of them can have grave consequences. Leaders and managers must secure "buy in" at every level and facet of the organization. We cannot allow our integrity to become diminished because of external pressures or slipping standards. Be mindful that even highly trained individuals can become risks if they are over-stressed or tired. While human assets may be expensive to maintain, not maintaining them may well prove much more expensive. Take care of your people and they will take care of the rest.

Managing the interfaces. One of the biggest problems faced by aviation organizations is handling transactions across the boundaries of organizational units, whether it's within the organization or external. The key is that the two players must (1) intersect long enough to transfer all the essential facts and (2) be able to put disparate pieces of information together to form the whole picture. The best interfaces include overlapping information pathways. Redundant channels of communication and cross-checking characterize high integrity teams. External pressures can obviously be a hurdle to effective interface. The USAF is engaged in the Global War on Terror and is facing numerous pressures. We all certainly know they are there, and we must regulate them to achieve the balance that is critical for mission success. We must actively listen to one another and if the information flow is inadequate, seek out the pieces that we need to ensure safe and successful mission accomplishment.

Evaluation and Learning. We all learn from experience; how well we learn is a different matter. Don't allow your questions to be suppressed or isolated. It could very well be the vital link in the chain of events leading to a mishap. A comprehensive system of inquiry is typical of a community of good judgment, and it is this system that spots and removes the "latent failures." This system gives each person a "license to think" and thus empowers anyone anywhere to identify problems and suggest solutions. Such a system actively cultivates leaders, idea champions, and internal critics. An anonymous reporting program may reveal hidden events that may have otherwise remained unknown, allowing for corrective action. Although high performance teams have error-tolerant systems, the teams themselves are not tolerant of error, do not accept it as "the cost of doing business," and constantly try to eliminate it. Sometimes aviation organizations seem to need a disaster as a spur to action. The organization that waits for a disaster to act is inviting one to happen. Don't allow that to happen on your watch.

If you have stuck with me and read this far, you may be saying, "All this is common sense." Well, most of it is. But, all the common sense in the world will do us no good unless we create processes and methods that incorporate it into our mission as a mobility air force. The USAF is without a doubt a world class organization full of the highest caliber individuals that you will meet anywhere in the world. In my 11 years as an Air Force officer and pilot, amazingly capable and dedicated individuals have surrounded me at every assignment. There is no question that we have a high integrity organization, but the pace at which we move and the demanding environments we operate in require us to periodically step back, reevaluate, and reenergize.