18 July - entry 1

Final Friday with the old commander, which means a final crud game. Crud is essentially full contact pool played in teams without the pool on a snooker table. I outweight everyone else in the game by at least 20 lbs, so I like this game. Now this is really the first time I've seen the commander since my deployment idea was shot down, and I want to say I'm over it, but i still took it a little personnal. So all the things that happened, like her showing up an hour late to the going away crud game that she scheduled, I just took as yet another sign that I was right and she was wrong. Real mature I know, but what can i say, I tried to put my filter on, and I just couldn't manage it.

It put an interesting spin on things in my mind though. I'm sure I've pissed people off before. Maybe not to the same degree, but upset none the less. Whats the best way to resolve that kind of conflict? What do I want in this situation? What should i do in this situation?

Ultimately, it all comes down to pulling the person aside and talking to them. Without any open sincere communication, people are going to take things like this personally, when it really and truely is not a personal decision. Even though you don't want to, and even though it may be awkward and uncomfortable, you got to pull people aside and give them a chance to vent.

17 July - entry 1

Today was fairly uneventful. I met with the A1C and the SMSgt about writing a strong package to help the A1C get promoted early. She's an outstanding troop, all she needs is just a little more volunteer/community service and she would absolutely cream the competition. I like some of the troops she's competing against, but in this scenario, this is my troop, and really the goal is to absolutely demolish everyone else's packages with this bright shinning example of pure Air Force goodness.

Yeah, we actually get that serious and competative over paperwork...

Aside from that, its really just been some housecleaning items trying to get my shop in order for the new commander. I ordered a few items to boost up the office morale. First is a set of dualing helicopters. They have lasers which you shoot at the other helicopter, and two hits make it go down. Additionally, I finally got the USB rocket launcher. You connect it through a USB port to your computer, then presto, you have a nerf gun which you can control and fire from your computer. I figure the games are a decent way to blow off some steam and build team unity as we perfect the targeting system so we can hit anyone who enters our office right in the forehead.

16 July - entry 1

I'm not in the best of moods as i write this one, so lets see how constructive i can make this and what lessons i can learn. I prepared all the info i needed to apply for the year long deployment. I talk to the acting squadron commander to arrange to get the real squadron commander's approval, and I get completely shut down by the squadron commander. The reasoning given to me is that the knowledge i possess and continuity i provide will be helpful in an inspection that is comming in march 2009. I tried to point out that the continuity and knowledge required already exsists within the squadron, but the only response i got was aggrivation for even bringing up and trying to argue the issue.

This was devistating news for me. I really wanted that job. It looked like an amazing opportunity for me personnally, and I'm being told i can't go for it because an inspection 9 months down the road is more important than helping fight and win the war on terror. Luckily for me, i didn't get the opportunity to make that point before i was hung up on.

So what lessons can I learn from what I'm feeling right now.

1- recognize and reward your hard workers - yes, they are vital to the operations and health of your unit, but they also have a career ahead of them. Lift them up, promote them, and it will boost the morale of your unit and set a positive example for others to follow

2- breathe - yes, frustrating things happen to you, breathe, and take a second before dealing with your subordinates. Don't take out your frustration with unrelated issues on your people

3- recognize your superiors authority - This happened almost 12 hours ago and I'm still absolutely livid. However, when my troops asked me about the outcome, i simply said that the commander did not support my wishes for the deployment. I didn't go into how i felt, i didn't try to tear her authority down, i simply submitted to her judgement. She's the commander, she's earned the right to make these decisions, and there are things here that i probably can't see from where I'm at.

15 July - entry 1

Today was more or less a rollercoaster. I didn't have the chance to really pull my shop on board with the database expansion idea because i spent so much of the day putting out fires and trying to take care of my personal career path. A year long deployment opportunity came up with a short suspense to apply on, and i decided to hop on the offer. So I spent a good portion of my time just trying to get info about the deployment. Yes, i do feel bad in retrospect because i should have been focusing on bringing this great new idea to my shop, but at the same time, I'm excited, I'm bringing a new level of energy to the workplace, and I'm really promoting the operational side of what we do. That and also it's a really neat job. Being undermanned as my shop is, i was able to leave the TSgt and the Amn alone to their jobs and was confident that everything would run smoothly for their areas. Of course the area with no coverage slacked a little because i'm the only one who knows how to maintain it.

A coworker of mine is experiencing the stress of not only having his boss gone, but an additional 50% of his mid level leadership gone as well. This guy is exceptionally good at taking up the slack, but I know that he's just frazzled after the end of the day so I do the neighborly gesture and offer to take him out for dinner after work. He needed the release and it was a good time. It drives home a good point though, you need to praise openly for subordinates who do a good job, and also give them an opportunity to vent their frustrations in private.

I think I'm doing a good job of letting my troops vent their concerns. My main concern is that there are some things, like the manning issue, that I can't control. I can only try to split up our current workload more equitibly in order to lessen the burden on single members. I just worry that while its ok to complain about things you can fix, things that can be changed, and that complaining and seeing constructive actions take place as a result is a good thing, complaining about things you can't fix only breeds a hostile environment.

July 14 - entry 1

So, it started as a small spark. A kinda, "gee, wouldn't that be nice" momentary thought, which throughout the day turned into an obsession. My office collects alot of data. Training numbers, personnel info, deployment data, all sorts of numbers and dates and stats. A while back I came up with the idea of marrying the personnel info i had, such as name and workcenter with the training data i had, in order to give not only the most accurate training numbers i could possibly obtain, but also give them in 1/10th of the time it would have normally took. That idea i was able to realize, and have been using that product for almost a year. Now I've spent those off moments throughout my day thinking of new ways to expand the database I've already created, dreaming of smooth interfaces, and flawless data migration. New and exciting ways of crunching numbers.

I haven't broken this plan to my people yet. I'm still in the "what can i do with this?" phase. But If i can get them as excited as I've been all day about this idea, then i just might be able to create something really useful. Thats the plan at least. I know this is a much shorter blog than i ussually write, but all I can really think about right now is how to integrate data from different sources.

11 July - entry 1

There were alot of personnel issues to deal with today. Which, in my temporary role as flight commander, kept me running from one end of my buidling to the other in meetings on how to legally deal with everything.

That fun aside, i did have a chance to quality check some work that the Amn had been doing for me. There were errors as expected and i quitely pulled him aside, addressed my issues with attention to detail in his work, and gave him examples of the errors that i had seen and what he needs to correct.

Due to the personnel issues i was having, that brief counseling session was almost the full extent of my workcenter involvement today. Its sad what a huge impact a few bad apples can have, but on the plus side, at least these are a few bad apples that will soon be escorted out of the air force.

Next week is really my last full week to shine up my office and our procedures before the new boss gets in. People joke about it, but the change of command and how abruptly it happens is really the best time to implement changes, and I need to get my changes implemented this week in order for them to pass. Now the real question is what do i need to change.

I think the answer lies in the application of some tech I've been playing around with. Namely consolidating half a dozen personnel spreadsheets that cover preformance reviews, duty status, ect into a single database that can automatically highlight discrepancies. I put something similar into place with the training system, and i think i can expand it to work for personnel as well.

10 July - entry 1

Today was a mixed group interaction day. There's talk about our folks working with the local air national guard on a project, which means there's multiple meetings in which i get to directly observe two groups, both with their own personal objectives and limitations trying to work together to meet a somewhat arbitrary goal. For me, this is incredibly enjoyable. I know just enough of how the tech works to understand the issues and to solutions they're discussing, so I'm not completely lost in that aspect, but what I'm really paying attention to is the personality conflicts that emerge. The most interesting conflict that i saw was between a SSgt telephone troop who works in my flight, and a Chief from the guard. The Chief didn't know the ins and outs of the tech involved, but he thought he did. The SSgt knows the ins and outs of the tech, and is trying to respectfully tell the chief he doesn't know what he's talking about, and then there's a MSgt who works for the Chief who apparently is used to dealing with the Chief's incompetence and is just trying to smooth things over with the SSgt on the side.

That right there is one of the most common problems with my career field. You have a lot of "leaders" who don't have a firm grasp on the tech, making decisions without consulting the folks who know whats going on. Rather than getting over their rank and just asking the techs for ideas, they make bad policy decisions, and then the SNCOs are stuck trying to smooth things over behind the scenes. So you end up with equipment that works, but only because the techs make it work, not due to the policy decisions made by the leaders.

On the flip side of the coin, you have leaders that are trained and required to make these sweeping policy decisions, and who have been conditioned by years of unnecessary subordinate complaints to not listen to their ideas. How do you filter out good information from a sea of petty and uniformed complaints?

Its easy enough at my level because i deal with most of these techs on a day to day basis. I know who's competent, and who's a moron. So whenever i have to write up checklists or review support agreements, I know who to go to in order to get compacted, pertinent, and accurate information.

However, getting off that train of thought, the meetings of today did point out one very imporant truth. God gave you two ears and one mouth and they are to be used in that ratio. Thinking you know better than folks who have their hands on the problem, not only distances you from them, but also leads to incredibly bad calls. Leason learned, swallow your pride and ask the stupid questions.