CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
When I say "hurry up and wait," what comes to mind? I think of the times where I have been processed for mobility exercises and have been moved in large groups of people, from place to place. We had to hurry up and get to another place only to wait there for three hours. This is a typical military management style that causes misery on the Airmen subjected to it, but we accept it as part of the military experience and deal with it. This type of thinking has bled over to other processes in the Air Force when it really isn't necessary or appropriate.
Often when we make management decisions, we choose the path making managing our processes easier or more efficient without considering the effects on the Airmen on the other side of the process, otherwise known as the customer. For example, when you require a customer to fill out a form for no other purpose than your own record keeping, you may be creating unnecessary work for your customer when another course of action would eliminate this burden.
In this time of automation and technology, Airmen who are the customers get lost in the mix. They are subject to computer based training, computer sign-ins and Web-based services. Sometimes these add efficiency, but often it causes frustration or delays in service and we lose the personal interaction required for efficient service. Automation is not always the best answer in every situation. We have to be careful our processes drive the use of technology, not the other way around. The bottom line is to make sure technology is the best course of action and Airmen are not using it just because it is there or because it is what they think the boss wants.
In my career I have seen major changes appearing to have been made in a stovepipe. This is when the people outside an organization or process are not included or considered when changing a process. The fallout for those outside this stovepipe is often very painful, but the people inside the stovepipe are left with an efficient, streamlined process. This kind of change, while it can look good on paper, will not help the efficiency of the Air Force as a whole.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy by developing systems and processes unnecessarily complex and time consuming. In today's climate of ever-shrinking manpower we cannot waste our time or the time of the people we serve. So I urge you to look at the way we do business and constantly question whether we are doing it as smart as we can. If we are doing something that doesn't make sense, find out why we do it that way ... it might just be because nobody ever asked before.