SOUTHWEST ASIA –
SYNERGY! It's not a new energy drink ... and it's not the latest 60 miles-per-gallon hybrid. Simply stated, it is the phenomenon we've all experienced ... the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. When people in an organization or on a team focus their energy, the marvel of synergy emerges.
The 437th Airlift Wing's selection as this year's Air Force Verne Orr Award winner is an unmistakable example of synergy on a number of levels. The first and most obvious is the work the men and women of Team Charleston did to deliver 213 million pounds of cargo and 24,000 passengers in 19,000 missions. The story behind the story, however, is worth telling.
It began several months ago when a lieutenant from an operations group squadron took on the project the write a Verne Orr Award package. The Air Force Association-sponsored award recognizes the Air Force unit that makes the most effective use of its human resources. The plan was to highlight the group's successes in the initiative to reduce C-17-mission launch time. At first glance, it seemed simple. Plenty of data had been collected, successes had been well documented and results were praised all the way up the chain of command.
As the lieutenant engaged with representatives from around the wing to ask questions and capture data, the project seemed to blossom. Every group in the wing had a role in the reduced sequence of events initiative, and as the contributions were married together, it became clear that there was a much bigger story to tell. When viewed as a collective organization, the effects created by the 437 AW throughout our Air Force, Department of Defense, nation and world, were far greater than the simple sum of the effects of the groups, squadrons and flights. In fact, this synergy generated 23 percent more sorties than any other AMC wing!
The truly intriguing part is that the Team Charleston synergy might have gone unrecognized by the Air Force Association and its annual award program had it not been for the synergy created by a small group of award writers who were willing to shed parochial interests to not only see the bigger story, but collaborate to tell it.
As Team Charleston basks in the glow of yet another Air Force-level award, it is well worth taking a moment to reflect, not only on what we do, but how we do it, and why. We choose to be better ... not better than everyone else, but better than we were before. We choose to have more ... not so that others have less, but so that we have more to give. And, in the case of this award and others, we choose to seek praise, not for the sake of praise, but so that we can shower that praise on others ... in this instance, all of Team Charleston, 18th Air Force, Air Mobility Command and our Air Force. Well Done!