I’m reading An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management, by Will Larson, at the recommendation of a good friend, and wanted to take some notes on it.
First, the book is gorgeous. I’ve got a hardcover copy via inter-library loan (thank you Meridian Library District, near Boise, ID, and thank you San Antonio Public Library), and the cover is bright white rough linen with black text and printing, and a black line drawing of a bush on the front cover reminiscent of an organizational structure, data structure, or actual organic bush.…
Reviewing some of my notes from the Leader Development Course I noticed something I’d written regarding communication plans. My take on “approachability” is something I need to explain to my folks early, actually.
Weapon school grads want to be, “humble, approachable, credible”, and this has always been what I’ve sought to be too. I don’t always succeed I’m certain.
Approachability can be quantified by how my team interacts with me. I need to let them know that to me approachability really is important.…
I just recently finished the book Turn the Ship Around, and I don’t have anything insightful to say but I did want to recall some points from it. I found the book to be fantastic and insightful - I agree completely with Captain Marquet’s leader-leader style, and hope in future positions I can remain as committed and mindful as he was to creating environments like the one in the book. I think the practices in the book are very similar to those adopted by agile software teams and mission command leadership styles.…
During this leadership development course one of the instructors quoted one of his previous mentors saying that leaders should have stories ready about:
mission, discipline, loyalty, and safety
This is in line with what one of my former mentors told me more briefly, “you need stories”. Ok - I thought, but stories about what? I have stories… I can tell a story… Typically I’m coming up with something appropriate on the spot.…
It will be a continuing struggle to stay on top of how the Air Force is changing in the feedback system, and the systems they add over the years.
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2490030/air-force-announces-airmen-leadership-qualities/
Here’s a new one I need to stay on top of - a new additional feedback form. It looks fantastic - the “Airmen Leadership Qualities”.
During the Leadership Development Course communication section, the Chief said:
Great leaders help people understand their “now”, then help people understand the future…
This is an interesting article shared as part of this leadership class I’m in right now: Dear White Colonel … we must address our blind spots around race
What I liked about this article is that by describing instances where the topic got steered wrong, and the author’s feedback about what got missed when that happened, the article provides a roadmap to steer conversations back in the right direction. I feel like these examples really resonate with me - as if I’ve been a part of conversations like this.…
I’m finding this course pretty interesting.
They asked us to reflect on some of our results from a personality quiz - the one at 16personalities.com. I got an INFJ, but normally I’m INTJ and think I probably still am, really.
How will we apply what we know about our personalities to our interactions with our teams?
I’ll try to be more conscious about how I react to “perceiving” teammates. They may wait a while and not set a plan - that can be ok.…
This video discusses organizational culture - I don’t love it because it’s too cheesy-motivational to me.
https://youtu.be/neDFJlUCXR8
One think I do like about the video is that it provides some solid ways to change organizational culture. By providing a solid definition (even if it’s not the one I’d choose), the video is able to specify how to move the needle against that decision:
clarify embody celebrate Determine what behaviors will be rewarded or corrected in your organization, and clarify that to the entire team.…
I’m sitting in the Leader Development Course from Air University - distance learning. One of the stories I heard this morning has the crux - the commander needs to walk a line between being too involved and not being involved. The story involved the former commander trying to show he cared by being there when new members arrived, by sitting with folks as they did work, and by visiting them when they were out in the field.…
This morning I finished Planet Money’s Episode 963: 13,000 Economists. 1 Question.. These fine folks make one of my favorite podcasts - each week is a different look at something weird from a weird perspective. It sounds like it’s very market/economy focused, but it’s really focused on everything economics. In the past decades economics has branched out to look at nearly every field of human endeavor with a mathematical eye. It’s not always very successful, but the economist perspective does make me look at things differently.…