Patience and Humility

Introduction

My predecessor saw himself as the “chief cultural officer” of my unit. As I prepared to take over, I was told that my role involved balancing unit performance, material condition, and culture. However, over the past year, I’ve learned it’s more about the art of integrating eight technical authorities and six program authorities across 16 vertical reporting chains, five horizontal business functions, and three HR systems.

In my career, I’ve visited both government and commercial MRO facilities. I’ve observed that the same challenges exist at all of them when it comes to synchronizing priorities. Each of us excels and struggles in different areas, sometimes due to long-term culture, sometimes due to short-term leadership. In other words, we each face a unique blend of performance, culture, and material condition challenges. I have come to view my unit as a small part of the global aviation industrial base.

I’ve also noticed a concerning trend in how we advocate for the resources we need to succeed in my industry. When I first started my career, data was the key. Metrics, charts, and analyses were crucial. About ten years in, we needed both data and related anecdotes. Cold data needed to be complemented by warm emotion. Now, as Robert Greene warned, it seems we are prioritizing performance over content.

The thinking ladder

I enjoy mental models, especially when they combine to create a framework that links various pieces of information I encounter.

Several years ago, I discovered Tim Urban’s thinking ladder through his blog, which was eventually turned into a book. The central idea is that we often focus on what others think on any given subject (left-right), without considering howthey formed that opinion (up-down). He gives us four rungs on a ladder, from the top:

1. The scientist values the pursuit of truth over any particular idea.
2. The sports fan appreciates objectivity and fairness, but also desires their team to win.
3. The attorney fervently argues for their client’s case, which is why courtrooms feature two attorneys.
4. The zealot is wholly fused with their position, viewing any disagreement as a personal attack.

Keeping these four levels of thinking in mind, let’s examine some examples that relate to striking a balance between performance, material condition, and culture…

Performance

Congress recently highlighted that my community may not be as cool as we perceive ourselves to be, and I worry that we’ve been behaving like lawyers.

Each government agency has a pair of Congressional authorizers who tell us what to do and appropriators who provide the funding. These two groups often have different priorities since they’re not the same people. Moreover, unless every American taxpayer wants their tax burden to rise annually, there’s never sufficient funding. This leads to a budgetary “food fight” as each group, big and small, tries to secure the largest piece of the pie.

Those of us in staff positions become highly skilled at arguing our point of view. We present metrics and anecdotes within a persuasive story. We question the cases made by other programs and look for weaknesses in their arguments. We constantly retool our messaging to show relvance with every cause and audience. We compete to win and gauge our success by the additional resources we gain.

However, acting like attorneys, we listen to respond rather than to understand. We overlook that what’s best for us may not be best for everyone. We become so engrossed in our problems that we forget everyone else has their own.

Luckily, a modicum of humility keeps us from becoming zealots.

Material condition

It’s well-known that Boeing’s team of “financial performance” sports fans overpowered their “engineering quality” counterparts, leading to a series of flight safety issues.

As manufacturing complexity increased in the twentieth century, two specialist roles emerged: the industrial engineer and the professional financial manager. As the article points out, the engineer evolved from the shop floor, and the manager from accounting. Both aimed for Boeing’s overall success, but each followed their own approach. Neither wanted aircraft to crash with passengers onboard. However, short-term financial gains favoring shareholder value took precedence in the competition against Airbus. That is, until the value of engineering quality became blatantly clear.

Taiichi Ohno emphasized the importance of all managers understanding the shop floor in The Toyota Production System. Ironically, this was a lesson learned from American auto manufacturers in the 1800s. From my own experience implementing the Theory of Constraints, front line employees know where true production efficiencies can be found. It also takes a strong, involved leader to properly balance future material condition with today’s performance.

As in actual sports, patience prevents sports fans from becoming attorneys.

Culture

Admittedly, I’m a sports fan. I believe my job and unit are the best. When we fall short as a community as in the GAO report, professionals eventually step up to steer us back in the right direction.

Professionals prioritize systems, growth, consistency, and long-term outcomes. In contrast, amateurs often focus on short-term gains, external recognition, and blame. Young pilots learn to be accurate, bold, and concise in their communications. They learn to follow checklists and manage errors. Aircrew are notorious for pre and post flight briefs, in addition to the concept of privileged safety information. In my specific specialty, we learn to manage by process, using personality for leadership. We do this to maximize the probability of a successful outcome in an uncertain and often risky situation.

Good systems are necessary to buttress against our self-centered tendencies.

Conclusion

We need more scientists.

This blog began as a way for me to process my history of self-centeredness and to cultivate more humility and patience. Along the way, I discovered the joy of writing as a method for thinking critically.

Reflecting on my past, I realize that I wasn’t necessarily taught how to think. Joining the military at 18, I was told what to think/wear/do. It took about 15 years for me to notice the first gap between my thoughts and someone else’s, and another seven for that cognitive dissonance to break me. It’s only in the past two-ish years that anyone has mentioned me having a “unique” view.

I’ll consider that progress in the journey toward being a scientist. However, I’m confident that it’s a journey without end.

Good writing requires thinking. Thinking takes time. Good thinking is expensive, but bad thinking costs a fortune. – Shane Parrish