MGMT 535 - Week 7 Blog

Thinking about the past year from June 2020 - now, there was one big change. We onboarded a new Test & Evaluation Director (a newly retired Air Force 2 star general). What changed...communication. Of course, the first folks to bend his ear, where those in leadership positions and closest to him. It was apparent when he held is first one on one meetings with the rank and file...the perceptions from leadership and those of the everyday worker, were completely different. As you know, we worker bee's have a lot closer relationship than we may let on. We were all comparing what was asked of the director and how they responded. That allowed all of us to echo the same themes as well as echo the same items of interest.

What came out of that first round of "talks" was the edict that the rules are no longer rules and all options for solving challenges were on the table. In this one move, the boss had opened up the portals for creativity not unlike what the TED Talk speaker mentioned. My colleagues were pointing out issues and ways to fix or change systemic problems on the regular. Interesting enough, some of those early "favorites" found themselves moving on to other positions or other employment. Now another thing I noticed is that my colleague, who was "misguided" has had an attitude adjustment. She was a favored, but it seems she was the topic of several other colleagues. I have noticed a much more quiet, cooperating and dutiful colleague. 

I believe the Director in his approach, highlighted the fact that creativity can come from anyone, not just special people and the organization is better for it. The other benefit of this directive underscores something I pointed out early to the Director. I mentioned that it didn't matter how improved or efficient our group became, the challenges always lay outside of our (his) control. Over the past few months, especially as we are getting into the end of government fiscal budgeting and the upcoming federal budget Congressional wrangling this is becoming very apparent.  To wrap up the organization as a whole, the TSA does have a program called The Idea Factory that allows anyone to suggest new ways of doing things through an electronic portal. 

As far as Kohler goes, I copied down a few notes that I will keep in the back of my mind as I go forward following my own personal pursuits for creativity. Specifically were his comments in the last 2 minutes of the talk about how open models will prevail because they multiply productive resources. I think the most enlightening and (duh) moment was when he stated how if you can design products or innovations that turn the users into producers...thus you have the folks who pay you for your product helping you build a better product (but you keep all the profits...) and they get paid by the satisfaction your product provides, you are well on your way to ...