Commentary: Let's get NUTS about the 512th Airlift Wing

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Nicholas Koskivacirca
  • 512th AMXS commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  It was 1999 and my son was on his third Harry Potter book. I commented about wishing I could read like he did. His response, "You can." He asked me my morning routine, I responded, he laid out the plan for 30 minutes of reading each morning, no news. A seven year old telling me how to organize my morning routine? Preposterous, but effective. 

Eight years later, seven Harry Potter books, several business, leadership, life style, personal success books, and I'm reading like a nut. In fact, my most recent completion is a book called NUTS! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, authored by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg. The book isn't just about running an airline, it's about leadership; leadership in an organization that is built on trust, integrity, guts and a little outside the box thinking every once in a while. It's about focusing 75 percent on your employees and 25 percent on your customers. What? Isn't it customer first? Yes, but it is employees always. Focus on your employees and make them nuts about your organization and they in turn will make your customers nuts about your business. 

Herb Keller, CEO of Southwest Airlines, focuses on building a culture that doesn't stifle creativity, it thrives on it. They don't lead people around by the hand, they push them from behind. The organization takes every moment to celebrate every accomplishment, every chance it gets, and if they falter, they re-evaluate and move forward. Southwest was doing the lean initiative and Total Quality Management long before it was a hot ticket. 

Our units should release the imagination and energy of our people. We need to make work fun. We need to produce an attitude that permeates every layer of the organization. Making sure our people have the tools and resources they need, to do what we ask, is paramount to our success. Make the people in your unit nuts about your unit, make them nuts about what they do, and they will make your customers nuts about you!

My top 10 excerpts from the book:
- Keep things simple. Streamline your system and your life.
- At the peak of success, look for things you can do even better.
- Be humble: Success is hardly ever all your own doing and rarely irreversible.
- Say "Thank You" often.
- Find people who serve behind the scenes and celebrate their contributions.
- Defend your people, The customer may not be right all the time.
- Do what you ask others to do.
- Inform your people: It teachers them to care.
- Show people what legendary service looks like, then trust them to do the right thing.