AMENITIES…

I know some of you were present during the Command Flag Raising Ceremony last January 12, a few days after I assumed as Commanding General and in that flagraising ceremony, I made mention of fundamental tasks..  May I see a show of hands – sino ba dito ang nanduon noon? 

I am sure you understood what I said. Let me guess, referring in what I’ve mentioned in that flagraising. I do this for the reason that of all people we should drive home the message consistently to, it is to the people who formulate our plans and programs – the same plans and programs which shall be brought to life by each and every member of the Philippine Air Force organization.  And what better occasion than today – with a veritable collection of our planners and thinkers, our “bright boys and girls” of Philippine Air Force so to speak.

My remarks during the Flag Raising homed in on three points: CONTINUITY, CORE VALUES, and the PROMISE OF HOPE AND THE FUTURE.  I believe these three are continually relevant in the undertakings that shall follow the now-finalized and newly and newly-formulated Short Term Plan 2010-2012.

I say CONTINUITY because, as the famous saying goes, “we do not have to reinvent the wheel” every time we do strategic planning – especially if the person at the helm has just assumed.

As I shall continually remind all of us – let’s build on the strengths and the gains of our previous ideas, and our previous efforts.  This saves us not only time, but this saves most especially our scarce resources which we shall otherwise have to utilize in the most beneficial way.

As a sign of our commitment, I have made known that as your manager, I am committed to continue from where our former manager has left off. But in doing so I also say that we have to pick up the place as well.  For we have the benefit of seeing through our plans this time.

I also made significant reference to a landmark work of management thought, a bestseller entitled Built to Last by Jim Collins that explored what made a great companies, great and how they sustained that greatness over time.  In it, Collins makes the biggest argument of all in favor of CORE VALUES, and why we need them?

Keeping IN-S.T.E.P, AND KEEPING OUR CORE VALUES is one way of staying on course, and not wavering in the midst of trials and challenges.  Our core values of INTEGRITY, SERVICE, TEAMWORK, EXCELLENCE, and PROFESSIONALISM, which is In-STEP for short- is not just a bunch of words to memorize, but truly powerful words to anchor us in the buffeting winds of hange and turbulence.

Collins and his team of researchers used strict benchmarks to identify a group elite companies that made the leap from good to great and sustained that greatness for at least fifteen years.  The lessons they discovered, it is my hope, can teach us in our own efforts to plan for and build a truly great organization.

Lesson Number 1:  Celebrity executives almost never lead good companies to greatness.  For us, this means that our high-profile commanders and leaders do not ensure for us a sure way to success.  Leaders who have changed their organizations from good-to-great embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will.

Lesson Number 2: You can’t achieve great things without great people.  Many companies create strategy, then try to rally people around it, good-to great companies start with great people and build great results from their efforts.  Many of these potentially great Airmen are here today, from among you.  And the great results will start from your efforts here today.

Lesson Number 3: Simplicity rules.  To go from good to great requires us to know what our organizations are passionate about, what drives our internal engine, and at what we can (and cannot) be the best in the world.  Put simply, knowledge of self and true self-discovery as an organization. This, I hope, we have achieved in our Strategic Planning.

Lesson Number 4: This, I believe, we have as an inherent advantage: Organization-wide discipline.  When we combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, or in our case creative problem solving, we are more likely to achieve great results.  [disciplined people + disciplined thought + disciplined action = a great organization]

Lesson Number 5: Technology is an accelerator. This does not mean jumping on technological bandwagons or chasing after fads.  As a technology-driven organization, we should determine what technology makes the most sense for us, and then pioneer its application.  Great organizations think differently then mediocre organizations about technology and technological change, becoming pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies.  When used correctly, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it.

The Flywheel Effect

As I close, may I now invite all of you to take up, as the book calls it,  the challenge of the FLYWHEEL.  Consider this illustration.

Imagine an enormous, heavy flywheel – a massive dismounted horizontally on an axle, measuring 30 feet in diameter, two feet in thickness and 5,000 pounds in weight.  In order to get the flywheel moving, you must push it. Its progress is slow, your consistent efforts may only move it a few inches at first. Over time, however, it becomes easier to move the flywheel, and it rotates with an increasing ease, carried along by its momentum. The breakthrough comes when the wheel’s own heavy weight does the bulk of the work for you, with an almost unstoppable force.

We must therefore experience the flywheel effect in our transformation. The first efforts in each transformation are almost unseen.  Yet, over time, with consistent, disciplined actions propelling it forward, we will be able to build on our momentum and make the transformation – a buildup that lead to a breakthrough.

The momentum we will build then be able to sustain our success over time – long after we have all retired.

Like these great companies, we should understand a simple truth: Tremendous power exists in the fat of continued improvement and the delivery of results.

Tangible accomplishments – however incremental at first – show how those steps fit into the context of an overall concept that will work. Let us therefore do things in such a way that people see and feel the buildup of momentum, they will line up with enthusiasm.

This is the real flywheel effect.  When a leader lets the flywheel do the talking, he or she does not need to fervently communicate the organization’s goals – people can just work their way leader to leader from the momentum of the flywheel for themselves. As we decide among themselves to turn the fact of potential to the fact of results, the goal almost sets itself.

My role, therefore, is only to make all of us realize that there is hope, and that there is promise of a better future. But in large measure this hope and this future lies in our little, disciplined and value-guided steps.

With this, I bid you all a wonderful afternoon, and I thank you for these little steps that we all took today.

God bless us all, and God bless Philippine Air Force….