After viewing the Youtube video, A Tale of Power
and Vision, it brought to mind a recent event that left me scratching my
head. I too observed as pessimists and pragmatists conjugate and in a self-sufficient
manner stroke each other’s weak visions. I was serving as the Air Mission
Commander for a MEDEVAC team based at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. We were
on the cusp of a bad weather front and after receiving reports of decreasing
visibility throughout our primary area of operation the general attitude is we
weren’t in business until the weather lifted. The band wagon ran out of seat
essentially with this myopic mindset.
We received a MEDEVAC mission to transfer a patient
around 5 PM from a Role II facility some 45 minutes northeast of our base back
to Kandahar’s Hospital, a higher level of care. We were no backed against bad
weather and the general attitude was to delay until weather improved in the
interest for safety. After vetting the medical priority it was discouraged to
delay however the risks to the patient and crew were more threatening than to
delay relocating the patient. Weather
was schedule to improve early morning, around 3 AM.
The pessimists, pragmatists practically started a
fan club. Since weather was marginal the consensus was to launch and pick the
patient up at 3 AM. However, that was still located in what’s known as RED
ILLUM, a period of night with no moon and in a mountainous environment makes
for a very dark mission even under night vision goggles. The now formed fan
club lobbied that we should then wait sunrise. This was a marginal
consideration given the increased risks of operating under RED ILLUM
conditions. At this point, as the mission commander I was able to accept the
delays after conferring with our doctor to ensure we were leveraging the patient’s
needs against the risks. Overall, I was comfortable at this point, executing the
mission at dawn.
However, the fan club now was operating under the
presumptions that we needed more “good ideas.” The mission at dawn had us
flying east, into a rising sun, which would degrade our visibility. As such,
the pragmatists lobbied to delay the mission a few more hours. Since we operate
on a night cycle this would place us in our prime sleep window, which was
further lobbied. Between the pessimists thinking the weather would keep us from
launching and the pragmatists shaking every last leave from the good idea tree I
had to reframe this mission. The initial negativity of delaying to launch had
continued on a downward spiral.
I gathered
the team and in an effort to reframe the mission reinforced the nature of our
business. We provide care for wounded, moving them across the battlefield to
the appropriate level of care. We had a Soldier needing those services, we are
asked to do only what we’re trained to do and provide that critical
transportation. I asked them, “How can we get this mission done, safely and
timely?” After having engaged their minds and re-framed the concept of what we
do their attitudes changed. They were motivated and now thinking of ways to mitigate
the risks but in a forward looking aspect to get the mission accomplished.
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