I’ve always been interested in the decision making process. It’s not that I’ve always made the best of decisions, ask my wife. There was the Christmas that all of her gifts had electrical cords and I’ve never lived that one down. I’m a guy after all and even our judgment in important decisions like in picking a spouse is usually clouded by brain-drop. Luckily, I got a hot and smart one! But, I’ve often wondered why people, and organizations, make decisions that can be so counterintuitive to an outside observer.
My brother Bob, a minister and author, once told me that the most difficult part of ministry was being asked by someone for advice on a big life decision and then the person doing the opposite of his advice, it going terribly wrong, and then coming back to him and asking why God did this to them. It happens all the time and with the same people over and over again. Even decisions that you would think are mundane can have far reaching, long term consequences.
Back in ’03, when we were getting ready for OIF to kick off, I remember weeks of phone calls with HQ. They were trying to decide which of the two Youngstown squadrons should be activated. There was the 773rd which is a standard C-130 airlift squadron, and the 757th which not only does all of the normal stuff, but is the only large area aerial spray platform in the DoD. At the time, the 757th was responsible for the coastal oil spill coverage for most of the US and was scheduled to spray for mosquitoes/biting midges over the entire summer. My recommendation was that the 773rd be activated first and 757th provide follow on based on the future needs. We talked about it for days, HQ agreed, and we just waited for the tasking. The day came and when I looked at the order, it read “757th”. I called HQ thinking that there must be some kind of mistake, but they said that they had changed their minds the night before and the decision was final. So off we went on the 1st of February with the entire squadron for an “undetermined” length of time.
Fast forward to a beautiful May spring day in Germany (sounds like The Producers) when I received the first email. It was from HQ. “When will you be able to start spraying Langley?” I ignored the email. I ignored the second one, the third one, the fourth one, each getting a little more demanding. I, of course, wasn’t working for AFRC. I was working for USAFE supporting CENTCOM. I was launching every aircraft, every day. Supporting evacuations in Liberia, earthquakes in North Africa and Marines in northern Iraq. So I waited for a phone call from USAFE. When they did call I was advised that the Commander of ACC, at Langley, was in a pissing contest with the commander of AMC and AFRC demanding that his base be treated for a particularly bad mosquito season. I called AFRC, I listened politely to, as chance would have it, the same guy I had spoken with about the deployment in January and after listening to his long sad story, I spoke three words and hung up. “You chose poorly”. Yes, I do like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice, Proverbs 12:15.” Some people don’t really want an answer, they just want reinforcement of a decision they’ve already made. All we can do is offer the best advice we can and feel no remorse when it’s not heeded. The difficulty is not offering unless asked, no matter how much it hurts to watch, and not rubbing it in when it’s obvious you were right. I’ve been accused of always having an opinion and I won’t deny that, but the only thing I ask is that you never ask me for dating advice or what color to paint the walls. No one ever listens on the first and I don’t care on the second.
hoveringoversend 