My Six Take-Aways from the Air Force Academy's Leadership Symposium
Last week, the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) held its annual leadership conference (NCLS). The attendees were cadets (undergraduates) from USAFA and other academies, ROTC students, military leaders, and a few civilians.
I was lucky enough to have been nominated to speak on AI. The other speakers included high-level military leaders, a Navy SEAL, and Olympic athletes.
I was too busy to hear most of the talks. In two days, I gave two main talks, three lectures on supply chain design, one lecture to data scientists, and led a leadership roundtable with cadets.
However, I did learn a few things:
One, don’t be afraid to confront tough issues.
I was happy to spend time with and hear Mustafa Aryan speak. He was born and raised in Afghanistan. He loved Kabul.
He was part of a team negotiating with the Taliban when he suddenly had to evacuate Kabul in August of 2021 with his wife. They left everything behind except a backpack of stuff.
It is known that the evacuation was not the US’s finest hour. Nevertheless, it was touching to hear Mustafa’s first-hand experience and feelings. And I was glad to see USAFA willing to talk about challenging issues.
Two: The military does good leadership training.
At the end of the symposium, I facilitated debriefs with groups of ten cadets on what they learned.
These young men and women were impressive and thoughtful. They all wanted to apply what they heard.
They talked about fixing and shaping the culture in their units, creating more innovation in their ranks, or influencing their leaders to pivot the group to more productive work.
One of the main speakers was a NASA astronaut, Raja Chari, who talked about transferring leadership to different people for different aspects of the mission, like the flight, the spacewalk, or the landing. This was a unique leadership perspective for the cadets. You have to check your ego to make this work.
One of the main speakers, Jason Redman, a Navy SEAL, spoke about being wounded and deciding to be in control of how he felt and dealt with this. The cadets loved this message. We had a good conversation about how to deal with bad assignments— which everyone gets. My advice, while not having the gravitas of a SEAL, is to learn as much as you can— you might not appreciate what you are learning, but it will serve you well at some point in the future.
Three: Don’t shy away from sales.
I heard a great talk from Jen Griswold. Jen spent twenty years in the Air Force as an officer. She has now become a very successful entrepreneur. She also teaches and mentors other women who want to be entrepreneurs.
There were lots of highlights from her talk. My favorite was her emphasis on sales. She said that “sales = influence = leadership.” She encouraged people to embrace sales— having that skill will help your career and make you a better leader.
So many people have a negative impression of sales. Don’t avoid it. It is a skill you will need as you grow your career.
Four: supply chain design goes well with the Burrito Game.
I’ve talked about Gurobi’s Burrito Game before. It is a fun way to wrap up a class.
During the lecture, thinking about examples relevant to military supply chains was fun. This is an area I’d like to explore more.
Five: You can pick up good tips in the halls— AI for high school students and special caps for anesthesia patients.
There are always interesting people at conferences.
At breakfast, I learned a tip from an Anesthesia doctor that is right out of Toyota’s visual management playbook. Some types of patients may wake up out of anesthesia-induced sleep violently. Instead of relying on paperwork, they identify these patients with a different colored cap. I’ll use this example in my Operations Excellence class.
At dinner, I sat next to a high school superintendent who used an AI algorithm to assist students in finding the things they cared about based on their passions.
Six: DALL-E makes tandem jumps look a little risky
I was scheduled to do a tandem parachute jump. So, for my AI talk, I asked DALL-E to draw me a “cartoon of guy doing a tandem jump at the US Air Force Academy.”
It came up with this picture.
I was already nervous about the jump. Seeing this picture made me hope I would be strapped in tighter than this.
Alas, bad weather canceled the jump.