There are very few daily tasks where we control the entire process. Whether it is maintenance working all night fixing open write-ups, weather forecasters preparing the briefing, controllers processing the flight plan and sequencing air traffic, life support personnel ensuring essential equipment is ready for the aircrew, or the pilot preparing for the mission. Each individual in this process is supported by many others. Anyone who fails to accomplish their piece could delay or cancel the entire mission.

I want you all to look at the things each day that hamper your progress and give some critical thought to the underlying cause. If it’s something you can fix, fix it. If an Air Force Instruction prevents it, research it and understand why. Many of our instructions were written to apply to older technologies and processes.

If a new program or technique works better without sacrificing safety, then maybe that instruction needs to be changed. AFIs aren’t written in stone. They were written by human beings, and there is a process in place to amend them. Of course, this process takes time, but the end result could be a substantial increase in efficiency for generations of Airmen who will follow.

Not only could your idea be good for your job and the Air Force, you might be financially rewarded for it. The IDEA Program is the Air Force Innovative Development through Employee Awareness and is implemented through AFI 38-401. Anyone in the Air Force can submit an idea and if the idea is adopted that individual could receive 10 percent of the estimated savings to the Air Force up to $10,000. For more information, people can call their IDEA program manager.

In this era of ‘‘do more with less,” where many of our offices are undermanned, we must be more efficient. I challenge you to look for ways to save time. Doing this will probably mean an improved process, and we will all be the better for it.