by John Duncan, FAA Flight Standards Service Director
The FAA gets a lot of questions on a wide range of issues. That’s why we decided to devote this issue of FAA Safety Briefing magazine to answering common questions and offering information on how to interact effectively with this agency.
What is the Future of Flight Standards?
I also want to tell you what the FAA Flight Standards Service is doing to improve the way we operate. Aviation is a highly dynamic industry, and we have to change how we do business in order to keep pace with how the industry operates nowadays. For several years now, we have been working to evolve our organizational culture. At the individual level, it means a focus on interdependence, critical thinking, and consistency. For managers, it means training in the competencies of change management, mutual learning, and the “coach approach” to leadership. I am also asking Flight Standards Service managers to frame projects in terms of “organizational intent” — a concise expression of purpose that keeps everyone focused on the desired outcome, regardless of how the means of achieving that outcome may change.
To align our structure with our evolving culture, we have just started to make a shift from today’s geography-based model to a function-based structure that will help us increase our agility, efficiency, and consistency.
What’s in it for me?
We are implementing these changes in a way that minimizes disruption to individual employees and stakeholders, so you may not see much difference on the outside. Our field offices (CMOs, FSDOs, and IFOs) will be in the same place with the same people providing the same services. But when we combine the concept of organizational intent with our cultural changes and a more efficient reporting structure, I’m confident you will see and, more importantly, experience their ability to give you better answers in a more timely way. Here’s how I framed that idea in a recent message to our employees:
You may be familiar with Improvisational Theatre, in which most or all of what is performed is interdependently developed without use of a prepared, written script. Improv is possible only when all participants do their part to keep the conversation going. So the first rule of improv is to respond to another actor’s comment by saying “Yes, AND ...” then adding information to advance the conversation.
The FAA can’t adopt the “Yes, AND” approach when we don’t agree with what a stakeholder has proposed. But we can frame “no” in a way that keeps the conversation going. We can say “No, BECAUSE ...”, and then provide specific information that will help the stakeholder develop alternative means of compliance. Please don’t say “no, because the guidance says ...” and leave it at that. You need to explain the rationale for the guidance. We aren’t playing “gotcha,” and it isn’t a test. We have to provide full information so stakeholders can develop options. Then we have to use critical thinking to evaluate those options. That’s what courtesy and professionalism look like in the agile, efficient, and consistent organization I want us to be.
I am sharing this message with you because I want you to know what you should expect from us, and to hold us accountable for behaving in accordance with the organizational intent of the Future of Flight Standards initiative.
What does the FAA expect from me?
So what else do we expect from you? The Jan/Feb 2016 FAA Safety Briefing detailed the FAA’s Compliance Philosophy, which focuses on finding problems before they result in an incident or accident, using the most appropriate tools to fix those problems, and monitoring to ensure that they stay fixed. The Future of Flight Standards initiative is helping us adapt our culture and behaviors to maximize the safety benefits of this approach.
We expect you to do the same, through recognition that compliance means operating according to both the letter and the spirit of the law, and through behaviors that demonstrate willingness and ability to do just that. If there is a deviation, we expect you to acknowledge responsibility, share information to help determine cause, and promptly take corrective action.
As with all cultural changes, these efforts will take continued effort from all of us. We’ll do our part, and I look to you to do yours.
Happy holidays!
Learn More
This article was originally published in the November/December 2016 issue of FAA Safety Briefing magazine.
