Commentary: Hints to help Airmen accept, embrace change Published July 8, 2008 By Col. Charles Mood 419th Mission Support Group HILL AIR FORCE BASE, UT -- It has been said that there is nothing as constant as change. Change is inevitable. It is the natural process of adapting to new and evolving situations or circumstances. Having said this, never in my Air Force career have I witnessed the rate of change that we are currently undergoing in today's Air Force! It is unprecedented. In Air Force Reserve Command we have a lot of change on the horizon. One of these changes is that we will be standing up several new Red Horse squadrons. Also, our communication squadrons will be facing a redistribution of missions and manning. Due to Base Realignment and Closure decisions, units will move from one part of the country to another. The command is standing up an F-22 unit in Alaska. We have a brand new commander of the Air Force Reserve, Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, and more and more Reserve units will become involved in the associate world where active duty, Air National Guard and Reserve units share the same aircraft. There is also the pending wing reorganization that will redistribute wing personnel and will leave the wing with an Operations Group, a Mission Support Group, and a Materiel Group. Taken in small doses, change is unperceivable or barely noticed. In large doses, it has the capability to overwhelm, cripple, or paralyze an organization simply because it is part of our human nature to resist change. How our Airmen respond to and embrace change is a leadership issue and it involves everyone from the first line supervisor to the wing commander. One of the key tools we as leaders and supervisors can use to deal with change is communication. The better our Airman are informed of changes, the better it is for them to understand the reasons for change and to gain their "buy in" and acceptance. To do this, leaders and supervisors must know the "big picture" of where our Air Force Reserve is going, what factors are driving the reasons for change, and the ability to explain it to our Airmen. Another factor in communicating change is to give our Airmen the ability to ask questions and to engage in dialog about change. This does not mean that the decision to go forward with change will be altered, but rather to help them understand. There will be times when you will not have all the answers. Under these circumstances you might want to bring in a subject matter expert to a commander's call so that the best information can be passed on to our Airmen. You can never go wrong with a well-informed and engaged force.