Debido a que existe presencia de sales solubles, tanto en los suelos en donde se desarrollan los jardines y en la

“My freedom to gather information of daily occurrences in the unit was significantly different from that during my previ- ous duties. As a new commander, I found that people were less willing to come to me with bad news or problems until I could convince them that when I said ‘Open Door,’ I really meant it,”6

said Lt Col Marc Okyen, who commanded the 32d Student Squadron, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Here are a couple of tips he used to make this policy work:

1. Never shoot the messenger.

2. Never shift the blame when a problem comes to you, even when you have a million things going on.

3. Take time to talk to your people.

4. Concentrate on what they’re saying as if they are the most important people in the world.

An open door policy works well if used properly. Once your squadron personnel realize that you are willing to stop work and listen to them, they will begin to frequent your office. You have to be careful here—once you announce an open door pol- icy, you have to follow through and not put off anybody who may come with a problem or information. You could be open- ing a floodgate that once opened, can’t be closed. This will likely make it more difficult for you to finish paperwork or projects, but your people deserve your time. One commander

related how he worked it: if his door was physically open, it was “open”; if the door was physically closed, he purposely needed the time and privacy. He closed the door only when necessary.

Not all commanders shared the view of having an open door policy. They were afraid that this would allow anyone to have free reign of the commander’s time and would undoubtedly take them away from other more pressing tasks, keeping them chained to their desks—something they didn’t want to do.

One such commander established what she called a “screen door” policy. This commander empowered her secretary to act as a gatekeeper in this area. She did so by establishing a set of rules and boundaries for the secretary to use when unit per- sonnel had to see her right away. Common sense played a role here as well. The director of operations, flight commanders, squadron superintendent, first sergeant, and section com- mander, as established by her, always had immediate access. Said Lt Col Eileen Isola, “I emphasized that it was very impor- tant to me that I was able to give my folks my undivided atten- tion when they came to me. An ‘open door’ policy did not usually enable that—too many things would compete for a finite period. The ‘screen door’ approach ensured the secretary blocked time on my schedule for me to devote full-time atten- tion, and other resources, to them. Folks would always stop by, stick their head in the door to say hello, but the ‘screen door’ ap- proach helped them pause, take a breath, and see if they could address the issue with someone else other than the commander. It helped them to think and focus—and not just react.”7

Lt Col Jay Carlson thought the use of nonverbal (body lan- guage) cues was sometimes warranted. He said, “When I was re- ally busy and someone came to my door, I’d get up from my desk to meet the individual before they came too far into my office, and ask them directly, ‘What can I do for you?’ and intention- ally not offer them a seat. This allowed me to still keep the interest in them and the importance of their visit, but it also communicated nonverbally that you wanted them to get right to the point and that this wasn’t the best time for a social visit.” He also offered another option: “If the problem is not time critical, I’d tell them I’d like to discuss the matter in more detail at a later

time. Then I’d step out with them to my secretary to schedule an appointment, explaining that I’d like some undisturbed time to devote to the individual.”8 _{This reassures the troop that you}

value whatever they have to say and are taking the time to do it in a controlled manner, rather than “on the fly.”

Some commanders simply let their secretaries know that if their door was shut, it was shut for a reason. There will be times when you are performing counseling with one of your unit’s per- sonnel, conferring privately with your boss, taking a personal telephone call, or simply concentrating on critical work at hand and you don’t wish to be interrupted. Conversely, if your door were open, it would act as an invitation to anyone who wished a moment of your time to enter. Either way, it is sound advice for you to come up with some kind of game plan and equally important to announce your policy to the squadron.

E-mail

If there’s one thing that is for sure, it’s this: you may be able to manage portions of your squadron by way of E-mail, but you certainly can’t lead them by way of E-mail. One of the many tugs on your official life every day will be the use (or abuse) of electronic mail. Some commanders admitted that be- fore too long in their commands, E-mail consumed their time and resulted in their staying behind their desks more often than they needed to or wanted to. E-mail can be problematic— don’t let it be.

Controlling the E-mail Volume

Lt Col Randy Kee commanded the 36th Airlift Squadron (C-130) at Yakota AB, Japan. Shortly after he took command, he noticed that the volume of E-mail coming to his desk was overwhelming. He’d often get more than 100 E-mails a day, some of which required responses that were taking up a great deal of his time. “And more importantly, it was keeping me chained to my desk where I couldn’t get out to talk with folks. Something had to be done,”9_{commented Kee.}

One technique that worked well was allowing the secretary (or section commander/executive officer, if you have one) to

act as a buffer between the incoming E-mail and you. This can be done a number of ways. One is to create an E-mail account that catches all the incoming spam (i.e., Yakota: all) accounts and gives your secretary access to clear them out before they get forwarded to you. This essentially filters out all junk mail, relieving you of the timely task of opening and reading them before you hit the delete button. Another option is to create both an organizational account (e.g., 331SOS/CC) and a per- sonal account (e.g., [email protected]) for separating official mail from more personal mail. Your fellow communica- tions squadron commander can help you in this endeavor. Also, educate the members of your squadron on the proper uses of government E-mail. Discourage them from sending out specific pieces of information intended for a small audience to the entire squadron, group, or wing.

Lt Col Alan Hunt offered a piece of advice. “I used E-mail to my advantage in helping me store important information for record-keeping purposes. I simply built a separate folder for those issues that I thought might come up again some day, which worked great. I had a complementary filing system—one in my desk drawer and one on my desktop computer.”10

A technique for you as the E-mail writer to save some time is to create multiple mailing lists in your personal file so you don’t waste time hunting down everyone to send it to. For ex- ample, you may wish to have a separate account for just your flight commanders, Top-3, or senior leadership. This may save you precious minutes in what is an otherwise busy day.

“Good” E-mail

Good E-mail should be shared with everyone you deem nec- essary as soon as possible. A squadron-wide attaboy from you might be appropriate after winning the wing intramural sports event or for an announcement of an upcoming quarterly awards luncheon. It should not be used, however, as a means of congratulating a single shop or individual—this must be re- served for your personal visit to make such an announcement. It’s just as important that you don’t waste the time of your personnel in reading your E-mails as you’ve encouraged them not to do to you.

“Bad” E-mail

Bad E-mail is that which causes embarrassment or un- wanted attention on any particular shop or individual. This is in sharp contrast to good E-mail because it’s in poor taste to publicly bludgeon someone as a technique to reiterate your policy on any given subject. Remember the old adage, “Praise in public, critique in private.”

Notes

1. Lt Col Roderick Zastrow, interviewed by author, Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), Ala., 3 May 2002.

2. Lt Col Kurt Klausner, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 31 August 2001.

3. Lt Col Lori Montgomery, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 24 March 2002.

4. Lt Col Michael Prusz, telephone interview with author, Offutt AFB, Nebr., 27 February 2002.

5. Lt Col Anthony Rock, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 14 No- vember 2001.

6. Lt Col Marc Okyen, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 22 March 2002.

7. Lt Col Eileen Isola, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 1 March 2002.

8. Lt Col Jay Carlson, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 27 Feb- ruary 2002.

9. Lt Col Randy Kee, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 28 August 2001.

10. Lt Col Alan Hunt, interviewed by author, Maxwell AFB, Ala., 20 Sep- tember 2001.