Speech

ARC Awards Ceremony

Remarks as prepared for delivery.

A few days ago, John Hickey was speaking to a fairly large group of feds, contractors and industry reps at a “Wings of NextGen” conference. The focus of the conference was new technology and procedures, but John shifted the discussion just a bit.

He was talking about aviation’s early days, when the transition was made from bonfires to beacons. As you know, the criticism about NextGen is that people don’t know what it is, they can’t see it, and, well, they’re afraid of what they don’t know. John’s point was that the same thing happened when the bonfires were extinguished. You can imagine some barnstormer saying, “Where’s my bonfire? I can’t see a radio beacon, and even if I could, I don’t know what it is.”

Well, somehow, someway, we moved safely from bonfires to beacons. And I think the same will be true of NextGen. Despite all of the rhetoric, aviation really does need the next great thing, and that thing is NextGen.

Awards ceremonies like this remind us that “the next great thing” isn’t just for technology. We’re here today because we’re saluting excellence in and out of the workplace. But I think all of us need to take another step. I think we need to look at what these award winners have done and take away the gold nuggets.

We need to create a “NextGen for leadership.” This isn’t going to be hard. There’s excellence all around us. It’s easy to spot the bright and shining stars among us. But the extra step for us all is to see what they do, how they do it, and — most importantly — we need to copy it.

You know, when I look at the attitude surveys, I see numbers that I don’t like. Maybe it’s the work environment here, I’m not sure. It could be any number of things. But when I’m in the elevator here, or in the regional headquarters at Southwest and Western-Pacific, or at the Tech Center, or at Oshkosh or any other facility you can name, I see a different set of numbers. I encounter people excited by their mission. I see people enjoying their jobs and being proud of what they do and how they go about doing it.

There’s a disconnect there. That’s where the NextGen for leadership comes in. Leadership is not the sole property of the people at the top of the org chart. It happens at every level all the way through an organization. That’s what I’m looking for, and that’s what I think we need.

We need to capitalize on the bright and shining stars — like the people we see today. Take the good, and copy it. Set a path for excellence, and do everything in your power to get it.

We’re fortunate, especially at a time like this, to have great jobs and to have a mission that counts. The ARC awards ceremony is a reminder that we need to make the most of what we do and how we do it.

Thanks for inviting me. And more importantly, thanks for doing the jobs you do.