Page 21 - The Edge - Back to School 2018

SUMMER CONFERENCE AND EXPO

BY DON HARRIS

Ex-Fighter Pilot Charts a Path

Toward Flawless Execution

A former Air Force ghter pilot compared
the challenges he encountered to those faced
by school business o cials and said the key is
performing awless execution.
Brandon Williams, keynote speaker July
19 at AASBO’s Summer Conference and
Expo, said awless execution has four main
components – plan, brief, execute and debrief.
And he emphasized that simplicity beats
complexity every time.
Williams said his goal was to get AASBO
members prepared for one thing – “ awless
execution in a rapidly changing, complex and
sometimes hostile environment” as they deal
with budget considerations and other issues.
“Is that possible?” Williams asked, clearly
convinced that it is.
He described what it was like to be a ghter
pilot and how decisions must be made in a
matter of seconds. “ e rst rule as pilot is:
don’t hit the ground or anything attached to funding for schools. “It must be clear, measurable and achievable,”
it,” he said. he said.
Williams stressed the importance of mutual support, working Second, identify threats to the mission, which could
together as a team whether in the military, in the private sector be external or internal,
or in schools. It takes leadership, organization, team work such as indi erence, and
communication and discipline to pull it o . whether these threats are
Williams, who married a public school teacher, said he knows controllable or not.
rst-hand the challenges school o cials face. “You have to make CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
the right decision at just the right time,” he said, suggesting that
ghter pilots have similar challenges. “ ere is
a saying in combat aviation: If
you lose sight of
your mission,
you run the
risk of losing the
ght. If you lose sight, you
lose the ght. It’s the same for you.”
Despite recent gains, such as pay raises for Arizona
teachers, Williams said, “We still have a long way to
go. So, we plan. Flawless execution is not about perfect
execution, but the relentless pursuit of that awlessly
executed mission.”
Williams described his six steps of mission planning. First is to
determine the mission objective, which could be to increase

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