We were lucky to catch up with Jack Roosa recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jack, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re very focused on here – improving our ability to make decisions. Everyday, we’re faced with decisions that can impact the future of our careers, businesses, relationships and more and so one of the most impactful areas for personal development, in our view, is decision-making. Can you talk to us about how you developed or improved your decision-making skills?
I would say I developed my decision-making skills through experience, planning, and a pinch of “gut feel” – all while focused on the end objective. So let me talk about each one of those elements.
Experience is the best teacher. And the best way to get experience is to climb into the arena and start doing whatever it is you want to do. I found this to be true both in my military career and my business career. As experience builds, the ability to take lessons learned from previous experiences will help act as a guide when it comes to making a decision. When I was leading my business unit, I would frequently get confronted with a problem, that if not dealt with quickly and correctly, would ultimately cost the business money. When these situations presented themselves, I would harken back to some other similar situation that had similar elements and use what I learned in the past to make a present day decision.
Planning is not only understanding the path from A to B – but understanding the contingencies. Put another way, You should always be asking yourself, “what happens if [fill in the blank] happens.” We did this all the time while flying F-16’s in the US Air Force. Before each mission, we would sit down and go through a formal briefing of the entire mission — covering the objectives, formations, route of flight, etc. And as part of that briefing we would cover any contingencies, such as what happens if a formation member lost a radar, had an emergency, got separated from the flight, etc. That way, if something adverse did happen, we had a plan for it. I carried the same theme into my business activities. I would frequently ask the team about what is the plan if something didn’t turn out the way we thought it would, or what are we going to do if during negotiations, the other side makes a sudden move that we didn’t expect? As I faced major business decisions, I would often get the get the team together over a cup of coffee, and “white board” up all the contingencies that we could think of – no matter how remote the chances of occurrence may be.
“Gut feel” can be a key ingredient when it comes to making decisions as well… Sometimes there is no “book answer” or obvious choice. Many times, I found myself with no good options – and had to figure out the least bad answer. The problem with gut feel is that it is hard to explain sometimes—other than saying “I just feel this is decision we need to make.”
With all of that said, here is how I approach my decision-making process:
— Define the objective
— Determine how much time I have to “work the problem”
— Define my resources needed to meet the objective (money, people, time, etc.)
— What do I know now and do I have enough information to make a decision (If not, what information do I need?)
— Monetize the issue / problem
— Get input from the team/subject matter expert (if needed and time permits)
— Make the decision
— Monitor the outcome and be prepared to amend / reverse the decision if necessary
So let me put this together in an example that a faced a few years ago. I was leading a program that was developing a new product for the US Air Force. From the business side, we were behind schedule and our production rates were far less that we had envisioned. The internal business pressure was intense and the balance sheet per se was not looking good. We needed to ship 2 units to the Air Force on the very next business day in order to support a significant testing event. The first unit passed all contractually required test – and an additional “confidence test” that we put in place to ensure we had corrected a previous issue. As we were readying the transportation of the assets, we learned the second unit passed all contractually required testing but failed the “confidence test”. Bear in mind that this extra “confidence test” was not required by contract and not part of any official “go / no-go” requirement.
When I learned of the failure, I literally only had a few hours to make a decision to ship or hold the product at the factory—knowing full well that if we didn’t ship, the Air Force would have to cancel all the range activities and the required range support that had been scheduled for months. Put another way, if I didn’t ship the product, I knew I would not only by costing my company money and reputation, but that I would be causing a significant impact to hundreds of people in the Air Force as well.
I immediately convened an emergency meeting of my top Program Managers and Engineers – and we ran through the decision steps that I articulated above. We monetized the issue and “white boarded” up all of our thoughts and options. I knew from a contractual point of view that I could ship the units (as the confidence test was not a requirement) — but I also didn’t understand why the second unit had failed (and no one on the team could explain it)… Towards the end of the meeting, I polled each member on what option they would choose –ship or not ship. The voting was split right down the middle. I thanked the team and took one extra minute to think about it. After that minute, I told the team we are not going to ship and that we are going to hold both units. I knew that this decision was going to cost my program millions of dollars in losses — but my “gut” was telling me that this was the right thing to do. The downside of flying this type of unit in combat and then not having it work when needed was just too much — as someone’s life could be dependent upon a working unit.
As it turned out, it was the right decision. Although contractually compliant at the time of final testing, we had a latent defect issue buried deep inside one of the electrical components and over time, these units would have failed. We just got “lucky” that the second unit failed while undergoing the confidence test. Yes, it did cost my programs millions of dollars, but had we not stopped to fix the design at that point, we would have possibly faced a complete recall of all assets at some point in the future – costing us millions of dollars more.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’ll start by saying I’ve been very fortunate during my life. When I was in 2nd grade, I told my parents that I was going to grow-up and become a fighter pilot. When I was in 4th grade, I told my parents I was going to go the the United States Air Force Academy for college. And during grade school and high school, I was singularly focused on those two objectives. As it turned out, I did graduate from the US Air Force Academy and I spent 20 years in the US Air Force as an F-16 fighter pilot. During my USAF career, I logged over 80 combat missions, graduated from the US Fighter Weapons School (the Navy calls their version “Top Gun”), and completed my career as a Squadron Commander.
After 20 years in the Air Force, I was lucky enough to spend the next 19 years at a large Defense Contractor — and most of that time as a Program Director, responsible for the P&L and overall success of the Programs. I just retired from that company and I am now a consultant.
My life-long focus has been on leadership — especially in the business world. A great deal of my time in the business world was spent on identifying folks who I believed had the skill sets to be great business leaders — and then coaching, mentoring, and sponsoring these folks into positions best suited to both the individual and the company. As an aside, I found it amazing that many so called leaders in the business world were not leaders at all. And the rarest from of leadership is “servant leadership”. And what I mean by that is a leader who is focused on the overall success of the team and willing to put personal objectives and ambitions aside, in order for the team to be successful. I always strived to be that servant leader and would tell my team that “I worked for them” — and I meant it!
One of the interesting aspects I saw during my business experience as that management was willing to hire consultants and coaches for the higher levels of management (C-level, VP’s, etc.) — but not as willing to focus on the mid-level managers when it came to these types of services. And I contend that focusing on and training the folks who are leading at the mid-level, will bring more benefit (both tangible and intangible) to a company — and make that company a better place to work.
And lastly, I’m an optimist. I wake up everyday, feeling lucky to have another day on planet earth! Yes — life can be rough — but I have this personal saying: “Life is tough — but I’m tougher!” And when I tell myself that, I am never the victim and it helps me put things into perspective. I also celebrate every small “win”. We don’t often get these wins — so when they come along, let’s celebrate!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think my most important skills are inspirational leadership, optimism, and persistence. Optimism and persistence are two qualities that one can choose without any training, experience, or special skill sets — it’s just a matter of choice. Optimism is just always looking for the good in any situation, understanding the positive outcomes, and not letting the pessimist get to you. Persistence is a combination of knowing what you want and then working hard to get there… It’s bouncing off obstacles and finding other paths to the same destination. It’s understanding perspectives and having the ability to influence others along the way.
Inspirational leadership is something that takes work. It’s learning how people think and about human behavior. It’s “walking the production line” — getting to personally know the folks on the team and what is important to them. It’s asking “what can I do for you” — and actually mean it. It’s giving credit away and taking the heat when needed. I read countless business books, specifically biographies and autobiographies on CEO’s and other business leaders.
My advice for the younger folks that are starting their journey is to look at how each one of their leaders / managers act — and take notes on what works (what is good) and what doesn’t work. Assimilate the good aspects into your day-to-day activities and then when you become “the leader” — you already have the skill set in place. And along those lines, become a leader of your own position. Own your actions and results.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Wow. My parents did so many impactful things for me while I was growing up. But I have to say I think the best thing they did for me was to motivate me to dream big and work like hell to go achieve what ever it is I wanted to do in life. My parents taught me early that hard-work, focus, and persistence pays off. And my dad was my role model. He grew up a very poor kid in a tiny town in Oklahoma — and worked hard enough to become an Apollo 14 astronaut — traveling to the moon in 1971.
So let me leave it at this… If someone is willing to work hard, stay engaged, accept responsibility, and be willing to take risk — then there is no limit on how far they can go in life. That is the exact work ethic that my parents taught me.
Contact Info:
- Other: email: jack@crescentedgellc.com
Image Credits
Photos from Jack Roosa’s archive
