Commentary-A Little Understanding Published June 1, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- In business, one of the most important workplace dynamics for fostering productivity is alignment. What that means is everyone in the office is focused on the same goal, and committed to working together to achieve it. It means everyone's on the same page. The wingman concept is similar. It's about watching out for each other in an environment that can be stressful, both in the interests of taking care of people and maintaining a healthy force that can keep its eye on the ball. But taking care of people isn't a simple or easy job. One example is a unit morale day where a shop might close down to go to lunch, or see a movie. So what about the Airman who doesn't want any part of it? The one who would rather just stay at work? You don't abolish morale days because of that individual. And you don't excuse them either, because then you'd have to excuse anyone who didn't feel like going, and more people would bail. You have to compel him to go, probably with an order. But where do you stand when your morale day is actually lowering someone's morale? The military values homogamy very highly. We dress alike, and we're all taught more or less the same things. In a perfect world, we would present a perfectly united front. Unity is strength, after all. But every organization is made up of individuals. Military culture demands a certain measure of conformity, but at the end of the day everyone has different values and interests. Yet that's not an easy concept for everyone. Who doesn't like movies? Who wouldn't want to get out of work and go to lunch? Well, difficult as it might be to believe, some Airmen don't. In the case of a morale day, it's not a big deal. If going to lunch is the worst thing that's going on in your life, you're doing okay - but the broader adversity that outliers face in the military environment is still serious and immediate. The wingman concept is about building and protecting a strong team, but it's also about knowing the people around you and appreciating the differences between individuals. This is the military; it's not daycare, but you still have to be careful when you're pounding square pegs into round holes, because you have to be careful not to pound too hard. That's when things get broken, and at the end of the day, that's a lot more costly than a little understanding might have been. As a supervisor or commander, what would you do to motivate and inspire this Airman?