View from the Labs

Lethality through Learning

By CAPT George Galdorisi, USN (Ret.)

Our Rotor Review editors have teed up a great topic that flowed naturally from our 2022 NHA Symposium. While most think of “learning” as something that happens in a schoolhouse, for our community this happens every day: in ready rooms, during flight briefings, in the line shacks, and just about everywhere.

Without getting all misty-eyed about it, we should celebrate this. The way we do things is so different from the way things work in other parts of government and in industry. There, you could likely have a boss you report to who is just your manager and does not impart any “learning” to you, except to ensure that you follow all the rules and regulations of the organization.

How different it is from the way we bring along a recent FRS graduate. I’m using an aviator example, but this happens throughout a squadron. That FRS grad learns every day as a copilot until he or she acquires enough flight hours to be considered for Helicopter Aircraft Commander. The learning continues until that designation is conferred, but it doesn’t stop there. Not by a long shot.

Even experienced squadron aviators must continue to learn and take NATOPS Checks, Instrument Checks and other learning experiences across the board. Then, there is the whole learning experience of pre-deployment workups where in addition to honing your aviation skills, you learn about the ship you are deployed aboard.

Look, none of this is designed to have us beat our chests and proclaim: “We are the best and everyone else has it wrong.” Far from it, that’s not the purpose. Rather, it is to encourage us to treat those evolutions that seem like a pain as learning opportunities, not as something that has to be endured to get to some point or finish line.

Okay, so I suspect you get all that, and thus far I’ve talked about individual learning. What about learning as a squadron? That is just as important – maybe more important – as what pilots, aircrewmen or maintenance or other specialists learn in their individual roles and responsibilities. If you – especially your commanding officers, executive officers, department heads and master, senior and chief petty officers want to help this process, I recommend the book: "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization" by Peter Senge.

I was exposed to this book years ago in graduate school and it has become a classic in the field. Here is just one editorial review:

Learning organizations are possible because, deep down, we are all learners. No one has to teach an infant to learn. In fact, no one has to teach infants anything. They are intrinsically inquisitive, masterful learners who learn to walk, speak, and pretty much run their households all on their own. Learning organizations are possible because not only is it our nature to learn but we love to learn. Most of us at one time or another have been part of a great team, a group of people who functioned together in an extraordinary way– who trusted one another, who complemented one another’s strengths and compensated for one another’s limitations, who had common goals that were larger than individual goals, and who produced extraordinary results. I have met many people who have experienced this sort of profound teamwork–in sports, or in the performing arts, or in business. Many say that they have spent much of their life looking for that experience again. What they experienced was a learning organization. The team that became great didn’t start off great–it learned how to produce extraordinary results.

Take the book for a test drive – you may find it helpful in upping your game in making your squadron a learning organization – and a more lethal one.