Strategic plan shared at lunch and learn

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Eric Peterson
  • 120th Airlift Wing
GREAT FALLS, Mont. --  120th Airlift Wing Commander Col. Lee Smith held his third in a series of "lunch and learn" events in the wing's dining facility during the regularly scheduled drill October 2.

The topic of his lunchtime talk was on the recently released two-year 120 AW Strategic Plan which outlines the wing's mission, vision, priorities, goals and objectives.

The 18-page bound and illustrated plan includes graphics, charts and photographs and addresses three identified wing priorities: succeed in our mission; develop Airmen to their maximum potential; and improve organizational excellence.

"So those (priorities) all feed to our mission and vision," Col. Smith said. "And then providing the foundation for our strategic plan are the four major graded areas of the Air Force Inspection System: executing the mission; improving the units; managing resources; and leading people."

Col. Smith said that everything that is done at the wing level is interrelated and affects everything we do.

"When you see this strategic plan you'll get an idea of not only what the wing is doing and how we're doing it, but most importantly the why we are doing it," Col. Smith said. "Everything we are doing is in pursuit of our goals and objectives."

Addressing the number one priority, Col. Smith said to succeed in our mission the wing must answer the calls of our nation and our state, anytime or anywhere.

"We can't focus entirely on getting ready for the AEF deployments because we always have the domestic ops mission set that we have to fill," Col. Smith said. "So we try to balance our focus on our mission sets, meeting all state and federal taskings."

Col. Smith said combining training with feedback is an important element to the second wing priority, developing Airmen to their maximum potential. He said most of the wing's tracked objectives are focused on this priority.

"I definitely believe from a leadership perspective, focusing on Airmen is 90 percent of the job," Col Smith said. "That's where a lot of our attention is on a day-to-day basis."

Col. Smith said the last wing priority, improving organization excellence, is a continual process improvement and focuses on improvements in execution, training, overall performance and improving as individuals.

"No matter how well we've done in the past-we've been very successful in the past-we always have to be better than what we were," Col. Smith said. "As each one individual Airman improves, so does the organization."

Col. Smith said the strategic plan is a living document and the results will be measured and reviewed on a quarterly basis by the wing's senior leaders.

120th AW members are encouraged to review the complete 120AW Strategic Plan. Copies of the plan are available upon request from squadron first sergeants.