Conversations in Management: Good Will; Conversations in Management: Good Will; An Anonymous Air F

"Your first obligation is to assume good will." -An Anonymous Air Force Colonel

On New Year’s Day in 1997, the United States Air Force issued a small blue book that identified and explained the service’s core values—integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do. The three values were meant to serve as a shorthand reminder of the things that were required to get the mission done, to inspire one another in the face of adversity and to bind a globally dispersed force together. Though briefly stated, the core values contain a depth and complexity belied by their brevity. And their worth certainly isn’t restricted to the profession of arms—they are of intrinsic value to every individual and organization.

In particular, service before self is an issue leaders and managers struggle with on a daily basis. Cynics might suggest that the Air Force included this core value as a means of subduing troops who believe that all headquarters are staffed either with senior level monkeys randomly pecking at keyboards or Neanderthals still struggling to understand fire and the wheel. But service before self enjoins us to remember to have faith in the system. To recognize that while something may not make sense to you, that something is usually the result of good people, making the best possible decisions with the best information available. In other words, before jumping to a negative conclusion, you should first assume good will.

And that’s something we all need to do a whole lot more of.

From the Kennedy assassination, to Area 51, to why your co-worker called in sick, to why someone else got a merit raise, we all tend to assume the worst. We seem instinctively to believe that politics, scheming, favoritism, self-interest, careerism, revenge and retaliation can all be behind an action we don’t understand or of which we don’t approve. And we aren’t quiet about our paranoia either. We are quick to discuss it, gossip about, strategize over it and generally let it consume vast swaths of our day. We’re even adept at finding fault with positive gestures. An act of generosity or kindness from someone we suspect is taken to be an attempt to buy us off, smooth things over or cover things up.

We pay a steep price for this negativity. Let’s face it; it’s no fun to work in a place where you think you always have to look over your shoulder for fear you’ll be jumped. More than not fun, it’s downright stressful—and heaven knows; we have enough of that without adding this self-inflicted dose.

Here’s the truth—most folks operate with good faith in an effort to do the right thing. If you do that yourself, you’re demonstrating good will. If you respond to others by first assuming good will, you’ll have the basis for working through misunderstandings. So give the other person the benefit of the doubt, respect that they might have a point of view, that while different from yours, isn’t necessarily bad. Recognize that you might not be right and be willing to work toward a cooperative solution. Inevitably you’ll run across a rotten apple that you’ll have to deal with, but don’t make the mistake of assuming all apples are rotten. Try first assuming good will.