Roger ailes our reporting . The Air Force has announced the creation of a new Information Operations Technical training school . First plan simply must arm our airmen to outbreak . Outperform our partner out , innovate any potential adversary . Air Force Basic military training has an updated curriculum with the new focus on readiness and lethality . The First Command , the Air Force starts here in this episode of the Air Force starts her podcast . We explore the Airman's foundational competencies . Hello everybody and welcome to the Air Force starts your podcast . I'm the host for this professional development podcast that sergeant keith James from the 80 TC public affairs team . As you know , this podcast is dedicated to bringing total Force Big airmen tips tricks and lessons learned from the recruiting training and educational world . And this episode we're discussing an initiative that has ripple effects across the Air Force as you all may know . A . T . C . Is dual had it as the fourth development Man Force . Development is just the deliberate process of preparing airmen . Air Force wide with the required competencies to meet the challenges of the 21st century , the Air Force has identified 24 foundational competencies for all airmen as part of a systematic competency based approach to develop the force . These foundational competencies are universally applicable to all Emma who are categorized into four groups , developing self developing others , developing ideas and developing organizations . Foundational competencies that have been grouped under development . Others are leadership teamwork , develops people , service mindset and fosters inclusion . Let's get into what that means to every Airman big a Across the Air Force joining us to discuss the developing others group for the Air Force is foundational competencies are Vincent Villanueva and Chief Master Sergeant Curtis Magee . Thank you both for joining us today . Before we get started , please tell our lessons a little bit about yourselves and your position . Thank you for and James , I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you and our teammates listening in . Uh just a little bit about myself . I'm a first and foremost . I'm a father of three months in All under under six years of age , so I'm still surprised to have a decent set of hair . I'm a husband , Texan and airman who has been serving a great air force for 24 years currently I probably serve as the clear film manager for biomedical engineering . Air force medical readiness agency , Falls church Virginia . That's great . Hard act to follow Chief McGee . Um So yeah , my name is Vincent Villanueva . Um Head work at headquarters A . T . C . A three J A three J . O . Specifically . Uh I am the occupational competences branch chief um and so pretty much I kind of worked with career for leaders out there to help them to identify , build and integrate occupational competences across their career field . Um So very rewarding . Um and it's amazing work to be able to do stuff like that . Uh father of 22 beautiful , amazing kids , mets fans . So we're on a whole city trek to knock out every ballpark in America . We're on number 17 will get to all 30 in a few years . So if you ever see me on the road or talk to me that we can talk baseball all day long . So awesome . Thank you . Mr Villanueva . How is a competency defined uh competencies are defined as a combination of knowledge , skills abilities and other characteristics uh that that kind of manifest and specific displayed behaviours uh that you really kind of need in order to be successful to you know to do the job . Uh So you know exactly what does that mean ? Great . So it's a combination of knowledge , skills , abilities and characteristics needed to do the job effectively . Um You know when I got to be able to kind of put that in practical terms I think of somebody like within my career from my job series . So I'm an instructional designer . Right ? And so uh you know , people like us , you know we work at school houses work with curriculum and so you know I think of you know with with one of our competencies , maybe something like analysis and maybe a behavior that I might have is the ability to , you know or to be able to participate in a in a in a working group in order to analyze training requirements . Right ? That's the behavior that I want to get after . So what exactly does that mean ? All right . And this is where the beauty of what competencies right at the heart of what competencies are that really kind of makes things very fascinating . If I start taking that behavior start breaking it apart . What I start doing is identifying that knowledge skills abilities and other characteristics right ? I talk about like hey in order for me to participate in this planning meeting in order to analyze training requirements . What is it that I need to do ? Well I have to have the knowledge right ? I've got to have an I . S . D . Background , instructional systems design background . I gotta I gotta have the skill set to be able to do task analysis , learning analysis right ? But then there's other things right Have you got to have the ability to think critically or to be able to analyze ? Um But then there's also the other characteristics right ? The things like teamwork , interpersonal relationships , communication you know it's those kind of things and that's what's amazing about confidence . It's a way for us a vehicle for us to be able to identify all the things from a holistic perspective all the things that we need in order to truly be able to develop people to the best of their abilities to the best that they can be . But also to to show them what that roadmap for successes . So at the end of the day that's kind of the biggest thing that we have to kind of just keep focusing on and keep thinking about once again behaviors and we're able to kind of take apart those behaviors to identify each of those important components in order to be able to develop people appropriately . Why are foundational competences important for today's airmen ? Well the foundation accomplices are insanely important because at the end of the day these are the competencies that the Air Force is saying we value right . Um these have been validated , they've been , you know , we have sent out surveys to the masses across the air force and at the end of the day these were the competencies that said , hey if you excel in these , if you really kind of put your mind and your efforts and your energy to to honing in on increasing and developing these specific competencies that you will be a better human being , that you will be a better agreement that you will be a better father , a better son , right ? Uh and that's kind of what at the end of the day , what's really important about these competencies is that we can help people to kind of be able to develop themselves and do better . And so we hear our senior leaders talking about , we need to build flex flexible airmen , we need to be working in a place that's very agile minded uh growth mindset , we've got to get to a place where you've got to be super flexible , right because we don't know what's coming these foundational companies help you get you there a little bit quicker , make things a little bit easier , right ? Because you're able to kind of , you know , turn on a dime pretty quickly uh and be able to kind of get the mission done as as you see fit . What can leadership do to ensure these competencies are essential to our airman's life and career within the Air Force . That's a great question . I've I've actually have sat down with leaders in the past and I've talked about things like this and and you know , I'll tell you you know when people are always looking at their leaders right and they know what their leaders are prioritizing um they know what the leaders are saying and they also know what the leaders are doing um At the end of the day it's really really important that our leaders are not just talking about foundational competencies but they're taking a minute to really study what those competencies are right . As a leader , you should be leading that organization right ? It should be everyone's goal to really kind of helped develop that organization , turn it into a true learning organization so that people can be the best that they are right um by by studying as a leader . When you're looking at these foundational compensate you start studying these foundational companies as yourself . What is it that I'm trying to build in my organization , What is it that we need and the people that we have here uh and I just kind of just glossing over the terms , but really kind of looking at those behaviors and talking about Yeah these are the behaviors that I'm trying to , trying to exit in my in my folks , this is the stuff that I want to be able to see . And I think once you start having those meaningful in depth kind of conversations , I think that's where people start taking notice , people start looking and they like planet . That was really interesting how they said these things and they kind of start wanting to go through and start digging into those specific behaviors and then they once again are able to kind of develop rolled back for themselves in order for them to be successful chief you may have wanted to a tool like this throughout your career . How is this a game changer for today's airmen in today's supervisor ? Good question for answer the question . I have to miss that . I always get pumped up with mr vanilla filling the wave was talking about the competencies . Um We really have some great things going on a pc and all the things that they're working on . So first let me start by saying that competent companies are not are not new . Right ? A Little Brown Book 36 26 18 . Previously referred to a list of core capabilities which were labeled institutional competencies . However , the companies have been revised and are now referred to as foundational competencies . This is a game changer for today's airman in today's supervisors for multiple reasons . First because the Air Force has created a roadmap for success by defining the foundational competency . So knowledge skills , abilities , behaviors and other characteristics from the basic level all the way to experts . Additionally , uh the Air Force's aggressively working to integrate these competencies into the development of our force . This includes providing support tools and by vector to help our airmen assess the level of competencies hold themselves in their image accountable and also access training opportunities for further development . I truly see this game changer because it's better equipped both the chairman and supervisors to grow and develop their men on the job every day . I think it will take a I also think it will take a little weight off the shoulders of traditional puny to grow in any particular competency which by doing so bye bye implementing the compasses and the tools at the lowest level . I believe it will lead to more enhanced ineffective teeny opportunities as well . How do competencies later ? Foundation for developing the airmen we need or create an airman who can out think and out perform any adversary and air space and cyberspace star James . There are many competences . I can point out here but let me focus on one that's where would you stand out to me when we talk about outperforming any adversary which for me includes analytical and creative thinking and fostering innovation . These competencies , they don't want to contribute to that continuous improvement and innovation . So ultimately we're an air force of problem solvers . It's in our D . N . A . But it's up to us to create the climate and still the right culture . And in order to instill the right culture , we must deliberately develop our airmen and enable them to deliver on these competencies in order to compete disturbed and wind and that high fight . How can leadership teamwork develops people , service mindset and fosters inclusion be measured . Another good questions are jane . Uh Some of these conferences conferences there were a bit squishy right in order to measure these competencies . I believe what you need is you need engage supervision who is continuously observing their behaviors and outcomes of their actions . Yeah take for example leadership property and I will say I probably picked one of the easier ones measure here . Uh One of the observable behaviours include motivating and inspiring the team toward mission success . In order for one to observe an after motivate , inspired you need to be present . You need a break away from your desk or office on a routine basis , instant time on the line with those measurements . Additionally , good news as well as the agency has built competency rubrics to help folks airman and supervisors set and measure those competencies . Yeah . Chief . You know , you bring up some really good points and so one of the other things that you know we're talking with people with competencies . You know it's that you're right , it's that supervisory engagement that's gonna be important is going to be key . But we also say you know one of the many things about having these competencies is that this this could be a very self assessment type of thing as well , right ? Where you know I don't have to wait on my supervisor to take action . I can start doing the development myself right looking for opportunities , I have a road map , I can look at the competencies , I can look at those behaviors and yeah for the most part hopefully you know judge of character on yourself and be able to kind of truly self assess engage where you know where you are . Uh and then once again put yourself in situations where you can help to display and get experience on those specific things . So it's kind of it's kind of I think a two fold , it kind of approach where yeah the supervisor bear some responsibility at the same time for those firemen out there . Um You know you can kind of be able to take something like this and be able to develop yourself as well . Do you see foundation of competences helping to retain airman . If any company you worked for committed the time money and resources to help you gain competencies to better develop yourself whether it's communication , decision making , are you living with gold to better develop others with teamwork leadership and better developed ideas where you no matter your rank or position are empowered to create change and a couple of days I believe , establishing vote the foundational and also occupational competencies by crystals , I believe this may actually also help with Air Force was retaining Airman by number one , improving our ability to select government we need upon entry and also retaining so that we place them in the right job . And then secondly I would say also place the airmen uh this will help us to place Germans and right key developmental and leadership position at the right time in their career , not only continue their growth but also to set them in the Air Force up for success . So what did you leave a pause there , right , because when I heard that question right chief , like I feel like what you said is 100% right , right . It's like man , you know , imagine if you're able to give be given that the road map of what that looks like , then given the tools to go to get after it , like why wouldn't you want to continue staying in that organization ? But as I kept thinking about that question and just listening , I kept thinking like what we're going to be building some amazing people right now , we're talking about like really kind of building some high quality , top performing , amazing , amazing people across the board and so then I started thinking well they're going to be valued right right now if you look at what , what what industry is doing , what education is doing , look at what job employers right now , right ? If you're applying for a job , If you're going to indeed all these other kind of things . One of the top thing , they're not even looking for technical skills , right ? The big thing that they're valuing that they're looking for are kind of these 21st century skills are the things that you will see in the foundational competencies . It's highly valued , highly desired kind of skill set people that can kind of display these these these behaviors at a high level . And so it's one of those things where yeah , it's we'll have great airmen , we hope they stay , right , but we know they're going to be great and we know that at the end of the day they might get , you know , they might get desire , you know , people may want to desire and pull them uh you know , so they can do great things in other places . But but I think at the end of the day , maybe we just got to think of a word or one team , one America in a way as to how does that sound ? Right ? And at the end of the day that we know that we're gonna be building great airmen that we're going to continue their their greatness wherever they go and leave that footprint uh that Air force footprint wherever wherever they land . So why is buying into foundation accomplices ? So critical in growing better Emma today and for the efforts in the future today , you know , today Wolf rapidly changing , right ? Our adversaries and threats are changing and involving faster than ever . Technology is constantly changing and improving . So in order to operate in today and tomorrow's fascinating environment , uh you know , we are expecting our enemies to be multi capable , right ? We expect them to be ready for anything . And I believe to do this effectively , we need a standard set of foundational competencies to be able to grow the effective problem solvers , communicators and leaders to the Air force needs . Yeah , I think , you know , when I look at these , I look at especially the , you know , the competencies , um you know , for this podcast , you know , we're talking about developing others and I know you always prior enlisted and I remember back in the day , you know , you know , the big push and it's still there , right ? You know about being a wingman and and you know , having , you know , having each other six . And so when you start looking at these these foundational conferences that get into developing others , it's it's it's yeah , we've gotta , we've gotta be able to value these this right ? I think anyone that takes just a few minutes to look at these can definitely look at look at each of these , look at the behavior and say , I I can see why they are important , I can see why they're critical . Uh it's just I think the beauty about it is that we're able to kind of put it into a manner where you can read about it . You know , I think all too often , especially with supervisors , leaders , mentors or with one another with peers , you know , sometimes we can tell somebody is amazing or they're they're a top performer , but you start asking , but what exactly is it that makes them like that ? I don't know . It's it's a feeling I have in my gut right . Greatness . Can see greatness . You hear these kind of weird , clever kind of things in the offices sometimes , but when you start looking at these specific competencies that they're they're pretty neat to be able to kind of be like , well this is what this is what it means to be a top performer across multiple levels , right ? And how you continue to develop yourself and develop the others around you uh to ensure that they can be , they can be great , right ? So that the michigan get done and done effectively , right . But that we're also taking care of each other at the end of the day to get their mission done . What outcome do you see coming from airman learning and utilizing these foundational compasses , The outcome to see is a stronger , more resilient , competent and happier force . So for me , I can see airmen that are just better prepared , right ? That they're ready for the next challenge . Um You know , I think of just my personal experience , um you know , think about the massive reorganization that happened here in A . T . C . Um You know , there are people that that record and hey , I was doing one job one day and had to do another job the next day and some people did really well , right . They were successful . They were able to kind of , you know , to pick themselves up and hit the ground running and some new initiatives to get after force development and doing some great things for the air force and some others had a difficult time . Right ? And so those individuals had to be developed or maybe , you know , they were able to find something that was maybe better suited to their strong suits . Uh But those are the things where I think when you're focusing on the foundation of confidence , you get airmen that kind of , they run towards those challenges . They kind of embrace those types of those , those tough kind of things that exist out there and they want to take those on as much as they can at the end of the day . And and the other thing I would also say about these competencies is because we're talking about these behaviors , this kind of gets after the big y right ? Um as an education person , you always always kind of go back to like adult learning , right ? And as an adult learners , we think one of the very first thing that we , we probably ask ourselves whenever we're learning anything is is the y right ? The big y why is it that I'm doing what I'm doing , right ? And so the beauty about these competencies and all competencies is that it can help you tie into the big picture , it can help you can actually kind of read through these things and understand what that y is on , why this is needed on what what kind of impact this actually makes uh to the mission uh and you know and and where you fit into everything . Okay then . Yeah , I think those are really , you know , such good point to be made . And really if we are leveraging the competencies all the way from the individual to the supervisor , um all the way up to the critical manager and through our talent management systems , these competencies can be very powerful um to be able to enable our airmen and again provide you know , make them stronger , make them more resilient , actually be happier or putting them in the right position to be successful . These companies are now on my vector . What can airman do here and why should they ? So on on my vector , uh The airmen can actually go into my vector right now and take a self assessment and if they feel like super , okay , right , they could even do a 3 60 until sometimes I think some people like the 3 60 but other people they might not be prepared for the 3 60 what the results are . But you can do either or uh and be able to kind of get a really honest assessment of where you are against the airman's foundational competencies . And so the great thing about it , we don't just kind of go through as you know from a team standpoint . We don't just go through . It's like , hey here are the foundational compasses . These are the areas that you're strong and these are the areas where you kind of need some improvement . Good luck with that . We've actually gone through and put tools on there . So you can actually go in and and create like an individual development plan , which is pretty amazing . So you can actually kind of go through and start looking at how am I going to develop myself and then you can actually look at and deal with resources . So those resources that's training , there's videos , there's courses , a ton of things that you can actually gonna go through and news in order to help you make those improvements that you need to kind of make Uh by , you know , whether that from the results of the self assessment or from the results of the 360 that you have . Uh and once again , this is something you can kind of do continuously throughout your career as you're kind of going through and looking at expounding uh doing a better job at these foundational competencies . And I'd also encourage this is a great opportunity as uh only for the ambulance , they look at these compensate on my victory . But also encouraged supervisors section Chief Spy Chief two as they look at this um think about and find opportunities on the job for those airmen to grow their found educational competencies . So what's surprising is that um is that there's many things that we do on a daily basis in our regular day jobs that will help score that . So that's what I would encourage those leaders . Take a look at that and see how they can implement it on their daily day to day routine operations . And it's interesting you said that . So one of the shout outs I want to give out , there is to an Air Force Handbook 36 26 43 . Uh It's a it's the Air Force had Air Force mentoring program . Uh And I love that document . Um Just because when you kind of read through it , the word competencies is listed throughout the entire document . And I'm not just saying that from a selfish perspective because I'm just in this world of competencies . But I say that because it does a great job , a really good job of giving supervisors and leaders a roadmap right ? Like so you can listen to podcasts all day long , right ? You can listen , you can give me a call if you want shoot me an email and we can we can talk about competencies . You know , hearing about it is one thing , but at the end of the day it's about what you gonna do with it . And so that handbook does a pretty good job of showing you ways that you can take those those competencies from the foundational side , from the occupational side and how you can apply on a day to day kind of a manner with the airman around you as you mentor airmen um that are around you . So I kind of want to put a shout out to that specific handbook , it's pretty neat but at the end of the day like I said it's it's we gotta be able to kind of put this stuff into action and be able to kind of show people that we can definitely do this uh if we're doing it together . And lastly , do you all have any final thoughts ? Like I said , those foundational companies are out there . Um It's important that people really kind of take a few minutes , it doesn't take long to do the self assessment . Uh Being able to kind of go through and engage . I did that um You know there were there were a few things where I'm kind of like I need an improvement , something that I'm like yeah I definitely over to do that but the cool thing is that there were resources in there and I I didn't I don't usually have the time right ? It's just we're so busy life happens right , dealing with family life , dealing with work life traveling , doing all these things , it was kind of neat to be able to go into my vector , take the self assessment . I kind of , I learned a little bit about myself because I kind of had an idea of where my gaps were , where my issues are and where I need to make improvements but it was great to be able to find a one stop shop of where I can kind of go through and get resources . And so for somebody who has a very difficult time finding time to me that was actually quite refreshing to be able to do something like that . Um Chief , how about you ? Yeah . Thanks honey I believe wanted so one thing I want to mention I believe uh one of the best ways to one of the best ways to best capture and integrate foundational competencies into the day to day operation by working with E . T . C . To develop your career field specific occupational competency model . So for my fellow crystal managers out there if you have not completely already I will tell you the hc occupational conferences . Branch does a fantastic job of adjusting crystal's been tying those foundational competences to occupational competencies . Now why ? I think this is important because I think it's important that it because it provides a helpful tool to determine what on the job activity and chairman kim accomplished that will help them off to grow in their foundational competencies . This helps me make the developmental process more natural in the more ways that we , the more that we can find ways to nationally grow our airman's foundational competencies , the more effective we will be in developing the M and we need these assessment tools help airmen or their supervisors and determining if they have met expected behaviours associated with a specific competency . Additionally , they are designed to give airmen a clear description of what's expected of them as a member of the profession of arms with ever changing operational environments . The Department of the Air Force is moving toward a more competitive approach to developing airmen that links training , education and experiences to develop airmen's competences to out think and Apple former adversaries , thank you both for your time and thank you for listening . Be sure to check us out on my tractor to take the self assessment to determine your level of proficiency at least offices and learn how to develop them further . I am satisfied to keep James out here