Strive for excellence; limit mediocrity Published July 18, 2006 By Col. Steve Arquiette 60th AMW commander TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Noted author Charles Knight once said, "Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises." Many people in this world work at their jobs and accept mediocrity. You can all probably think of episodes of poor costumer service, shoddy workmanship, late delivery of promised goods, and more. Corporations lose profitability when workers that put in the minimum effort, cut corners to speed through a task or to turn in a project putting in only 50 percent effort. We live and work in an Air Force that cannot accept mediocrity as doing so not only hurts our fellow Airmen professionally or physically, our sister services and allies lives often depend on timely arrival of precocious cargo or fuel in the AOR. We must all be the best Airmen we can be every day! One of the Air Force's core values - Excellence in all you do - stresses this. The number of AMC and Air Force level awards that Team Travis receives every year is a testament of our outstanding track record of excellence. However, striving for excellence is not just reserved for competitions; it is a daily requirement for Air Force duty. This is our norm. Every day I see people who strive for excellence by taking pride in themselves and their work, but I also still see a few that need a little boost. You have a responsibility to the entire base to do the best you can in all aspects of your job. As I'm meeting Airmen around the base I'm seeing shining examples of people who show great pride in what they do. They aren't settling for mediocrity, and quite frankly, they're pretty darn awesome. Staff Sgt. Kateri Warner from the 60th Contracting Squadron was recently lauded for taking a simple tasking of being a sponsor and stepping it up to the next level. She didn't settle for the standard welcome letter and making reservations at lodging. She sent her new Airmen chocolate-covered strawberries as a welcome gift then whisked the new Travis teammate off to a professional baseball game. What a great start for a Travis Team member! With the recent personnel and funding cuts we are facing, in conjunction with our high ops tempo, time for work and play has become a precious commodity for all of us. This is not an excuse for cutting corners or excepting mediocrity. We must all step up, leverage our leadership skills and identify processes that are redundant, not value-added or are simply just not smart. Look at the processes you use everyday, both professionally and personally, and think "How can I work smarter, not harder?" Ask your friends at other bases to see how they're doing things better; there are lots of great ideas we can borrow and implement here to make our processes better and more efficient. When I speak to Airmen around the wing, I often hear great ideas, like that of Sergeant Warner, to make Travis a better place to live and work. Now is the time to implement those ideas. If you strive for mediocrity, you are doomed to achieve it. Please join me in setting the bar high and in focusing on excellence. You will see results in the work that you do and in the contribution you make to Team Travis and our Air Force as we fight the important Global War on Terrorism. Don't fear change; fear mediocrity. BE PROUD! BE SAFE!!