A521.3.4.RB_MilliganSteven

I have learned a great deal about who I am and how I want to live my life through my parents and different places I’ve lived.  My father was in the Army when I was young, so we moved quite a bit.  After he got out, we continued to move around the United States every couple of years.  Because of this my family was always more important to me than friends.  I knew I would probably say goodbye to my friends in a year or two, but my family would stay by my side.  This was reality for me and has since shaped the way I live my life.  While friends will always be important, family will come number one to me.  When I was nineteen I moved out of my home for the first time.  This first move took me to the other side of the world and landed me in the Philippines.  I was serving a mission there for my church.  I was expected to learn the language, teach the people, provide service and work twelve hours a day, 7 days a week for two years.  We had part of our Monday for shopping, cleaning and getting things done around the house.

I’ll never forget my first day in the Philippines.  I was exhausted from jetlag, trying to find my way around the airport, to the bus terminal and on to the mission home we would be staying before I was to move on to Olongapo city.  My language skills were beyond subpar and I pretty much had no idea what I was getting myself into.  As we left the airport and got on a bus I witnessed a level of poverty that I had only seen on TV.  I saw families living in scrap wood and scrap metal homes built up under bridges.  Many of these homes would be swept away during heavy rain only to be rebuilt the next day.  I saw little children running in the streets with torn up and dirty clothes and busted up sandals.  Over time I would come to know and love these kids.  They would shape the way I would treat my own child.  We slowly made our way through the heavy traffic, thick pollution and broken, windy streets.  Over the next two years, I would learn the language, serve the people and due to my accident prone nature, spend quite a bit of time in the various. 

It has been ten years since I left that country.  Not a day goes by that I don’t look back and think about how grateful I am for the time I spent there. Having grown up in a first world country and dealing with first world problems, I was able to see, if only for a short period, what it is like for much of the rest of the world.  Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how grateful I am for the schooling I’ve had, the job I go to everyday and the family I can provide for.  I have friends still living in the Philippines, including my brother, that are dealing with poverty, malnutrition, flooding and pollution.  I constantly feel the desire to go back and do more work, or help where I can.  That experience changed my life for the better and will stick with me forever.  I see the world in a different way because of it.  Whenever I begin to feel sorry for myself, or think I can’t handle life, I look back and remember, there are people dealing with much more than I am.  It is my responsibility to do what I can to live life to the fullest and help others in the ways I can.
          Another experience that has stuck with me for a while that took place while I was in the Philippines changed the way I see other people and helped me to develop a need to understand other cultures and see things from others points of view.  In one of the areas I lived I had a friend that worked with myself and the other missionary I lived with at the time.  This person was a newly baptized member and had a desire to work with us daily.  We were great friends so I looked forward to this.  I was young and naïve and would sometimes tease my friend about things that went on in the Philippines.  By American standards, some of the things that go on there culturally are way off from what I was used to.  In some of the areas I lived chickens were sacrificed when a new home was built, umbilical cords from newborns were nailed to front doors and all types of animals, including dogs, were eaten for meals.  This of course was different and shocking to me for a while.  One day when I was teasing my friend about some of these things, he got really serious for a second, turned to me and said, “I won’t tease you about your culture if you stop teasing me about mine.”  This put me back for a second and surprised me.  I then realized what I had been doing in my teasing.  I had been pointing out the differences between us.  When my friend only wanted to do what we were doing and be more like us because he saw us as good people, I had been pointing out how different we were.  I quickly apologized, changed my attitude and we continued on as best friends.  This lesson stuck with me for a long time though.  My views and experiences in this world are extremely limited.  I truly only have a sample of one to go by.  Each person I come in contact with has a different experience, upbringing and view on the world than I do.  If I can seek to learn and understand the way they see things I will be less likely to judge others and jump to conclusions.  This lesson has helped me on countless occasions when I needed to think before I spoke or listen before I acted.  I will be forever grateful for my friend’s candid nature and for putting me in my place.

Both of these experience have affected how I treat people in the work environment.  Being in the military I work with many people from various backgrounds.  I do my best to understand where they come from, what they grew up with and try to see things from there point of view.  Increasing my empathy and understanding for others, I believe, will increase my ability to lead and take care of them.  I am not perfect at this, but I am constantly trying and working to improve myself.  

A521.2.3.RB_MilliganSteven

Adichie’s speech on storytelling shared some interesting insight into the world of storytelling that I have never thought of.  While I have been witness to manipulation in storytelling it is not often that you think of it as being a worldwide problem.  The way we view our world is through storytelling.  We develop a sense of understanding of the world around us through watching the news, reality TV shows, visiting websites and most likely through Facebook.  I often forget about the world outside my own 9 hour work day and four hours at home before I go to bed.  My world is so consumed with my own needs and responsibilities that I forget about the millions of stories that take place every minute of every day in other lives. 

Adichie’s speech reminded me that it is important to get out of the bubble I live in and see beyond my own street and neighborhood.  My youngest brother is living in the Philippines doing missionary work right now.  He sent pictures home of a nasty flood that took place in the village he is living in.  The water ran up to his knees and many of the small homes made of scrap wood and metal in the pictures were falling apart from the water damage and the storm that had hit before.  Had I not lived there myself 10 years prior I would have no clue about the daily joy, fun and games and the amazing culture that makes up the Filipino people.  Adichie mentions in her speech the idea of the single story.  She talks about how these stories show us only one side of a complex situation.  She has even fallen prey to this while learning about Mexicans in the U.S. and Mexico.  She began to picture them as the quintessential immigrant rather than the complex people they are. 

I have lived in many different places and met many different people.  Although I feel I have had many great experiences in my life that have given me a breadth of understanding, I am still incredibly limited.  The more we seek to understand, listen to the stories of the world around us and abandon our preconceptions the more good we can do in this world.  Rather than pitying those around us like Adichie did with her house boy Fide we should open our minds to all the things that make up the people that live in these different cultures. 

Chapter 3 of Denning’s text is called Motivating Others to Action.  The chapter discusses the Springboard story and what makes up this type of story.  A good springboard story is meant to inspire change in people.  I believe this is what Adichies story was meant to do.  She never mentioned physical actionable change like Jamie Oliver did in his speech.  Her change comes within the hearts and minds of people.  Her change comes from within.  I believe this can sometimes be even more powerful than other forms of change.  Through Adichie’s stories we are meant to look inside ourselves and examine the way we think, how we treat others and the way we see the world. 

Adichie’s story followed many of the main elements discussed in the text.  The story had a worthwhile message, a positive ending and mostly told from a single protagonist point of view.  Her experiences, realizations and inadequacies made up most of the story.  She talked about different places she lived, locations that things happened and the things she learned through those experiences.  Her ideas were clear and her most important lesson she wanted to share was repeated on several occasions in order to solidify her purpose in sharing her story.  She repeatedly mentions the idea of the single story, abandoning our preconceptions and seeking to understand and help others.

Adichie’s story was meant to open our eyes to the world of storytelling, damage it can do and the lives it can change.  One of my favorite quotes during her speech was this, “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity” (Adichie, 2009).

References

Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). Ted. Retrieved from ted.com: http://

www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript#t-119000

A521.1.4.RB_MilliganSteven

The Air Force is made up of a wide variety of organizations, jobs, purposes and people.  Because of that diversity it can be easy to feel a little lost in the crowd.  The marines states “every marine a rifleman” and in the army it’s “an army of one.”  The Air Force becomes a little trickier.  We are all airman, however our jobs, tasks and backgrounds are significantly different from one another.  One thing that is always drilled into every airman’s mind is that every airman is a wingman.  We hear countless stories of bad and good things happening either from being a good wingman or being a poor wingman.  Being a wingman means you never leave your buddy behind.  This goes for the battlefield, backshop, maintenance shop, flight line or even fueling a plane.  It is important that we always watch each other’s backs.  Often when we go on Temporary Duty assignments or deployments we are required to travel in groups of at least two or three.  At basic training and field training for officers the same is required.  When in a foreign country “general order number one” states that we must always be with a wingman when out on the town. 

At almost every single Commander’s Call meeting the idea of being a good wingman is brought up and shared with everyone.  They discuss stories of sexual assault or assault prevention, stories of airmen being attacked and rescued because of their wingmen are endless.  In the Airman’s Creed it states, “I am an American Airman. Wingman, Leader, Warrior.  I will never leave an Airman behind, I will never falter, and I will not fail.”  The idea of the wingman means that you will always take care of those around you.  You will support and defend them and stop them from making mistakes.  This idea comes from the flying formation of jets.  In a flying formation you have the lead and the wingman.  The wingman flies to the right and slightly behind the lead.  This wingman protects the lead by watching his back.

The stories we hear day in and day out about being a wingman are ingrained in the fiber of our culture.  When problems arise the first question asked is “where was the wingman?”  The support, closeness and sense of community that is derived from these stories is immense and helps every member of the Air Force to feel connected to one another and hopefully to have the desire to take care of each other no matter the job, squadron or background. 

I have sat in many Commander’s Calls and listened to stories of how being a good wingman can help others.  These stories are not always shared with extravagance or drama.  Military leaders are not necessarily ever trained to lead in this manner or through storytelling, however, they are still often effective.  In the book The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling Denning states that “value comes from the story itself and from its role as part of a larger whole” (Denning, 2011). We as airmen understand that these things could happen to any one of us and that each of these stories shared could happen to any one of us.  If you can’t trust the person next to you then you could possibly die.  This is just as true at home station as it is in the deployed environment. 

Most of the time, when I witness stories being shared in the Air Force I usually see two of the key elements of storytelling done well.  These are truth and preparation.  It is rare to see a leader that has a good grasp on his or her own style of storytelling or how to deliver this in an effective manner.  When you do meet someone with a good grasp of this it is that much better and easier to listen to that person.  Most of the time leaders in the Air Force implement truth and preparation well and lack style and delivery.  Because of the significance and our own connection to these stories the lack in style and delivery are not as detrimental to the effectiveness of the story. 

There have been a number of occasions I have been grateful to have a good wingman by my side and have thought back to the stories shared on this subject.  The idea of being a good wingman and taking care of each other is truly the core of what makes the Air Force great and gives me the desire to continue with my career and life in this great organization. 

References

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Fransisco: Josey-Bass.