15 Jan 2022
As a graduate of the United States Air Force Weapons School (USAFWS), a 6-month academic and performance-based course performed at the graduate-level of both areas, I was instructed on our patch night about the rule of thirds. Before we get into that, let's start with some background though.
First, from the official USAF website for the USAFWS:
The U.S. Air Force Weapons School trains tactical experts and leaders to control and exploit air, space and cyber on behalf of the joint force.
Every six months, the school graduates approximately 100 Weapons Officers and enlisted specialists who are tactical system experts, weapons instructors and leaders of Airmen.
The course I attended was class 15B from July – December of 2015. Towards the end of the course, actually the Thursday prior to the graduation night, there is a ceremony called “Patch Night”. On this night, new “patches” [the term used for graduates of the course] are educated on the history of what their squadron has accomplished and what those graduates have done in the USAF. They are also given the “orders” going forth as a brand new “patch” in the USAF.
All of that for this little piece of cloth pictured below:
Now, some of you might be wondering what all of this pomp and circumstance is for. What is it that these “graduates” do after this course? Well, that is where this rule of thirds starts to come into light.
You see, each graduate of this course is labeled “an instructor of instructors”. That is, they are expected to go back to their individual units and lead their instructor corps to ensure they institute the three core traits of a weapons officer which are: humility, approachability, and credibility. We can hit on these core traits in a later post. However, as the lead instructor in their unit, they are also expected to be the tactical expert that can get an entire unit ready to go to war and perform their mission to the upmost proficiency. It is a lot of weight on a brand-new graduate of this course, but one that each graduate takes in full stride.
So, what about this rule of thirds John? Well, the rule of thirds was a philosophy taught to us by our Squadron commander on my patch night. It was a philosophy on dealing with members of your unit as a lead instructor. As you might guess, there are going to be a lot of jealous guys, there may even be guys that want to challenge you, and there may even be guys that are just in complete awe of you for graduating this course. But that isn’t the important part. The important part, as it was relayed to us, is making sure you understand that you can break your entire squadron down into thirds… here is a paraphrase of what was instructed to us:
"Men, with this patch you are going to have a lot of weight on your shoulders. Your commander is going to look to you as his right-hand man for all thing tactics and will fully expect you to lead his Squadron into combat and ensure mission success each and every day. However, there will also be guys who don’t trust you at all and your constant struggle will be trying to navigate these various personality types within your unit. So, I want to give you guys the rule of thirds to walk out of here thinking about tonight. The rule of thirds states that your entire unit can be broken down into three separate groups and how they will treat you.
The first third will follow everything you say no matter what. They will not question you and they will be your best advocates. Be careful with them, they are a direct reflection of your leadership and instructorship.
The last third are the guys who will challenge you. They are going to discredit everything you do and say. We don’t know why this third is the way they are, but they can be like a cancer in your unit.
Finally, the middle third are your most influential group. They can easily be swayed to the bottom third just as easy as they can be swayed to the top third.
Now, you all may be asking yourselves why you need this rule of thirds and that comes to your time devotion to each group. Your time as the patch [lead instructor] is valuable. You will not have enough time in the day for each and every member of your unit, so ensure you choose wisely where you spend your time."
That was quite the paraphrase but that is basically what we were left with. Now each class gets some version of this philosophy on their patch night, I am sure. It is from the personal experience of the instructor passing on this knowledge that makes it useful or not useful though. We were left with what was above though. Now, in full transparency, it could have been an alcohol cloud that made me forget the full intent of the instruction that was being given that night, but the rule of thirds stuck with me as far as identifying the groups of people in your individual unit.
Over time, here is what I learned about the rule of thirds that I think is the most important piece for any leader of instructors or teachers:
Your time is valuable, choose where you spend it wisely.
When partitioning your time with your instructors I use the following percentage breakdown: 30-10-60.
The idea here is that I do not need to spend hardly any of my time with the middle third.
My top third, who will follow me blindly, will take care of my middle third and they will use all of the tools I have taught them to bring that middle third to the top third.
I then dedicate a lot of my personal time with the bottom third.
This is to get a pulse on why they are there at all. It helps me to understand what I am doing with my instructional kit that may be off putting or wrong. It helps me to understand the issues deep within the unit that maybe I need to concentrate on further.
What is the purpose of this type of thinking in your instructional toolkit? Well, understanding your audience is a huge part of instruction. In addition to understanding your audience you have to constantly evaluate your methodology to ensure that a transfer of knowledge is actually occurring within your organization.
With me, dedicating time to my bottom third, has allowed me to understand issues that I may not be able to see if I would have just stuck with the top third.
I also have seen a reduction in the “good ol’ boy” culture that I have seen develop in other units if you only stick with your top third. This can cause further resentment within your squadron. By speaking with and spending time with your bottom third you break down barriers of communication.
Lastly, I think it is important to note that we haven't spoken of performance at all as it relates to the thirds. Just because they are your bottom third DOES NOT mean that they are your bottom third of performers. In fact, I have seen a ton of talent in my bottom third! It is very important to recognize that your bottom third was NEVER about your bottom third of performers, it was your bottom third of followers. Your bottom third could house some of the top performers in your organization. That is why it is very important to spend time with this portion of your followers. It is very wise to understand what makes them tick.
Most importantly, it is very important that you know as the leader of your instructors that you can never stop learning! You need to constantly accept the feedback and debriefs and lessons from your members in order to incorporate them into new lessons learned for the future.
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