Achieve Simplicity by Front-loading Complexity

In this week’s episode of the podcast, Tony reflects on this weekend’s B-2 bomber mission that saw multiple stealth aircraft launch from a Missouri Air Force base, fly over to Iran to drop bombs, and then safely return to the same base. A mission of this length—likely 35–40 hours from pre-flight to post-flight duties—puts a heavy burden on the air crew executing the mission, with the perils of fatigue, risk management, and moment-to-moment decision making in a combat zone all requiring significant planning to handle. Tony performs a preliminary dissection on the considerations that go into planning missions like this, using his own experience on the B-1 and his dissertation on long-range missions as the starting point. Tony’s conclusion is that no matter how complex the operation is, the goal of the plan should be to make execution by the crew as simple as possible—and this is a philosophy that applies to all human performance, not just high-stakes military missions. So, achieve simplicity in your own performance by front-loading the complexity into the planning phase.