Leading Edge 2.0 briefing

BravoMike Newcomer Atlanta, GA

Ok who else has been tortured by this briefing by the FLMs? I love the part on how we're supposed to all be part of a team. Don't get me wrong I have a couple of FLMs in my area that are very good people and very good to work with, but I can't get past some of the BS in this briefing. I'm told by this video how we're not going to be a blame culture and we're going to work together to solve safety issues. But when there was a deal in my area because an AC that had been coordinated stopped off at an ALT for traffic busted his ALT, the controller in my area got the deal.

The receiving sector d-side requested the AC stopped off for traffic and the sending d-side never informed the r-side. The receiving sector had the handoff and entered the coordinated ALT in the temp ALT. The AC checked on climbing to the original ALT and the receiving controllers missed the ALT and assumed it was the coordinated ALT. As soon as the r-side seen the AC's data block his go from XXX to XX2 he immediately issued the correct ALT and turned the AC out from the traffic and then issued all pertinent traffic for the conflict AC. Separation was again established and everything was ok. The FLMs and OMs at reviewed the FALCON and ripped all over the receiving controller blaming him solely for the deal because of the missed ALT on check in. The FLM from my area agreed it was an error in missing the ALT but made the point that the r-side took immediate corrective action and the speed in which he realized something was wrong and responded was nothing short of awesome. Our FLM spoke to us about this and he was rather heated with another FLM and OM for just looking for someone to assign blame to.

While I agree that yes there's blame to be had in all errors there's more important things to be leaned from an error than who's to blame. It seems to me that until we either get the FLMs and OMs with the old mentality out or get them all to work traffic and not just slow sectors and d-sides nothing is going to change no matter what we call the new program. Its sad but true the bad management out numbers the good management by a large margin.

Another point challenging the philosophy of this program is the news we were told by those who attended a recent supervisor seminar. Some of the ideas for cutting down on distractions in the control room have been to eliminate swivel chairs so its harder for us to turn around, remove the cru-ART computer from the area so we won't look at how long we've been working, put up a wall between the areas and the control room hallway so we can't see and then be tempted to talk to people walking between areas, install little walls between the sectors making them appear as walls to a pen! We're people, not cattle I don't need to be fenced in when I'm doing my job. How is this working together when they're talking about treating us like children or worse, animals?

GLF5 Senior Member

Which is this? I did this one but can't remember what it was. Was it the video of a handful of deals and management from different facilities discussing it? If it was, I just remember laughing because they all said the same bs thing...just worded different.

BravoMike Newcomer Atlanta, GA

No I did have to go to that one though, Terry Biggio our Chief was in that one, Terry is one of the guys I consider to be a good guy. He has the attitude of as long as we're getting our job done and doing it correctly then leave us alone. He didn't care too much about the dress code when we had one and the latest thing, reading material in the control room on the midnight shift which certain OMs and FLMs are making a big deal about he doesn't seem too concerned about. That video you're talking about was a goof though, it was like Meet the Press done FAA style.