Make it happen

I sign all of my articles with make it happen at the end.  Here is the story behind it:

As a new NCO, I was sitting in an ops meeting and a new tasking came down to bring a new capability to our office.  No one was very familiar with the end product, but leadership wanted us to start to perform.  We talked about what we needed for tools, training, etc. and the meeting ended with the captain telling us, I don’t care how, just make it happen.

As NCOs, we get tasked to do new things that we don’t quite understand, know how, or even have any remotely close experience of doing.  With nothing to draw from, we ask across our network, search the internet, build a good baseline to really get started.  When all that research is done, a few NCOs tucked into a room with nothing but brainpower slowly comes up with a solution. This is how we make it happen.

We figured it out and brought the capability in.  He smiled at us and thanked us for making it happen. 

As time passed, those word became my mantra when faced with a difficult situation.

I use the phrase now as words of encouragement. Standing in the coach’s box watching a young person go for the most intense one-on-one battle in their life, pitcher verses batter. Make it happen… I want them to get on base, but drop some of the pressure by telling them to make it happen instead of yell the things everyone in the stand says: be a big hitter.

For my NCOs, I give them as much information as available, and charge them to make it happen, just as was once charged to me.

Make it happen.