WEEKLY MESSAGE FROM FAA ATO COO TERI BRISTOL
Jan. 12, 2018
Getting Engaged, Without the Hassle of Wedding Planning
Hi everyone,
Our colleagues in the Office of Communications came to me last week and asked me to
do an Instagram story. I jumped at the opportunity to share our accomplishments on
a smart phone app. While I don't do a lot of social media personally, I know many of you
get your information from several outlets, and I want to make sure I'm engaging with you
in places where you are listening.
Good communication is key to having an engaged workforce, and an engaged workforce
is critical to having an effective organization. When we're happy at work that also means
we're more innovative and likely to reach our full potential. We're better at every level if
we like coming to work.
One way to help us stay engaged is to make sure that we all know our ATO priorities
and how we fit in. That isn't always easy to do in an organization that is as large and
dispersed as ours. We communicate with our 32,000 employees NAS-wide using a lot of
tools including this COO Weekly Message and the ATO Minute, and by hosting All
Hands meetings like this week's ATO Forum.
I hope you had a chance to attend the Forum, and if not, you can check it out here. Our
Deputy Chief Operating Officer Tim Arel and I highlighted just a few of the major
accomplishments from the last year, ranging from operational improvements and
resiliency and contingency planning to advances in the way we integrate new entrants,
communicate with international partners, manage programs, and acquire and retain
employees.
We discussed some important challenges ahead that will involve many of you, no matter
where you sit. These include operational risk management, business acumen, program
execution, and employee development.
We talked about some organizational changes. The newest additions in my Officers
Group are Vice President Jodi McCarthy from Mission Support Services, and Jeffrey
Vincent, who is acting in our Safety and Technical Training Office. We also stood up a
new organization this year, Flight Program Operations, led by David Boulter.
And we also responded to many questions. We'd be happy to hear any feedback that
you have about the Forum, so send it to atocoo@faa.gov.
We hope to have these ATO Forums about twice a year so that we can communicate
our joint priorities and continue to take your questions. Recently, I asked managers for
feedback on a monthly call I do with them, and I got more than 200 survey responses
asking me to keep the information coming. So I'm going to continue to reach out to you
and I welcome hearing ideas from you as well.
