EverydaySpy Podcast - Desert Helicopters and Operational Efficiency

Episode Date: April 27, 2021

Everyone wants to do more with less, faster than before, and without any mistakes. So why doesn't it happen? Andrew found the answer while flying with a dozen blacked-out helicopters over a barren desert. And today, you get to learn the same truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante, and this is everyday espionage. One of the hardest parts about working in the private intelligence sector is the lack of efficiency. Now, don't get me wrong, everyone values efficiency, right? Every client, every customer, and every business I work with wants to be efficient, but for some reason, the theory and the reality of efficiency are rarely the same. Now, in 2009, CIA put me through an operational efficiency course that was designed to take best practices from the Fortune 500 world and apply them to government. The training course was super interesting. I got to read case studies from subway restaurants to Toyota, Lego, and Motorola.

And I was pumped to apply everything that I learned and use it to help shape the future of CIA. but it didn't take long before I realized that there was a massive barrier in applying corporate efficiency strategies into CIA. Now, efficiency is defined as achieving maximum productivity with minimal resources. The entire practice of efficiency is based on the idea of limited resources and maximizing each resources output. But the problem was that CIA has nearly unlimited resources. So the core purpose of efficiency, maximizing output with minimal resources, was invalid right from the beginning. As long as I was working inside CIA, I knew I was never going to be able to make anything efficient. Now, fast forward to 2013.

It's my last year at the agency, and I'm in charge of a joint covert action operation. with the U.S. military. Now, when multiple federal organizations have to work together in the field, things get heated. And you probably know why. Money and accountability. Nobody wants to pay for someone else's op,

and for sure, nobody wants to be in charge of an op when that op goes bad. Now, if there was any time in my CIA career where I was sure efficiency would be thrown right out the window, it was when I was working in covert action. but I was wrong. And during one strange op in a desert wasteland with CIA and DOD in heated debate over helicopters and night vision goggles,

I actually got to use operational efficiency to help keep America safe. The argument, honestly, was straight out of the movie office space. Get this. CIA expected DOD air resources to support an operation, but DOD. said that the paperwork requesting the helicopters wasn't submitted correctly. The only solution that DOD gave CIA was to rush a request that would get the right assets deployed in time, but it would cost double the cost. Senior managers on both sides did not want to pay the bill for expedited helicopters.

And trust me, you wouldn't either. But to get the resources into the AOR, someone had to pay. So I put on my operational efficiency cap and I threw out this idea that I thought no one would listen to. I suggested that CIA leadership send a direct request to the base commanders already in the AOR and ask them to deploy their own resources to support CIA rather than going through the Pentagon. I figure that all government workers and veterans, we kind of know that every commander's goal is to spend as much. much of their budget is possible so they can ask for more budget the next year. And I figure that no base commander in the AOR would turn down the opportunity to be the hero that saved a CIA covert action operation. Now, in the end, I was right. And the idea worked. And within hours, we were swimming

in H.H. 60 pavehawks. We were also swimming in angry emails from the Pentagon. But the reason I'm telling you the story isn't because I did something right. Trust me, I did tons of stuff wrong when I was at the agency. But the lesson I learned about efficiency was powerful. And that's what I want to share with you today. Efficiency, as much as we all want to say we love it, as much as we all want to say we need it, it is not the default state for people. It never has been. And it never will be. And even though everyone wants to minimize the resources they use, nobody agrees on the expected outcome. And efficiency requires both. It involves maximizing outcomes with minimum resources.

Consider the average university. They don't really want to graduate every student. That would take too many resources. But they do want to maximize enrollment because each new student brings in more money. Or look at the average insurance company. They don't want to pay for every claim. That would take too many resources, but they do want to maximize customers paying for insurance

because it increases their bottom line. Even parents don't actually want to care for every need their child has. That would suck every ounce of money and energy that a parent has. Instead, they want to cover the big needs, like food and shelter and education, But they want to coach, train, or sometimes force their kids to learn how to take care of themselves. When you run into inefficiency in your everyday life, whether it's at work, with a client, in a business, or even at home, what you are actually running into is a gap in expected outcomes. Efficiency is impossible unless everyone agrees on the same target outcome.

but your outcome and the outcome that others want isn't always the same. You wanted your university to give you the best possible education, but that's not what they wanted. They wanted you to stay enrolled for as long as possible. You want your car insurance provider to pay for the damages when you have an accident, but that's not what they want. They want to pay you as little as possible and charge you higher rates anytime you have a fender bender. You want your kids to listen, learn, and grow into awesome adults. But that's not what they're thinking about. All they want is to live in their imagination and have delicious food delivered to their table anytime they are hungry.

And in the end, the result is the same. You feel like nothing is efficient. You feel trapped in this inefficient world. Now that I run my own private intelligence ops, I get to apply operational efficiency all. the time and I try to teach it to clients and students but trust me it does not always work. In my last streetcraft course where I teach human tradecraft I specifically told my students to spend their two-hour break casing their operational sites so that they would know exactly how to approach and execute each step of their operation. 30 minutes after I sent those students into the

field I came across two of them sitting at a relaxed lunch in a trendy coffee shop right here in St. Petersburg. I chuckled to myself because they were spending time and money, two of the resources I had intentionally limited for them during the operation, they were spending those resources on a nice midday break, not realizing that they were going to fail their outcome.

And that's exactly what happened. When they missed their dead drop window 90 minutes later, it was because they went to the wrong location. They never took the time to case the appropriate location. If you want to make your business or your clients, your spouse more efficient, the place to start isn't by focusing on resources. Instead, focus on outcomes. Define the outcome you are both looking for first. If the outcomes are different, you'll never have efficiency.

But when you can define the shared outcomes that everyone wants, you can use less resources, get further faster, and execute. the op that others fail. And that is Everyday espionage. Everyday espionage is dedicated to one thing, educating everyday people. I know that not everyone will listen, but those who listen will learn. If you learn something new today, click subscribe, review, and share the podcast with a friend. Find me on social media at Everyday Spy or on my website, Everydayspy.com. If you are up for a special challenge, visit Everydayspy.com forward slash operations and join me for an authentic spy training mission. And above all else, remember that knowledge is freedom.