Ops Isn’t PM — Why Leaders Need to Know the Difference
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The Ops Badge of Honor
In the Air Force, “operations tempo” was a badge of honor. The grind never stopped, and the mantra was always the same: “do more with less.”
That mindset made sense when you looked at how we ran maintenance. Our flying hours program (FHP) drove the ops tempo: every sortie kept the jets healthy and aircrews proficient. The models said we could safely handle a certain load, but ops pressure often demanded more.
So we stretched. We worked long shifts, weekends, and holidays — not because we wanted to, but because the mission demanded it. Ops were relentless, but they were also stable. That stability gave us space to think strategically, to test improvements, to experiment… if you were willing to stay past your shift.
Ops vs Projects: The Line We Blur
Now add projects on top of that.
Some were planned into the FHP: new capabilities, upgrades, inspections. Others were “surprises” — surges, TDYs, exercises, tests. Suddenly, in addition to the grind of ops, we had to put on our project hats and run through initiation, planning, execution, and closing.
The kicker? Those projects rarely came with a reduction in ops. We didn’t stop flying sorties because a test came in. We didn’t cut the daily workload because an exercise landed on the calendar.
So the team was effectively asked to do two full-time jobs: keep the ops stable and deliver the projects.
Why It Hurts (and Still Happens)
That’s where the danger is: leaders stack projects on top of already maxed-out ops without balancing the load.
The results are predictable:
Burnout from long hours and no recovery cycles.
Missed opportunities for improvement (because everyone’s in survival mode).
Projects delivered late, half-baked, or not at all.
And this isn’t just military maintenance. Civilian organizations do the same thing: call something a “project” when it’s really just more operational work, or expect innovation on top of 100% sustainment.
It’s not a people problem. It’s a leadership clarity problem.
The Fix Leaders Miss
The fix is surprisingly simple: start every initiative with one question.
👉 Are we sustaining… or are we changing?
If it’s ops → treat it like ops: stability, predictability, efficiency.
If it’s a project → treat it like a project: scoped, resourced, temporary, with a start and end.
And if leaders want their people to innovate, they can’t pile it on top of an unchanged ops tempo. Something has to give.
Resilience Starts with Clarity
Leadership isn’t about squeezing more hours out of your people. It’s about creating the clarity that prevents burnout.
Ops and projects both matter. But they matter differently.
When leaders blur the line, they don’t just exhaust their teams — they rob them of the space to think, improve, and grow. When leaders draw the line clearly, they create resilience: people know what game they’re playing, and they can win it.
So before you hand out another task, stop and ask:
Are we sustaining… or are we changing?
Because your people already know the difference. They’re just waiting for you to acknowledge it.
