Where do you fall in the pyramid? Published Feb. 11, 2009 By Col. Mark White 22nd Mission Support Group commander MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. -- Consider the pyramid: An interesting geometric shape, ancient Egyptian structures and your military organization...all structured in the same shape. Draw a picture of your organization. Put the commander at the top, put the subordinate leaders underneath, followed by all the 'worker bees.' What do you get? A pyramid. Where are you in this pyramid? At the top, middle or bottom? Look again, is there anyone missing? Usually, we forget someone else--the customer. Believe it or not, our customers are part of our organizations as much as everyone else in the unit. No matter what organization we belong to, we all have customers of some kind, someone that receives the benefit of our work. Where do they fit in your pyramid? They usually go right below all the workers in the unit because front line workers have direct contact with customers. Now who is the most important person in our pyramid? The customer, we would not have a purpose or mission without our customers. The reason we're in the Air force is to serve a customer--ultimately the American people. So let's put the most important people in our pyramid on top. Let's invert the pyramid and put the customer on top. Now the commander and leaders are at the bottom, serving and supporting the entire unit above, and at the top is the customer. Where do you fit in now? If you're 'just a worker' in the unit you're near the top. You're one of the most important people in the pyramid because you're right next to the customer. You're at the top of your pyramid because of the service you provide every day.