Do You Have an Airplane Folder?

*To protect the identities of all parties involved in this blog, we have changed the name of the main character in this story. We will call him Rico Ovalles.*

Have you ever heard of someone having an “Airplane Folder?” I hadn’t either. That is until a few months ago when I experienced something that truly redefined how I think about preparedness and delegation. It all started on the West Coast at a conference where I was to deliver a presentation. 

Before my session began, I was seated at a round table with a handful of attendees. One of them, a friendly-looking guy, leaned over and said, “Hey, you’re from Watchman, right?” I nodded, and he responded, “Yeah, I’ve heard about you. You’re in Rico’s Airplane Folder.” That caught me off guard. I had no idea what an “Airplane Folder” was. I asked him, but he just grinned and said, “You’ll have to ask Rico about that,” and left it at that.

Later that day, I spotted Rico, a campus bookstore director with a reputation for being detail-oriented and resourceful. I didn’t waste time. “Hey Rico,” I said, “I have a weird question for you. What’s an Airplane Folder?”  His initial reaction was priceless. He rolled his eyes and chuckled, “Who told you about that?” After a moment, he explained.

“Well,” he started, “the Airplane Folder is my team’s contingency plan. It’s a collection of essential processes and instructions that they’d need to keep everything running if something happened to me. You know, like if I were to… not make it back from a flight.”

Rico described how the folder contained detailed steps for key tasks – things he was responsible for that no one else knew how to do. It was both a physical file in his desk and a digital version in his email. “It’s my way of making sure they aren’t left scrambling,” he said. Rico believed Watchman was the right solution for campus stores and institutions, he just felt that he could do it on his own. However, if he was no longer there, his recommendation would be for the store to bring us in to automate their Equitable Access billing – our specialty.

To be honest, I felt a twinge of annoyance. Why wasn’t Watchman already implemented and taken care of the processes in that Airplane Folder? It seemed to me that a tool designed to streamline and automate these critical tasks shouldn’t be relegated to contingency plans. Instead, it should be front and center, ensuring smooth operations without unnecessary dependencies. 

That said, Rico’s story still made me pause. “Do I have an Airplane Folder?” I thought. And if not, why? Rico’s advice was simple yet profound. “Revisit it every year,” he suggested, “to decide if those tasks are still essential or if your time could be better spent elsewhere.”

So, I’ll leave you with this thought: Do you have an Airplane Folder?