The announcement that Starliner will return to Earth without a crew due to a potential helium leak, has brought back memories of the Challenger disaster. On this occasion, however, NASA and Boeing together, have made the decision to prioritise human life.
The leadership and culture lessons from what’s commonly known as ‘cockpit culture’, apply to all organizations, however, and highlights the importance decision making approaches have on organisation performance and human life.
The medical profession and recent reports from the professional services and media industries also involving death or near-death experiences resulting from their cultures, tell us that people are naturally hard wired to risk lives and livelihoods, more than they are speaking up and challenging hierarchy and tradition.
LESSONS FROM HISTORY
These same themes were at play in the Korean Air disasters in the 80s, Boeing’s recent safety disasters and reviews of the Qantas and RBA Boards.
“Fear and pressure, are central problems.”
Deb Travers-Wolf, I LEAD Consulting.
But what can we learn from the Starliner decision, QF 32, and Hudson River landings, where no lives have or will be lost?
The Captain of QF32 said, “I’m going to take her higher - to give us more time to figure this out.” Both the junior officers in tandem, said ‘No!’
Why?
Their training and protocols gave them explicit permission to speak up and challenge, which was not the case in the Korean Airline and Tenerife disasters.
In the medical sector, training and protocols are the same, and it’s also proven to reduce death and disasters (such as the wrong limb being removed) and improved safety and staff morale. Respect and permission are at the heart of robust safety (and innovation) cultures.
With nearly $17 billion USD lost profit in 2022 & 23, Boeing’s next global CEO, a former engineer, aims to restore respect for a safety culture. To achieve this, however, he must create significant reverse pressure on the organisation’s existing culture.
Performance = (Permission + Respect) / Pressure©
Source I LEAD Consulting©
Time, cost and consequence, profit, policy, and people are all forms of pressure that create or reduce the stress of speaking up. Just as they do at Pixar, which encourages celebrations of fast failure, and Netflix, which won’t settle for ordinary.
MINDSET AND SKILLSET ARE BOTH NEEDED FOR SUCCESS
Approaching tension or conflict as opportunities for collaboration and aiming for mutually beneficial outcomes is important for safe, high-performing and constructive, corporate or cockpit cultures. Adding diversity of thought, skills, and experience to this equation further reduces groupthink and supercharges innovation and safety.
Emirates’ diverse workforce enhances service and fosters an inclusive environment that improves communication, collaboration, and safety. BHP has also found that diversity, (with permission to speak up), increases safety and offers a material benefit to their bottom line. However, diversity needs a critical mass and doesn’t achieve its magic, without a safe and inclusive culture.
Managing the cultural components of permission, respect, and pressure is critical for saving lives and improving livelihoods. They are the defining features of ‘cockpit culture’, as is the learning from NASA and Boeing who have jointly made the decision to prioritise them over perception on this occasion. To learn more about this fascinating topic, visit the iLEAD website.
Image: NASA Image Library. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore before their departure to the International Space Station.
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