Don't Let Your Business Come Crashing Down

On the way to Las Vegas yesterday afternoon, I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers: The Story of Success". Like most Malcolm Gladwell books he takes various real life studies and breaks down why things happen the way they do. This particular chapter, Chapter 7 - The "Ethnic Theory Of Plane Crashes" I found really interesting. Malcolm talks about how almost all plane crashes do not occur because of a mechanical failure or 1 error but rather usually 6 or 7 human errors. He goes on to describe how its almost always a breakdown in communication. The errors which end up crashing the plane were usually noted by others but never communicated properly. He particularly highlighted the Korean Air and how it had 4X more crashes per year then any other airline. It turned out that the Korean culture in general was to blame. Koreans are taught to respect those who are their authorities and never to question their decisions. Likewise those in authority disrespect and disregard anything their underlings think or bring up. So naturally this did not work well in the airlines business. Pilots need to listen to their team members... like co-pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants need to be listened to if they see something not right (like seeing a mountain ahead). But in the Korean culture did not cater to this... Long story short they started speaking English in Korean Air, drastically improved their communication and now they are one of the worlds safest airlines. So what can we take away from this? Well one thing I have learned is that in a team communication is key. And its something my company still works on all the time. I went from being 1 shop person to growing into a team that is approaching 20 people. If someone notices something is not right you have to let people know... And you have to learn to listen to people under you. Just like in plane crashes a couple small things can turn into big things that will crash your whole business.