Mitigating Behavior?

If you don’t speak up when it matters, when would it matter that you speak? The opposite of courage is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow. -Jim Hightower, (1943-), syndicated columnist and author.

In his New York Times bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell reveals the incredible truth behind the challenges that Korean Air encountered from 1988-1998; during which time they had multiple plane crashes including one incident involving the shoot down of a 707 by the Russian military.To put the rate of loss in perspective, Gladwell calculates that United Airlines’ loss during the same period as .27 per million departures versus Korean Airlines’ 4.79 per million departures…seventeen times higher! So what the heck was happening? Was it the level of skill? Was it the number of hours flying? Technical malfunction? Pilot error? Well it turns out that the answer is embedded within the Korean culture! In Korea the societal hierarchy is a very real and recognized structure…so much so that the Korean language includes multiple ways of addressing other people depending on where they stand in that hierarchy. So what does this have to do with the plane, well it turns out that the reason for these errors lies within the cultural, mitigating behavior of the first officers. What does that mean? Simple…the first officers are too afraid to really speak up when something is going wrong or off course! Can you believe that?! The cultural pull is so strong that a first officer will not even speak up until it’s too late!

So what was the resolution for the airline? Westernize the cockpit! They actually brought in trainers from Delta in the United States to train the Koreans on how to speak to each other! I’m laughing as I write this because it’s about time we North easterners get recognized for our forthrightness, which many of you feel is our rudeness! You see it’s actually part of our culture…we just put it on people when we have something to say…right or wrong! It’s just how we feel and it needs to be out there. Now there is always the other side of the coin and there is a lot to be said about cultures that exemplify respect and deference when it comes to authority, so my vote is certainly cast on the side of balance…but as you can see from Gladwell’s example, it’s crucial to know when! The story really made me aware of how often mitigating behavior really keeps us from getting what we want, but why is that pull so strong? Certainly the roots go deeper than just “culture”…we would most likely find the cause in a more basic human emotion like fear or embarrassment. Yet how ridiculous that those raw human emotions could keep us from getting what we want. How many of you are waiting for the boss to promote you? The coach to pick you? The teacher to give you an A? The special guy or girl to go on a date with you? One of my team members Rob and I had a laugh over this as he made reference to a song he had heard this week with a refrain of “I think MAYBE I love you!” What? Maybe! Are you kidding me?! Go get it!

I mean really…think about it! Your life is in peril and the plane is off course and you’re the first officer…SAY SOMETHING! Captain I’m going to scream at you (“respectfully”), but you’re going to hear me say “it aint looking good…call me crazy and disrespectful, but it looks like we’re headed straight for the mountain and not the runway!” What’s the worst that can happen…you get banished to the lowest rungs of society? Everybody laughs at you because you were wrong…is that going to hurt as much as trying to fly a plane another mile with no gas? How about when it comes to your business…ever had the other company get the sale even though the prospect seemed to love you? Ever lose the promotion to someone less qualified? How about the girl or guy to someone else that you did not even know was in the hunt? You know why? Because they did not mitigate their behavior once they knew what they wanted! They went out and told somebody! They went into the world and in spite of the potential pitfalls of fear and embarrassment, they took it away from all the bystanders! So the ultimate irony here is that the people who step up are the ones who actually display the MOST humility! They don’t care who laughs at them, they just do…and by doing they make distinctions and accelerate their learning and get more and more out of life! So take note of your actions and see if you, like the Korean first officers, are mitigating your behavior at the wrong times! Stop pulling your punches…it might just save your life!