Beware Authority

In his book, “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell makes a number of fascinating theories extensively supported with data. One of these observations – which I associate with the role of authority figures in business - is that you’re actually safer when the first officer is flying the plane (Chapter 7: “The Ethic Theory of Plane Crashes”)! No positive correlation exists between inexperienced crew and airline crashes; in fact, it is quite the contrary. The more experienced flight captains suffered these crashes rather than the less experienced. Further, certain countries tended to have more crashes, despite following the same international procedures and having very capable flight crews.

What happened? The power authority indexes under which these flight crews were operating were high. The flight crew either grew up in a country where authority tends not to be questioned, or a particularly strong captain was guiding the flight. So, when the flight was experiencing severe issues, the crew tended not to speak up and “break rank”, even in the midst of a catastrophe! The airline industry found that it takes a series of errors to cause a plane to crash and frank communication in the cockpit is vital.

The same can be said for companies. This has never been truer than in firms in the technology sector, where innovation usually comes from the ground up, not from a single executive or even an executive team. When you figure out a way to capture those ideas and harness them, then you have a culture of innovation that continually propels your company. “Command and Control” cultures or styles of management rarely succeed in our business, or succeed only in very mature technology companies with captive customers.

The press tends to perpetuate the “sole evangelist” myth, continually pointing to one person as the sole reason for success. Steve Jobs is the latest example. In fact, what Steve Jobs created was a culture of frank communication and questioning everything, including authority. Getting your team to think for themselves is how you build organizational excellence and innovation.