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.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2416 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
You hit the nail on the head I can trace back many times a lack of communication between my team has caused problems that could have been avoided. What sort of things do you think we should be communicating about to be more productive in our business? What do you suggest is the best way to systemize you communication between your team, maybe an idea/suggestion box
For communication I really admire Army people … at last they asked whether everything is clear or not.
As on their communication millions life depends.
FYI – It’s Outliers, not Outliners, but I assume it was just a typo… just saying.
I wish someone would’ve taught this concept to my boss at McD’s, he never would listen to me.
Good post though, reminds me not to be arrogant and genuinely work as a team to be the most successful.
He will learn the lesson very soon …
I know you are obsessive about your spelling
The book is called “Outliers” not Outliners
Great book, I love all of Malcolm’s work.
As a Korean American I totally agree with the part about Korean culture. A lot of Korean Koreans are so caught up with the philosophy of Confucianism they seldom ignore and even scorn the most creative ideas brought up by younger generation. But that anti-creative environment is changing very rapidly.
I think the lesson learned is that everyone needs to learn to speak english.
I thought it was about clear communication … lollzz
I think also listening to what the people underneath you tell you and give them credit for what they have done boosts the morale of the workers which will then show more respect and tell you when they see things going the wrong way.
If you are a prick your workers will not care and just take it as a paycheck.
Hey Brian,
Awesome point on listening. A lot of times when I speak to someone higher up the pyramid I always either get cut off or told, “well, but, also” , it’s like really, do you really believe being so 1 dimensional is going to help you out.
I am about half way through that book and absolutely love it. Gladwell is criticized for being an overly overt creative writer but this makes me respect him more.
He knows absolutely nothing about the topics he writes about, ie: tipping point. But he is such a creative writer he makes complex concepts interesting to us. Kudos to him for making millions on us.
Thats why I feel it is wise to not let these small things hamper you.
I gave freedom to my staff that even if I am doing anything wrong than they can stop me but with suitable reason.
This freedom really helps my business as every staff now give focussed to their job assigned by me and if they found any loop they tell me immediately.
In the return whole team of mine get the reward in the form of movie and dinner.
Communication is key in all types of relationships, business or personal. But speaking up can be tough. Your team needs to feel confident enough that when they when they do speak up, you listen respectfully. Otherwise they start to make judgement calls as to whether they want to risk telling you. And that jeopordizes communication.
Couple things from my own experience managing a team …
1. The best idea on the table is the one you go with … even if it comes from the janitor … there’s no room for ego in good decision making. Plus, when you encourage people to get involved they take ownership of what they’re doing and work harder. Besides, why else would you have a team, if you didn’t need people with expertise beyond your own, or to have their finger on the pulse of certain things.
2. If you have a bad apple … like a guy who’s attitude is “who cares, I get paid by the hour” … get rid of him. If you can’t do that, put him on latrine duty, ignore him, and get cosy with the rest of the team. Pretty soon he’ll figure out that he has to get along to go along.
Team communication is the key! no doubt! I have learnt from my previous lessons
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Good post. Bad communication is usually the downfall of many teams.
Communication is the biggest issue in any type of relation
I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often!
Those people who lost their lives due to communication problems because of culture is just sad.
Its nice to see that you are capitalising your full time.
Team communication play major role to be success. Due Lack of team communication and poor analyze, those people are facing such type of problem.
Not only in our business communication is important everywhere.
As they say that if your communication is clear your half job done.
Yeah i agree with you, it is a basic thing that leads to success, thanks for the post.
I will go as far to say that “communication is key”.
You State “If someone notices something is not right you have to let people know… And you have to learn to listen to people under you.” . I see it all the time where you get a group of executives that work together and believe they know and have all the right ideas only to find out that not all of there ideas work or as well back fire. For instance, why not involve everyone to jump in on the discussion from a certain level to build off of and utilize there knowledge, after all, the ones below the top dawgs usually run the business daily and would know the best ins and outs. Also though, your right, if the employees see things they should as well be responsible and speak out to better the business.
Thanks,
Chris Pontoon
Interesting post… the whole “authority” thing is pretty funny… it’s something that is sort of an old school way to look at relationships and communication. Like back in the day when kids couldn’t talk at the dinner table etc.. now everyone has to listen to everyone because everyone is learning and growing/evolving so fast because of the internet and how fast everything is moving in general. Hopefully we can all see each other as equal regardless of age and learn from everyone young and old! Communication is key and we have 2 ears for a reason! it’s more about listening then talking so it starts with whoever chooses to be a better listener.
Thanks for the awesome post shoemoney!
David
No doubt about it.
I read “Outliers” a few months ago and enjoyed it immensely. It puts into practical terms a lot of what the New Age, Law of Attraction folks tlak about – passion for what you want to do, practice and mastery, and the communication you’re talking about.
I always tell my employees I’d rather hear something five times than not at all.
Great post, I think that communication with you team and all memebrs is key to success in anything that you do!
Yes perfect communication is the platform of every success.
If your communication is clear than you can expect that work can be done smoothly and without any problem.
I am a supervisor in the Police running the communication center. Communication is essential for running anything! after all, if you don’t know whats going on, how can you react to it. The biggest part of communication though is listening. And it’s not just listening, it’s also hearing what someone says. It’s something most of us can improve on. Something I always remember if I start rambling on is, God gave us two ears and one mouth, we should use them in that order!!
This was a very good book. I have thought about a lot of the stuff that Gladwell talks about. I don’t have a team per se with my blog, but communication is key in every area of life.
If you don’t build a solid foundation for your online business, you will put your business in jeopardy because it will not be able to last with all of the updates and changes that the search engines are always making
My experiences in corporate america were like korean air…..you were supposed to respect authority and not question your superiors…….one of the many reasons I’m trying to stay far far away from corporate america…..
That’s why it’s important to always keep yourself up to date with the latest technologies through reliable source, hence blogging being so important. Then financial discipline is the most important factor in any business and personal wealth. Good financial management skills are needed to succeed in anything.
You have a very interesting opinion. Not sure I would have shared it though.
Yeah i agree with you, this is really what we all need to do in order to make our business successful, thanks for the informative post.
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Well Done! I Like it!