1: “I got it.”
These were the first words uttered by Captain Al Haynes after the explosion went off in the back of the airplane. He grabbed the control wheel, known as the yoke.
Later, Al would call these three words “the dumbest thing I’ve ever said in my life,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.
Yesterday, we looked at the crash landing of United Airlines Flight 232. The plane’s rear engine exploded. Worse, shrapnel sliced the main and backup lines, which the pilots use to fly and control the airplane.
What is the term the National Transportation Safety Board uses to describe this type of event? Catastrophic failure.
Al was “the captain of the plane,” Daniel writes. He was “the source of power and authority to whom everyone looked for reassurance and direction.”
And, “had he continued interacting with his crew in this way, Flight 232 would have likely crashed,” Daniel observes.
But this is not what Al did.
Instead, “he was able to do something even more difficult,” Daniel writes: “To send a signal of vulnerability, to communicate to his crew that he needed them.”
What did Al do?
He uttered four words: “Anybody have any ideas?”
When pilot trainer Denny Fitch arrived in the cockpit, he, too, could have attempted to take charge. He might have started issuing commands. In fact, his job was to teach pilots in the flight simulator how to handle emergencies. He knew all the emergency protocols.
But that’s not what he did either.
“Tell me what you want, and I’ll help you,” Denny told Al and his crew. He intentionally put himself beneath the other pilots and signaled he was there to help.
“Each of these small signals took only a few seconds to deliver,” Daniel writes. “But they were vital, because they shifted the dynamic, allowing two people who had been separate to function as one.”
2: The key lesson to learn from Flight 232?
As leaders, to create a high-performing team, we must learn to perform a behavior that goes against our instincts: Sharing vulnerability.
“At some level, we intuitively know that vulnerability tends to spark cooperation and trust,” Daniel observes. “But we may not realize how powerfully and reliably this process works, particularly when it comes to group interactions.”
Dr. Jeff Polzer is a professor of organizational behavior at Harvard University. He has spent much of his career studying how small, seemingly insignificant social exchanges can create cascade effects in groups.
“People tend to think of vulnerability in a touchy-feely way, but that’s not what’s happening,” Jeff says.
We get it wrong.
“It’s about sending a really clear signal that we have weaknesses, that we could use help. And if that behavior becomes a model for others, then you can set the insecurities aside and get to work, start to trust each other, and help each other.
“If you never have that vulnerable moment,” Jeff notes, “then people will try to cover up their weaknesses, and every little microtask becomes a place where insecurities manifest themselves.”
3: Interestingly, tapping into the power of vulnerability has more to do with the receiver than the sender.
“The second person is the key,” says Jeff. “Do they pick it up and reveal their own weaknesses, or do they cover up and pretend they don’t have any? It makes a huge difference in the outcome.”
Through his research, Jeff has become an expert at identifying the moment when this signal travels through the group.
“You can actually see the people relax and connect and start to trust,” he says. “The group picks up the idea and says, ‘Okay, this is the mode we’re going to be in,’ and it starts behaving along those lines, according to the norm that it’s okay to admit weakness and help each other.”
The term for these interactions is a “vulnerability loop,” which involves a shared exchange of openness, the most fundamental building block of cooperation and trust.
“Vulnerability loops seem swift and spontaneous from a distance,” Daniel writes, “but when you look closely, they all follow the same discrete steps:
1. Person A sends a signal of vulnerability.
2. Person B detects this signal.
3. Person B responds by signaling their own vulnerability.
4: Person A detects this signal.
5: A norm is established; closeness and trust increase.”
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: Think about the strongest relationships in my life or the most cohesive teams I’ve been part of. What role did vulnerability play in building trust and cooperation?
Action: Discuss with a family member, friend, or colleague.
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