Crash Communication

Management Techniques from the Cockpit to Maximize Performance

Peter Brandl

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781630478063
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

Have you ever wondered why, in spite of the highest safety precautions, catastrophic air accidents still occur from time to time? You may just as well ask, how is it possible that a lender would give $320 million to an insolvent US bank, with no idea how to get the money back? In Crash Communication, Peter Brandl combines his professions—pilot, manager, and entrepreneur—to draw striking parallels between aviation and the corporate world. In his book, he shows that the "human error" factor follows a fatal logic. Brandl offers original and relevant answers to fundamental questions of leadership and communication. His fascinating approach shows managers and executives in the "corporate cockpit" what to do when the warning lights come on.

CHAPTER 1

FORGETTING TO EXTEND THE FLAPS

(Or What Happens during Extreme Stress)

+ + + August 20, 2008, Madrid-Barajas Airport + + + A Spanair aircraft crashes immediately after takeoff and bursts into flames. + + + 154 casualities + + +

Eyewitnesses speak of “hell” and an “inferno.” The MD-82, belonging to the Spanish airline Spanair, crashed in a riverbed only a few kilometers from Madrid’s international airport shortly after takeoff. Of the 172 people on board, 154 died in the flames. There was initial speculation about engine failure, but a few weeks later, the actual cause of the crash was determined: the cockpit crew had forgotten to extend the flaps at takeoff. As a result, the aircraft railed to gain sufficient elevation.

Experts point to a “technical defect” because the alarm system designed for this scenario failed. But the extension of the flaps during takeoff and landing is actually a completely routine affair, which every pilot can perform in his sleep. For pilots, “extending flaps” before takeoff is as much a matter of routine as putting on your shoes before you leave the house. How is it possible to “forget” something like this?

MAIN SOURCE OF MISTAKES: STRESS

All of us have made mistakes that were so idiotic, so dumb that we breathed a sigh of relief that no one had been watching. “Human error” is not limited to pilots; when the critical factors come together, we are all capable of terrible mistakes. With a little luck, it remains just a close shave, like when we run a red light while preoccupied or leave our bank card in the cash machine. In the aviation industry, these kinds of mistakes can have devastating consequences—and in the business world too. One of the most significant factors that leads to the worst mistakes is simply stress.

CRASH EXAMPLE: MADRID, 2008

Function of Flaps

To understand the Spanair accident, you have to know how an airplane works. You will probably have seen how an airplane extends its flaps while taking off or landing. These flaps increase the surface area of the wing, increasing the lift that makes the airplane fly. Lift is ultimately derived from two factors, namely the surface of the wing and the speed of the air flowing around the wing. At takeoff and landing, the airplane is naturally slower, making the use of flaps necessary. Without flaps, the plane does not fly. Every pilot knows that; therefore, “extending the flaps” is utterly routine.

Reasons for Aborted Takeoffs

What exactly happened then? The crew had already been through two aborted takeoffs. Consider this picture of an aborted takeoff: The airplane is on the runway. The engines are starting up, and the plane accelerates at full throttle. Meanwhile, various parameters are checked within the cockpit. Certain values have to be displayed. Various indicator lights light up as well. Each of these little lights indicates that the system represented is working. If one of these values is incorrect or an indicator does not light up in time, then the takeoff has to be aborted. In almost all cases, the pilots could have proceeded with the flight in perfect safety; a bulb had gone, nothing more. So an aborted takeoff is normally only a precautionary measure. However, the passengers don’t know that. They just notice that the plane accelerates strongly and then the brakes are slammed on, almost lifting them out of their seats.

Further Obstacles

Due to false alarms, our crew already had two of these aborted takeoffs behind them. You can picture for yourself how the passengers would be starting to get restless. A situation like this is exacerbated by other factors like “slots,” or a crew’s rest period. A slot is a window of time in which the plane has to take off, for instance. If this doesn’t work, then the crew has to apply for a new slot. If you have bad luck, then you might have to wait for several hours. But the mandatory rest periods can make this process tricky. The maximum duty time of a crew is strictly limited. If, for instance, a flight cannot be completed within the maximum on-duty time, due to delays or a missed slot, a new crew has to be found. You can imagine the problems this might cause when a plane is stuck at a random airport anywhere in the world.

A Risky Situation

That’s how the explosive cocktail in Madrid was mixed: two aborted takeoffs; 162 restless and rebellious passengers (the next takeoff had to work out); extreme time pressure; extreme pressure to succeed; a whole series of external factors that ramped up the pressure to immeasurable levels. It was a recipe for stress and distress. All this led to an awful, careless mistake, and the pilot simply did not extend the flaps. If the warning system had worked properly, an alarm would have sounded and made the crew aware of their mistake, and 150 people would have departed safely. But it did not. Worse, recklessly, the crew had failed to work through the takeoff checklist; they had neglected their SOPs, their standard operating procedures.

CRASH WARNING

Above a certain level of stress, our behavior is no longer under rational control. It becomes reactive and unconsidered, rather than reflective; our actions become increasingly quick and agitated.

COMPANY EXAMPLE: KFW—A BANK GIVES AWAY €320 MILLION

To repeat: every one of us will have made some massive mistakes at some point in our lives. But what has to happen in order for a company to lose its “head”? What has to happen for a German state-owned bank like KfW to transfer €320 million to a bankrupt company, the funds never to be seen again? And what has to happen for a small or medium enterprise to lose control of its decision-making process and start making hasty and ill-considered decisions?

KfW: Busts, Breakdowns, and Bad Luck

The story of KfW bank is well known in Germany. In September 2008, it unleashed a storm of outrage. Although the crisis at the American investment bank Lehman Brothers was common knowledge, even to those who skip past the business section, KfW still transferred over €300 million to the insolvent company on September 15, 2008. No one had stopped the automated transfer in time. For a long time, it seemed extremely unlikely that German taxpayers would ever see any of their money again. It was announced in December 2009 that KfW was to get €200 million back (the German taxpayers had to find the remaining €120 million). Some context: at this point, KfW had already been coming under fire for months, primarily due to a debacle at the highly indebted IKB bank (KfW held 43 percent of the stock). KfW had to repeatedly bail out IKB and reported losses of €6.2 billion for the 2007 financial year, the largest loss in company history. Board member Ingrid Matthäus-Maier was forced first to quit as spokeswoman, then resign from the company altogether. The new chairman, Ulrich Schröder, had only been in the position for two weeks at the time of the incident. You can picture how, in these circumstances, the venerable KfW bank bore a closer resemblance to a henhouse with a fox on the loose than a well-organized institution. Enormous public pressure, a new chairman, and almost certainly worry about jobs and standing on the corporate ladder raised stress levels for every employee. Under these circumstances, it is actually not surprising that, despite a meeting on Friday, no one took decisive steps to prevent Monday’s “accident.”

Stress-Related Mistakes Everywhere

Such mishaps are not restricted to giant corporations or particular branches of industry. One well-known publishing house forgot to book its stand for the Frankfurt Book Fair, the most crucial industry event in Europe. The Social Democratic Party (SPD, one of the major parties in Germany) forgot to nominate its sitting mayor for election in Wiesbaden. It only came to light when the candidate and city deacon had already resigned from his position at the church and the campaign was underway. I was not a fly on the wall at the decisive KfW meeting that Friday, nor was I party to the internal workings of the SPD electoral machine in Wiesbaden. But wouldn’t you say, too, that both debacles are fatally reminiscent of the flaps forgotten by the Spanair pilots? In all three cases, those involved were under a high level of stress.

STRESS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Humans: Beings Blessed by Reason

Why can stress be so devastating? Why do people who are normally rational and competent make such glaring mistakes, forgetting the obvious? Why do we overlook things that we would never overlook under normal circumstances? Questions like this emerge because “human error” contradicts the self-image we like to cultivate in everyday life. After all, we normally regard ourselves as rational beings who react “reasonably” to our surroundings, analyze them logically, and assess them reliably. Homo sapiens are ultimately creatures blessed with reason. This premise is particularly true in the business context, in the world of managers, movers, and shakers. The idea has been anchored in the European history of ideas since the eighteenth century, in the understanding that humans are controlled by their “ratio.” “I think, therefore I am,” Descartes said. Kant challenged individuals to follow the path of enlightenment and gave them the (for him) unusually simple advice: “Have the courage to make use of your own reason.”

Humans: The Emotional Being

This optimistic conception of humanity has been increasingly shaken and called into question by modern science. Neurology and brain research suggest that humans are emotionally driven and directed by subconscious influences. It is becoming increasingly clear how selective our perception is and how prejudiced we are in our judgments and assessments. The irrationality people are capable of is made painfully obvious by the shocking mistakes we can make under stress.

A Typical Stress Reaction: Say Goodbye to your Cerebrum

Maybe you can remember the last time you were under great stress yourself. I do not mean the usual time pressure under which most of us constantly find ourselves in our everyday lives, the type that leaves us complaining about “stress” when winding down with a drink in the evening. Rather, I mean a situation you perceived as actually threatening, perhaps even experienced as terrifying: a severe conflict in an important board meeting; a downed server that stops the entire company in its tracks; the news that your biggest customer is insolvent. You probably became flushed, your pulse accelerated, and your heartbeat began thudding in your ears. You may have felt unable to think clearly. Did you feel frozen? Maybe you had a blackout. It seems as if it is hardest to keep a cool head when we need to most.

Brainstem versus Cerebrum

The brainstem takes control in acute stress situations. This is the area of our brain in which the vital functions and basic emotions are located. The brainstem is sometimes also known as the “reptile brain.” From an evolutionary standpoint, this is the most ancient part of the brain, where archaic patterns of behavior are stored; it is designed to ensure survival at all costs. The possibilities are few: fight, flight, or play dead. Those are the three exact options that were available to prehistoric humans when they encountered a saber-toothed tiger. The cerebrum, which is responsible for thought, analysis, and planning, is in large part shut down by acute stress. In my seminars, I am fond of saying, “When the brainstem comes, the cerebrum goes to the bar for a drink.” And as soon as the cerebrum takes a break, people can overlook things that they would never neglect otherwise—for instance, extending the landing flaps or double-checking a multi-million-euro bank transfer.

When the Focus Shifts

Rüdiger Trimpop, professor of work, business, and organization psychology at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, is one of the most renowned accident researchers in Germany. He offers the following impressive examples: “It is well-known from research on stress and accidents that humans develop tunnel vision in decision-making situations under time pressure.” Trimpop recalls air traffic controllers who, in a simulated, stressful work situation (monitor failure, boss yelling, static noise from the speakers), were able to direct the airplane they were responsible for safely to the ground, but completely overlooked a collision of two other aircraft on their screen. “All their energy, their entire attention, is concentrated on that one task, and everything else is ignored. And the more complex an activity is, the greater the likelihood of focusing on the wrong thing.” That is true not only for air traffic controllers under pressure, but also for motorists, who will overlook cyclists coming towards them on a one-way street. The accident researcher’s advice: “It’s a question of making sure to stop yourself from reacting as a reflex amoeba.”⁵

Controlled Stress

As long as we still believe we can come to grips with a challenging situation, then a stress reaction can be controlled. Environmental stimuli put the brain on alert: the adrenal glands pour adrenaline into the blood; the he...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Of Crashes and Their Causes
• Chapter 1 Forgetting to Extend the Flaps
• Chapter 2 Who Is Crazy Enough to Criticize a Captain?
• Chapter 3 Landing in Bad Weather
• Chapter 4 Airplanes Going Down and Nobody Cares
• Chapter 5 “But I Thought You Were Flying!”
• Chapter 6 Blame Culture
• Chapter 7 Crash Communication
• Conclusion Utilizing Resources: Company Resource Management
• About the Author