Good Can Be Bad: Lessons from US Navy
Brian Fielkow
Executive leader & Board Member | Growth and Risk Management Strategist | M&A Champion | Mentor | Author & Speaker | Driving Excellence, Integrity, & Sustainable Change
I read with great attention a recent New York Times article regarding recent collisions involving US Navy ships. The unequivocal conclusion is that the accidents were avoidable. A link to the article is below.
By all accounts, the US Navy is world class. Your organization may be world class also. But lets never forget that GOOD CAN BE BAD. By that I mean that good performers, be they individuals, groups, or companies, must guard against a false sense of invulnerability. Put another way, good performance and an absence of accidents can promote complacency—satisfaction with one’s accomplishments accompanied by a lack of awareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.
Complacency creep generally occurs silently and gradually. Let’s say your group has a good safety culture. Your company hasn’t experienced any serious safety failures, injuries, or accidents so far. You are, by all measures, a good performer. Congratulations!
Don’t get too comfortable, though. Ask yourself if your good performance is a result of a healthy culture, strength of leadership, team alignment, and good processes, or if the good safety is just pure luck. If you answer that it’s because of luck, you need to get serious about safety right now. And if you are good, it’s time to get better!
One characteristic that distinguishes good companies is having a balanced view of themselves. Team members do not ignore the facts even if they are unpleasant. They recognize the need to be obsessed with continuous safety improvement. They also recognize that complacency creep is real.
Here are a few examples of organization dysfunction relating to the US Navy incidents to which none of us is immune. Each example is supported by a quote from the New York Times article.
FAILURE TO PLAN FOR SAFETY/LACK OF RESPECT FOR PROCESS: "In the case of the Fitzgerald, the Navy determined in its latest reports that the crew and leadership on board failed to plan for safety, to adhere to sound navigation practices, to carry out basic watch practices and to respond effectively in a crisis."
LACK OF LEADERSHIP SUPPORT: “We’ve deprived them of the funds to do it,” Senator John McCain said of the continuous operations in the Pacific. “We’re putting those men and women in harm’s way to be wounded or killed because we refuse to give them the sufficient training and equipment and readiness. It’s a failure of Congress. It’s on us.”
UNREALISTIC PRODUCTION PRESSURE AND FATIGUE: "The directives included more sleep and no more than 100-hour workweeks for sailors"
TAKING SHORTCUTS/NORMALIZATION OF DEVIANCE: "With the sky still black, Commander Sanchez noticed that the sailor steering the ship was having difficulty managing the helm and the complex arrangement of throttles that controlled the power to the McCain’s twin propellers. He ordered that the tasks be divided, one sailor steering at one station, another manning the throttles at another. The move, intended to make operating the ship more manageable, ended up taking away the helmsman’s ability to steer. A secondary and unnoticed effect of the commander’s decision was the inadvertent transfer of steering to the console now designated to control the throttles."
I hope you see the clear parallels. The safety concepts are the same – in your company or at sea. A safety culture must be nurtured daily. Left unattended, a dysfunctional creep will surely set in. And…if it can happen to the US Navy, it can happen to you and me!