Why College Presidents Should Think Like Pilots: The 1:60 Rule of Institutional Leadership
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Of all the valuable lessons I learned in pilot training, there's one fundamental principle that stands out, known as the 1:60 rule: a mere one-degree deviation from the correct heading means an aircraft will miss its intended destination by one mile for every 60 miles flown. This seemingly minor error, left uncorrected, dramatically amplifies over distance and time. As higher education faces unprecedented challenges and changes, this aviation principle offers a compelling framework for how college presidents and boards should approach institutional strategy and leadership.
The Power of Small Corrections
Just as pilots must constantly monitor their heading and make subtle adjustments, effective institutional leadership requires establishing robust systems for continuously assessing trajectory. Modern aviation succeeds through a culture of constant vigilance and immediate response to small deviations. In higher education, these deviations might appear as subtle shifts in enrollment patterns, gradual changes in student demographics, or incremental alterations in the competitive landscape.
Consider a college that experiences a mere 1% annual decline in yield rate—the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll. In any given year, this might seem negligible. However, over a decade, this small deviation compounds into a major enrollment crisis that threatens institutional sustainability. Like a pilot who has drifted off course, correcting such deviations becomes increasingly difficult and costly the longer they go unaddressed. A worst-case scenario: ultimately, a plane can run out of fuel.
The Leadership Instrument Panel
A pilot's instrument panel provides crucial real-time data about multiple interconnected factors: altitude, heading, airspeed, fuel levels, and weather conditions. Similarly, college leaders need a comprehensive dashboard of key performance indicators that they regularly monitor: enrollment trends, student success metrics, financial health ratios, faculty retention, research productivity, and alumni engagement.
Most presidents and their boards know this. An important difference between missing and staying on course: the aviation practice of "scan and cross-check". Pilots are trained to systematically scan their instruments, cross-referencing readings to build a complete picture of their aircraft's status. College leaders should similarly develop systematic ways to frequently and regularly gather and cross-reference multiple data points about their institution's performance, combining quantitative metrics with qualitative insights from stakeholders.
Navigating Through Turbulence
Just as weather conditions create the need for constant reassessment and adjustment in flight, external factors like demographic shifts, economic conditions, regulatory changes, and emerging technologies create an ever-changing environment for higher education. The ability to detect and respond to these changes early—making small course corrections before major deviations occur—often determines institutional success.
Staying Ahead of Your Institution
Pilots practice the principle of "staying ahead of the airplane"—anticipating and preparing for conditions several miles ahead. College presidents and boards must similarly think several years ahead, anticipating future challenges and opportunities, and making preparatory adjustments before situations become critical.
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Building Your Flight Crew
No pilot flies alone. They rely on their crew, air traffic control, and sophisticated support systems. Similarly, college presidents need to build strong teams and communication systems throughout their institutions. This includes developing reliable feedback loops with faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders who can help identify potential deviations before they become significant problems.
The Flight Plan: Strategic but Flexible
While pilots must file and follow flight plans, they maintain the flexibility to adjust for changing conditions. College leaders need to strike a similar balance between adherence to strategic plans and the agility to make tactical adjustments. This might mean regularly reviewing and updating strategic plans rather than treating them as fixed five-year documents, or creating formal processes for rapidly assessing and responding to emerging opportunities and threats.
Conclusion
The parallels between aviation and institutional leadership offer more than just an interesting metaphor—they provide a practical framework for approaching strategic leadership in higher education. By adopting the pilot's mindset of constant vigilance, systematic monitoring, and immediate response to small deviations, college presidents and boards can better navigate their institutions through challenging times toward their intended destinations.
Additional Readings:
About the Author: Robert (Skip) Myers, Ph.D., advises and counsels college and university governing boards and their presidents seeking to optimize and align their joint leadership performance.
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Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Coast Guard Veteran
1 个月Robert (Skip) Myers, PhD it just struck me that the power of small course corrections over long times/ distances also applies to the maritime world (Coast Guard ??).
Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Coast Guard Veteran
1 个月Nice job with the analogies!
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
1 个月Good stuff
Principal and Founder at Greenwich Leadership Partners Advisor to Boards and Leadership
1 个月I love this! (My husband is a pilot). All of this is spot on. My sense is many boards operate with an incomplete and/or unreliable instrument panel. That’s one place to start.