The relationship between a plane crash and revenue
By Erez Raivit
very organization, successful as it may be, aspires to improve its performance and increase its profits.
E
Some of the best minds in society comprise commercial organizations teams, gathered together for the sake of innovation, productivity and profitability. It is a 24/7 demanding, uncompromising, target-oriented production plant that always seeks the bottom line – Revenue.
But, do firms fulfill their max potential?
Several researches made among large firms indicate that not only that they are not meeting their KPI's, but an increasing number of them, are suffering from budget and timeline deviations, leading to a continued decrease in revenues.
Back in the mid 80's, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) encountered a similar problem. They were experiencing a growing number of severe aircraft accidents, suffering the loss of up to 20 aircrafts and pilots a year, mostly due to human error.
In order to improve flight safety and performance in general, the IAF implemented what’s known as the Debrief Methodology. The new approach was based on three pillars - setting targets and goals, analysing and learn from failures and sharing insights.
The main guidline was -
"It is humane to make mistakes, but mistakes should never be repeated".
The implementation of Debrief Methodology translated not only into an immediate and dramatic reduction in plane crashes, but also a measurable increase in efficiency, team cohesiveness and overall morale.
This methodology made the IAF an epitome of excellence in Israeli society.
Recently, the IAF Debrief methodology has evolved and modified into commercial organizations day to day tools & Rules, also known as the "Lesson Assessment".
In order for organizations to gain progress from experience, and turn it into revenue, for each event, one has to ask themeselves three simple-to-ask, difficult-to-answer, questions:
What went wrong?
Why did it go wrong?
How do we assure it will not happen again?
Most Organizations make it as far as the first question. A Smaller number will proceed to the second, But only a small handful push full throttle to reach new heights. Most have the will for advancement, and the bright minds to do so, but they are failing to turn experience into insights, since they have not been given the required resources, tools and training to perform.
One of the biggest obstacles is the inherent culture of “being right” instead of “getting it right”.
In order to figure out what went wrong, one needs to sort out the root cause - uncover the fundamental elements of an event which 95% of the time involves human error. the main challenge it the lack of organization's culture and mechanisms that encourage employees to admit their mistakes. On the contrary, an employee will usually risks ridicule, demotion and even getting fired for making a mistake. So why fess up?
Overcoming this obstacle can only take place if one feel safe enough to admit he is doing it wrong. This means leaving the "who’s at fault" aside and move to "evolve from experience", unfortunately society does little to provide us with that sense of security.
This is just one of the key component of Lesson assessment, granting the tools that empower accountability among an organization’s employees.
The new approach requires that not only failures need exploring, but also successful events should be analyzed in order to understand what went right, thus perpetuating success.
The Lesson Assessment methodology enables organization to evolve from gained experience by implementing minor modifications within their work processes and through a change in mindset among the employees.
Hopefully as more organizations adopt it we will see a lot less projects crashing and a lot more revenues soaring.
