“Away from greatness…”
I remember clearly
where I was on January 28th, 1986, when the Challenger space shuttle
exploded shortly after launch, as time seemed to stand still, and when I found myself
crying and repeating, “no, no, no…!”
I was starting a drive
from Ontario to Costa Mesa, in southern California. I had just pulled away from
the motel where I was staying when I heard the bulletin on the car radio. I had
to pull over for a while so I could achieve some sense of calm in the face of such
a tragedy.
I was fixated on the
radio reports of what had happened, fixated so much that I found myself entering
the city limits of San Bernardino. I had missed the turnoff that would have taken
me to my destination in Costa Mesa. I was so upset that I wouldn’t have been of
much value at the meeting I’d been scheduled to attend anyway. I was in no shape
to be productive.
Years after the tragedy,
a video was published that used the Challenger
explosion as an example of what’s called Groupthink, the term used to
describe the desire to preserve harmony, stifling the desire to present a contrarian
viewpoint, experiencing the fear of “speaking out” in the presence of intense pressure
to go along. A quote from the investigation stated the following: “…NASA's organizational
culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors
to the accident.”
Over the years, I’ve
gained a reputation of “speaking my mind”. The reputation has its roots in my first
job after college. I questioned the reasoning of the CEO of my organization concerning
the supposed behavior of our foreign exchange professional – which led the CEO to
accuse him of inappropriate behavior based solely on one or two rumors that had
been circulating. I commented that further investigation would be in order to validate
the rumors, especially since the matter at hand was not a threat in any way. After
a few grumblings, my CEO agreed, and I was volunteered to lead the information gathering
process – which resulted in a full exoneration of the accused.
The Groupthink video
is outstanding. It’s been used as a focal point in workshops on management effectiveness.
In the video, there is a conversation that was reported to have taken place. The
scientist, played by Peter Boyle, stated that going along with
the Challenger launch would be “…away from greatness.”
That statement has stuck with
me over the years, and I’ve used it in more than a few discussions where the minority
viewpoint was being steamrolled.
That tragedy was a low point
for the forced decisions that are all too common to this day.
