Fly The Plane!

This past weekend I went with my beautiful wife to see the new movie “Sully” the story of Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) and Captain of US Air flight 1549. The afternoon of the flight it was a brisk 32 degrees in January 2009, and all seemed in order for a routine flight from La Guardia, NY to Charlotte, NC. You know the story and the outcome. As Hollywood always does, they need to put their spin on things, create a little drama…and they did. It’s a very good movie, and definitely one I recommend seeing. If you’re anything like me, you enjoy seeing triumph over challenges, good over evil and not being Pollyanna(ish), I like it when things work out, especially after struggle.

Even knowing how things worked out, the entire 208 second flight and saving all 155 souls on board, it still feels good to see it happen in front of your eyes. And there’s plenty of action. Anecdotally, I find it interesting and entertaining that Hollywood can take a 208 second flight and turn it into a 5,760 second movie (1hr 36m). As a private pilot and business man, I had several take-aways from the movie. The most compelling for me were;

·       Fly the plane

·       Being present trumps over analysis

·       You get one attempt to stick it

Let me elaborate a little;

Fly the plane- I remember as a young and aspiring pilot my instructor repeated his instructions clearly during pre-flight, while flying and post-flight. “No matter what’s going on, always fly the plane!” Don’t allow the skeptics, critics or whatever is holding you back from flying your plane (actual or metaphorical). Don’t let the noise drown out what’s in-front of you, be aware of it, but always fly your plane. This point made me choke back a tear or two when it was said in the movie, as a flood of memories filled my head and the need to do this in business and life. Think of the meetings you attend with your smart phone and check email, or social media. Put it down and fly your plane.

Being present trumps over analysis- in our go faster, ever complex and getting more analyzed world, we tend to “wait” until someone or a device says it’s ok to act, to go, to make things happen. Often times at the risk of losing momentum or the opportunity at hand. At the risk of spoiling the movie, as if I haven’t already, there’s a point, a crescendo when Sully quietly asks the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), how many attempts the simulator pilots had before landing the ill-fated US Air flight back at La Guardia successfully?” It took the simulator pilots 17 attempts and countless hours of planning to execute this. To be clear, Sully and co-pilot Jeffery Skiles had 208 seconds of total flight and less than 35 seconds to determine what to do. As you’ll see in the movie, it appears that they choreographed, yet in reality is was instinct, training, preplanning (in business terms it would be; to-2-top, strategic analysis & planning, role playing, collaboration, and cross-functional team building), or what I like to label #oneteam. Getting buy in from your disparate teams is prerequisite to defining what success is, the steps to achieve it and unraveling the process. In the moment, “being present trumps all of this, do your planning, and then fly your plane!”

You get one attempt to stick it- Unlike the simulator pilots that had 17 crash landings prior to sticking it, we (usually) get one attempt to “stick it,” which in pilot terms means to land the plane on the center line and the predetermined location, with minimal disruption to forward movement (i.e. smooth). In business and life, it’s just as true. Think of your last meeting or presentation, did you wing it? Did you get buy in prior to setting up the appointment? Did you define your objective, target/goal and decide what success was? Did you share this with your team or team mates prior to meeting? All of this to showcase the need to pre-plan, collaborate, share stories, decide what success is and how you plan to execute this strategic plan. And then, after sticking your presentation, collaboration or life plan, conduct a post mortem. What went as expected, what can be improved, what are next steps to get us closer to our objective, and how might we share experiences that improve transparency, increase cadence and promote the #oneteam concept.

I’m reminded of a quote and it’s appropriate for this blog.

“We are drowning in information. While starving for wisdom” – Anonymous

Too often we’re either delayed or paralyzed because our boss, our computer or whatever analysis you’re doing doesn’t explicitly tell you when, what and how to execute. I’m telling you, the time is now! Be sure to do your due diligence, analyze the objective, create a clear action plan and before taking off, share this plan with your boss and stakeholders and the ones you already know will poke holes in your success. And always remember to “fly the plane!”