Just about everyone reading this has had the great fun filled experience of navigating airport security. Those of us who navigate the gauntlet regularly all know how most of what we face is pure theater with minimal effect on flight safety. If you don’t believe this wait until you watch a pilot explaining that he will be flying the plane and so hardly needs to blow it up with his 3.5 ounce bottle of shampoo…just above the silly 3 ounce limit. He argues to no avail, of course.
I’ve thought that this exercise in wasted effort and expense was merely the result of our government wanting to keep the unemployment rate down by employing thousands of people who otherwise would have nothing to do. Now I have discovered a different reason: peace of mind.
It seems that the US Travel Association lobbies for regularity. For reasons that have nothing to do with actual security, the feel that the traveling public deserves predictability. But as we all know, predictability is the enemy of real security. Apparently they feel we are too stupid to understand that terrifying a four year old with a physical search because they were randomly chosen, is silly. And, counterproductive.
Sir Martin Boughton, chairman of British Airways, rightly responds that what we need is actually “deliberate unpredictability”.
I mention this here, since it got me thinking about how often executives operate exactly the same way. They desire predictability above all else and so miss opportunities that randomly appear around them. Unpredictability is dangerous. It upsets plans and leads to the need to be flexible, creative, and fast moving.
Predictability is slow, calm, and regular. There is plenty of time to investigate every detail and do detailed financial projections. Of course, while you’re doing these projections the fleet of foot are eating your lunch.
So it seems to me that long term success in business should follow Sir Martin’s thinking, be deliberately unpredictable. Grab opportunities and run with them. Create a culture that values innovation, creativity, and new ideas and ways of thinking. Reward those who drive you forward and send those desiring predictability packing.
Be flexible…
