My wife and I flew to Boston over the weekend to visit our daughter for college parent's weekend. While we were sitting on the tarmac awaiting take-off, I noticed something that I hadn't considered before in the past. Shortly before take-off, our flight attendant asked us to "pay attention for a brief safety message." He then proceeded to repeat a memorized speech on how to put on and take-off your seat belt, how to use your seat cushion for a flotation device, how to find your way out of the plane in case of an accident, and how to put on your oxygen mask in the event of a loss in cabin pressure. It was all very important information, but I was particularly impressed by the fact that he had memorized the entire speech - though if you consider that he had probably given that speech at least a thousand times, maybe it wasn't such an impressive feat after all!
What struck me as interesting was the fact that so many of the passengers weren't paying attention to the flight attendant's "important safety brief." Several passengers continued reading, while several more were punching away on their smartphones or laptops. As I thought more about it, this was one of the few times that I actually paid attention to the flight attendant's well-rehearsed speech. I had just happened to be paying attention - usually I am reading, punching keys on a laptop, or sleeping! Clearly there is something going on here. Undoubtedly, the information that the flight attendant is repeating is important (our lives could depend upon following these instructions for rarely used emergency procedures). However, most passengers have probably heard this same brief on countless flights in the past. So, perhaps most passengers already feel confident in their knowledge of these emergency procedures?
I started thinking about other safety procedures in the aviation industry. I have read about aviation safety, and I have talked with many pilots about safety in the past. Almost every procedure before, during, and after a flight is scripted on some sort of checklist. In fact, one of the first things that pilots do in an emergency is pull out the relevant checklist. Why? The aviation industry wants to make sure that every step of a procedure (both routine procedures and emergency procedures) is followed in the exact sequence, every single time that the procedure is performed. Aviation safety experts believe, and have evidence to show, that nothing whatsoever should be left to chance. Follow the exact steps in a procedure and use the proper checklist and nothing will be forgotten. No important steps will be left out. No mistakes will be made. Safety is critical - the lives of the passengers and the flight crew depend upon it.
Which brings me back to the flight attendant's safety brief. If all of these emergency procedures were critical (and I believe that they are), then why not use a checklist or read from a script rather than memorizing the entire speech? Why leave something like that to chance? Would passengers pay more attention to the safety brief if the airlines placed it on an equal degree of importance as every other procedure during a flight? If the airlines required flight attendants to use a checklist and read from a script, maybe more passengers would pay attention?
How many times do we, as leaders, send these same kinds of mixed messages? On the one hand, we try to convince our teams that something is important to us - maybe it's a new safety initiative or new process. Maybe in the back of our minds, we are thinking, "Here we go again. One more new thing." Unconsciously (or even at times, consciously), by our actions, we signal to our teams that we really don't care too much about the new initiative. We allow our subconscious feelings and opinions out by our actions. We say one thing and then we do another - some times, we don't even follow our new process!
One of the worse things a leader can do is torpedo a new project or initiative by signaling to other members of the team that he or she thinks the new project is a waste of time. I think this happens fairly frequently, and I wonder if this is what is going on with the flight attendant's safety brief. By memorizing the safety brief when everything else on the flight has been scripted on a checklist, the flight attendants are subconsciously letting us know that what he or she is saying really doesn't matter all that much. Interestingly enough, on the return flight, our pilot got out of his seat and came back to the cabin. He actually picked up the microphone and started telling us how important it was that we paid attention to the flight attendant's safety instructions. While the flight attendant still went from memory, it seemed more passengers were paying attention.
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