We Need Pilots

Frederic    Uncategorized    

Seth Godin says that pilots do well on job interviews because they are able to follow instructions to the point and get stuff done according to checklists, on time, every time. Sounds good, but then he says:

Here’s the thing: I think (outside of the airline business, of course) that our need for pilots is diminishing, and rapidly. I think the value add of a person who carefully follows instructions and procedures keeps going down. I think the fact that pilots would do well in a job interview at your organization means your organization probably should change the way interviews get done.

We don’t need pilots. We need instigators and navigators, rabble rousers and innovators. People who can’t follow a checklist to save their life, but invent the future every day.

I call BS on that one. Most organizations mostly need people to get a job done. Not everybody is a manager, not every job needs people to be creative – and not everybody is f-ing creative. Sometimes a job just needs to get done – a job that can’t be done by a robot – and the last thing you need then is a rabble rouser.

Even in the high-tech world, for example, can you imagine the chaos at an Intel Fab if every technician would start innovating and rabble rousing? There is a time and place for creativity, but sometimes, there is also a place for checklists and procedures – as boring as it may be.

And by the way, you don’t need pilots to fly a plane either. Auto-takeoff, auto-land, GPS navigation have made pilots redundant. But here is why you need a pilot – when shit happens. And what pilots do when shit happens? They follow the “shit has happened” checklist – because it is the checklist that is going to keep people alive – not being creative and not rabble rousing at 36.000 feet.

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