Leadership Is Language

The Industrial Age “playbook” that divides workforces is obsolete.

In 2015, in one of the most preventable disasters in modern seafaring history, the El Faro commercial vessel sailed directly into Hurricane Joaquin. Salvaged voice recordings from its bridge reveal that the captain decided to make the Jacksonville-to-San Juan run along the most expedient route, not the safest. He made no allowances for the weather. The ship’s rigid organizational structure meant no one challenged his authority and everyone aboard perished.

The captain and crew used an outdated “playbook” from the Industrial Age, when the workforce was divided into “deciders” and the “doers,” those in charge over those who obey.

Balance thinking and doing. Thinking increases variability, while taking action reduces it.

Achieving variability and dealing with it is hard work. Staying focused on doing a job requires dealing with fewer variables, but at the risk of being shortsighted, which can bring disastrous consequences. Thinking and doing are two different, complementary mental processes. Finding the balance...