Photo: Airwolfhound, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Boeing B-17, known as the “Flying Fortress,” earned its nickname for its role as a fast, high-altitude bomber that delivered more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. Its exceptional capabilities were crucial in supporting the Allies’ campaign against the German army. Capable of accommodating a crew of 10, pilots held great affection for the plane. As one account goes: “She’ll not only get you to the target and do the job, but she’ll fight her way out, take terrific punishment and get you safely home.”
But there was one big problem with the “Flying Fortress” … the landing.
A disturbingly high number of planes crashed during landing, resulting in significant damage and, most importantly, the loss of crew members. Often the pilots were blamed (and also took the blame) for these accidents, mainly due to fatigue, mistakes, or unforeseen events.
To address the issue, the U.S. Army Air Forces commissioned a study led by psychologists Alphonse Chapanis and Paul Fitts. As they began to gather data, it turned out that over the course of 22 months, more than 400 landing crashes of a very similar nature had occurred. And so, they started to interview the pilots who had crashed.
Very quickly, a surprising pattern emerged, causing the analysts to focus their attention on the controls in the airplane’s cockpit. It turned out there were two nearly identical toggle switches side by side. One acted to release the landing gear. The other deployed the landing flaps.
When coming back from a highly emotional, stressful, and long flight in combat, the weary pilots were occasionally mixing up the two switches. Thinking they would deploy the wing flaps to reduce the speed and land the plane safely, the pilots were accidentally reaching for the landing gear, which retracted the plane’s wheels. The result? Catastrophe.
The root cause was not a “pilot error,” but rather a design error.
Solution: The switches were not only separated in the cockpit, they were given different colour and shape as well. With these fixes, the accidents were history. Case closed.
Why am I telling this story?
When reading about it, I asked myself, what if there was a useful analogy here … between the tired pilots coming back from combat and ourselves, during stressful situations that trigger us in our daily lives. These would be situations that stress and push us to the limit emotionally whilst we are trying desperately to “land the plane.” Just recall a difficult conversation with your angry boss, the latest argument with your spouse, or the struggle in preparing for a critically important presentation. We all occasionally feel the stress and get triggered.
How do we ensure in such situation that we hit the right switch … using the wing flaps to land the plane safely vs. retracting the landing gear and causing a catastrophe? How do we stay calm and react thoughtfully in such trigger situations?
Reading how meticulously the psychologists evaluated the root causes, it made me think of a tool I am using a lot with my clients and for myself … The Thought Feeling Behaviour (TFB) Worksheet … that was developed as part of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
Writing down what you went through in that stressful, reactive situation right away after the dust has settled can be very useful. Keep it simple. What thoughts came up? How did it impacted your feelings, and what behaviours were triggered? The insights you glean can be as eye opening as the insights gained from the deconstruction of the B-17 accidents.
Here is a classic example of such a “root cause analysis.”
Once we know what triggers us and how we react, we can begin to “change the switches.” This could entail taking a breather, removing oneself from the situation, asking for a short time-out or switching to the adult-state based on an anchor … as described in a previous newsletter.
There are lots of coaching, therapeutic, and mindfulness exercises that can help us “change the switch” and react differently next time we are faced with a similar situation.
Most importantly, first we need to understand exactly what is happening in these triggering situations before we can learn from them and improve our responses. The process is no different from analyzing the causes of the plane crashes.
My challenge today is simple. Over the coming days, note which situations trigger you and what thoughts, feelings and behaviours you notice. I bet you will not only gain new insights on what is going on and which “switches” you pull during these difficult situations, but you’ll also start to process these situations better.
This, in turn, will enable you to change the switches and land more safely in the future.
And, in case you need a coach to work with you on that, I guess you know whom to call :-)!
Happy landings!
Joerg
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