I was flying home from Utah earlier this year, and it included a stopover at Houston. The clouds over Houston were super thick, and it seriously looked like we were flying into mashed up cotton wool on our descent approach to the airport.
Because it was an evening flight, it was starting to get pretty dark and you really couldn?t see anything but cloud.
The pilots, for all intents and purposes, were flying blind. They were looking at the same cloud cover I was; they were seeing the same nothingness that I was. Except they were having to navigate 200+ people through it, of course.
All they had to guide them was the technology in their hands and a voice on the ground that was giving them their flight course.
Three people, putting faith in technology and each other, to guide a 30-tonne piece of metal through a sky of nothing. Trusting the voice on the ground that nothing would pierce through the clouds and into our jet; and trusting the pilots to do their job without fear of the darkness ahead of them.
We can learn from that, in everything we do. We have technology around us that makes our lives easier and helps impossible tasks become possible. But we need to trust the people that are around the technology as well.
- On our blogs, we need to trust our readers and invite them to share their knowledge with us. We don?t know everything; our readers can help.
- In our businesses, we need to trust each employee and involve them in the process. Sure, there will be moments that levels need to be maintained for some decision-making; but don?t keep employees in the dark while these decisions are being made. They?re our lifeblood; without our employees we have no business.
- Our online and offline connections put trust in us every day. They trust us to be open with them, and not BS them. In return, we trust them as well; we share their news and promote their content. We use the latest technology to do so, but it comes down to mutual trust and faith between people to enable that sharing in the first place.
We?re all flying blind; but if we build enough trust in each other, at least we can fly blind together and maybe guide each other home. Ready to fly?