Malcolm Gladwell in London: A crash course
Wasn’t really sure what to expect from an untitled talk by the celebrated author – would it be an inspirational turn or just an opportunity to sell his new book?
A little bit of both as it turned out.
As far as the content was concerned, most of the 90 minute talk centred around a particularly potent anecdote that appears in one chapter of the new book: the Avianca Flight 52 plane crash.
To simplify (and to risk being simplistic) there were two intertwined strands of thought: one about the significance of interpersonal communication, and the other about the influence of national culture over interpersonal communication.
On the first strand, Gladwell pulled on his principal anecdote of the tragic plane crash to illustrate the dire consequences of mitigation in our communication with others, i.e. “sugar-coating” what we really mean to say because it’s not socially acceptable to be brutally honest. In the case of the Avianca crash (and with many plane crashes, apparently), it wasn’t a big technological malfunction that was to blame but a succession of small “social errors”: continual miscommunication between the pilot, the co-pilot and the air traffic controller. In particular, the co-pilot not speaking up when he knew that catastrophe was imminent. On the black box recording, there were literally minutes of silence in the face of disaster.
This idea of “Cockpit Silence” is actually a really compelling one when you apply it to organisational cultures (which is what Gladwell hinted at in his talk). It sums up in an appropriately blunt fashion the extent to which things can very quickly go from bad to terrible in organisations where employees don’t feel that they can speak up when things don’t go according to plan – see Nick Leeson.
But more interestingly perhaps, you could also apply it to the relationships that organisations have with their customers. In other words, the longer you leave your fans out in the cold without the encouragement or tools to communicate with you, the more likely you are to have a crash. What if Dell had encouraged conversation from the start? They would have probably avoided this.
Gladwell’s second strand of thought, around the cultural effect on our respect for authority and resulting style of interpersonal communication was, for me, less compelling. Partly because I have an issue with Hofstede‘s study (upon which many of his assertions were based) because of its questionable methodology, but also because ‘culture’ is already such a well-trodden field.
Overall, though, I was blown away by Gladwell’s story-telling skills; the pace, pitch and delivery were all spot-on. And it’s inspired me to work on my own style of delivering presentations from a totally different angle; as one of a raconteur vs. an account planner.
Wish me luck!
wasn’t that gladwell speak like an hour or so ago? thanks for the quick share. i think the ‘cockpit silence’ can also happen in our own agency dynamic or between client/agency relationship as well. one process we’ve introduced to our client is a 360-evaluation/score-carding for our clients. it’s not perfect right now, it’s still somewhat of a 1-way dialog, but we’re working on it. it’s tough when clients change roles so often.
btw, you don’t need luck, sounds like you got some good stories to share and tell. thanks, nick.
You should always be telling a story when you present, no other good way.
Enjoyed the post BTW, was offered a tix but the lure of home and a log fire was simply too strong in the end….
agree with the storytelling thing: he’s a master and of course Amelia’s spot-on, no matter where and what you present this has got to be key.
I’m sure the book will be an interesting read, although I bet he could cover it off in half as many pages as he uses….
@Windo – Yes, was on it as soon as I got back home, armed with the notes I’d scrawled in the dark. Agree that the Cockpit Silence thing can be highly detrimental to client/agency relationships too – I learnt this the hard way in my early days as an Account Exec (!)…Thanks for the kind words.
@Amelia – Agree that storytelling is the only way to go. The bit that I haven’t quite nailed is the delivery part – feeling (or at least appearing to feel) as comfortable telling a story in front of a large group of professional people as I do with a group of mates in the pub. Rory Sutherland is incredible at this.
@doug – Were you there yesterday too? Also look forward to getting stuck into the book…
yes – at the 17.45 (or 18.25 as it turned out) showing. was a bit of a scrum but a pretty enjoyable way to spend a Monday evening I reckon
storytelling by don draper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY
Hey windo – thanks for that clip. Loving it.