I’m not one for life-changing resolutions, but I have made a concerted effort to read more books this year.  My latest endeavor, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, is an engaging and informative piece that should appeal to students and teachers alike.  Although Gladwell covers familiar ground in addressing the point at which children begin kindergarten, the performance of Asian countries on the TIMMS assessment, and the length of the school year in various countries, perhaps his most intriguing lesson for the education profession lies in Chapter 7: The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes.

**Photo courtesy of Naddsy on Flickr (Creative Commons, non-commercial)

In his examination of aviation safety, Gladwell details the storied history of Korean Air, formerly one of the most dangerous airlines in the world.  Over a twenty year span it wrote off sixteen aircraft in serious incidents and accidents with a loss of over 700 lives.  Since 1997, however, it has not had a single fatal crash and today is among the safest carriers in the skies.  The reasons for the turnaround?  An understanding of communication, culture, and Geert Hofstede’s Power Distance Index.

As Gladwell explains, airplane crashes rarely happen as depicted on the silver screen.  In reality, the typical accident is not due to a lack of knowledge or skills, and involves seven consecutive human errors.  Furthermore, these errors are invariably due to a lack of teamwork and collaboration.  Iced wings, low fuel, or a broken glide scope will generally not lead to catastrophe unless there is a communication breakdown on the flight deck.  Mitigated speech, which Gladwell defines as “any attempt to downplay or sugar-coat what is being said” is what brings planes down, and Chapter 7 is full of examples of mitigated speech leading to disaster.  Deference to authority, while polite, is not always prudent…but it is predictable.

Hofstede’s Power Distance Index (PDI) is a measure of how close or how distant a relationship superiors like to have with their subordinates, and that subordinates like to have with their superiors.  In a study comparing the PDI of pilots from around the world, researchers found a strong correlation between countries/cultures with high a PDI and plane crashes.  In other words, when people don’t speak up, the consequences can be dire.  The United States has a relatively low PDI (40) and its domestic carriers enjoy a near-perfect safety record; American flight crews speak their mind.  But what of American educators?

While as a nation we may not feel comfortable accepting the idea that power is distributed unequally, to what extent do teachers and administrators play the role of high PDI aviators?  Our much-lamented state of education is not because teachers cannot teach or administrators cannot manage.  Granted, teacher preparation and professional development have been sharply criticized in recent months, but is this to say that we as a collective lack the knowledge and skills to provide our students a quality if not world-class education?

If you want to know what is wrong with our schools, have lunch at the typical faculty table.  Given the opportunity (i.e. in the absence of administrators), teachers will be quick to share their insight on everything from classroom management to standardized testing.  They understand where we have come up short as a profession, and they have viable suggestions for improvement.  Unfortunately, these ideas often stay in the lunch room because there is a high power distance between faculty and administration.

Administrators are expected to lead, and teachers are expected to follow.  When schools run into educational “turbulence”, do they look to their own ranks for solutions or wait for instructions from Central Office?  Even in schools where open communication is encouraged, how many teachers, faced with the issues of evaluation, tenure, and financial stability, assert themselves to close the relationship gap?  Though there are certainly exceptions, I daresay they are few in number.

If Korean Air can turn itself around, so can American education.  It will take more than narrowing a power index, but rethinking traditional roles and relationships, and working collaboratively toward a common goal, would go a long way toward improving our schools.  The next time you have an opportunity to “help fly the plane”, don’t hesitate to help chart the course.

Posted: 02|10|09 at 10:57 am. Filed under: Books, Leadership.
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