How do you communicate with your peers?
For something so quintessentially important to the work environment it’s not something I really spend enough time thinking about. Fortunately, there’s Malcolm Gladwell to do that thinking for me (or at least a bit of it anyway).
In Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers. The story of success” he covers the usual range of interesting topics that prompt you to think about how they apply to yourself. How to become a successful New York lawyer in the 70’s and the importance of getting 7hrs practice a night if you’re the Beatles aren’t things I think about a lot. Actually, I try not to think about the Beatles at all as they’re the most over-thought band ever (don’t get me started).
Anyway, Gladwell spends a bit of time talking about flight crews and the impact of cultural norms on their ability to handle a crisis. I won’t spoil the read, but what I found interesting related to the “Power Distance Index” (PDI) created by Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede. To quote Malc “the PDI is concerned with attitudes toward hierarchy, specifically with how much a particular culture values and respects authority”. Or in other words, you’re propensity to tell your boss what you think.
Now, what I found really interesting about this is when he went on to list the five countries whose pilots (on average) have the lowest PDI scores. They are;
15. United States
16.Ireland (the Irish have been known to have a fairly good grasp of expletives which might help here)
17. South Africa
18. Australia
19. New Zealand
Now, I’m not going to try and claim that the stresses of working in communications are even close to those of getting a $50m bird up and down without spilling someone’s OJ, but I thought there was something to this. The vast majority of the people that I’ve worked with over the years have come from these counties (plus of course the “Advertising Industry Immigration Scheme” which sees media flooded by Nathan Barley and his mates from Shoreditch).
I think it’s critical that people in our industry feel empowered enough to call a spade, a spade. God knows there are some Godzilla like egos in boardrooms around town, but I’ve found pandering to them rarely results in good work. I’ve spat out the words “I hate it” in a creative review when I was definitely in the minority. Not necessarily the most diplomatic approach but at least everyone knew where I stood.
Challenge ideas. Express your thoughts. It will improve the work.
And hopefully you find that the PDI in your office isn’t too dissimilar to a cockpit.
