Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman. Ori also wrote The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. Both are good reads and worthy of your time.
The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great learning. Why do we fall for irrational behavior? There would be no excuse for experienced, well educated professionals to stumble so badly? Are we really that close to irrational behavior that could actually endanger the lives of others?
When you want to tell a convincing story you start off with a homerun statement. This captures the attention of everyone.
Ori does this for instance, by sharing the story of an educated, deeply experienced professional. Highly regarded by colleagues both internally and from other companies as a voice of reason and industry leader.
In other words, what changes in behavior allows one to commit such an irrational action that results in the deaths of 534 people? Sway examines in chapter one the deadliest aviation disaster in history. It happened on the small island of Tenerife.
Similarly, this was one of the first investigations to conclude “human factors” as a cause. The investigation suggested his reputation, captain’s seniority, and being one of the most respected pilots working for the airline. The apparent hesitation of the flight engineer and the first officer to challenge pilot Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten contributed to the crash.
Above all, in addition to pilot duties Veldhuyzen van Zanten had been promoted to chief flight instructor for the Boeing 747. He was in charge of training all of KLM’s pilots on this type of aircraft. He was also head of KLM’s flight training department for over ten years.
However, the first officer actually intervened when Veldhuyzen van Zanten first opened the throttles. He did not challenge on the second occasion. The flight engineer had asked the captain if they were clear to take off. The co-pilots challenged the captain yet did not insistent that he alter takeoff.
The remaining seven chapters provide well written examples of Sway. This tragic lesson is not to be missed as the key lesson of irrational behavior based upon a series of small events. Study the small events.
In conclusion, this is as stunning an opening to any recent book. An amazing story powerfully illustrates how easily we can be swayed by irrational behavior.
Talks at Google | Ori & Rom Brafman: “Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior”