One of the topics I cover in Consider is what it takes to create organizational cultures that routinely think through the down side of strategies. Reflection is not just about hatching the next big idea. Reflection means routinely training your mind on things that could happen. Reflection means questioning habits and routines and never getting too comfortable with the “as is.” The goal is not to predict the future but to intellectually explore the whole spectrum of what is in front of you.
Thirty years ago this week, Ronald Reagan was nearly killed by a deranged assassination. I will long recall being a little boy listening to the radio in my room that rainy afternoon– as the media processed the chaotic scene and its aftermath. There were many lessons for the Secret Service in the days and years following the assassination attempt. Recently, Jerry Paar, the agent who thrust Reagan into the limousine, reflected back on what the Service learned about their habits and routines (see minute 50 of this extraordinary discussion).
He shared that the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. was a frequent White House event location. In fact, the day of the shooting marked the 111th time a President had been taken there for an event. The setting was familiar. The advance teams knew the place cold. The guards had the same posts. They entered and exited the building the same way. Crowds lined up. President’s waved as they left the hotel before getting into the limo. In 110 prior visits things had gone smoothly.
But Paar added this, “what I failed to note was that the crowd was building up over the times that we went there.” He said that the crowd had come to “expect” the President to wave on the way out of the building– at exactly the same spot. President Carter would even use the car as a step stool as he saluted the crowd. Within that expectation and routine process a would-be assassin went to work. He hid within the familiar. He went undetected and was able to exploit the moment as it unfolded with the consistency of dozens of similar visits.
The Secret Service has a job like no other in the world. They get no second chances. They have learned hard lessons from each attempt against those they are entrusted with protecting. The above example is powerful in the sense that habits and routines can blind an organization to a threat that is growing. Routines can mask what is really happening. The obvious and the familiar can easily leave you vulnerable. It takes a lot to see and question what is comfortable. Reflection is so undervalued in organizations today that the familiar and the routine seem to validate the paths we are on. As Darryl V. Poole shared with me, “true reflection can be painful.”
Leaders should ask: what haven’t they questioned in a long while? What is it that you are about to do for the 111th time? When was the last time you pondered the efficacy of most familiar and intuitive business practices that you cling to? Agent Paar concluded that the lack of questioning on that terrible day left the agents and the president deeply vulnerable. He said, “it caught us by surprise when the gun fire sounded. It makes you wonder: what’s about to catch you by surprise that’s right in front of your eyes? Its worth considering.
