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Joe Manuel posted an update in the group
9 months ago (edited)Knowledge Shared = Knowledge Multiplied ‘Food for Thought ‘– ONE Minute read.
The 2nd World war was on (1939 – 45).
Allies war planes were on a bombing spree. They were being met with heavy gun fire from the enemy side. Many planes were getting hit and going down. At one point the casualty rate rose as high as 45%; meaning only one in two planes had a chance of returning back to base. This was alarming for allied forces.
The teams sat down to find a solution. Reinforcing the key bullet receiving parts with additional metal was thought of as a possible solution to improve survival rate.
The investigations conducted on returning planes indicated bullet hole damages were (only) on the fuselage and tail-wing parts. Therefore it was obvious that these parts required reinforcement. It was almost decided to go ahead on that basis.
At this point a Hungarian war veteran pointed out that they were examining only the returning planes. The ones that don’t return were out of this study. And those planes were going down for a valid reason – they were being hit on more critical parts!
The planes with bullet holes in their fuselage and tale parts were still making it back to the base, while those being hit on such key parts as cock pit and engine areas, were not returning at all! Therefore those areas were more critical and dangerous.
Following this insight, the places chosen for reinforcement changed drastically! Rightly so.
For us the point to reflect is, do such blind-spots exist in our decision making processes too? How do we discover them?
It’s very important that while taking decisions or making choices we see things as they are, not as what we think they are.
Also, while interpreting information available, let’s stay clear of our hardened stance, our opinions, biases and prejudices. That way we better our chance to see things as they are!
