Getting ready for a 'technology-first world'

Deepanshu Sharma

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

The world recently witnessed a, seemingly avoidable, situation which led of loss of several lives in a very unfortunate air crash. A leading aviation safety expert Captain Sully, a legend in himself shared concerns around woefully low levels of 'pilot experience' today. I'd like to characterize his observation as a serious 'human skill' issue. In short - increasing levels of technology deployment is undermining the 'human factor'.

Because - machines fail. Even in 6 Sigma driven industries. Period!

The bigger worry is that these are not isolated incidents. We have seen that happen in case of the Korean Air crash in California in 2013. In 2016, a Tesla Model S driving in autonomous mode crashed into a large 18-wheel truck crossing the highway, killing the occupant of the car. Then there is the unfortunate accident involving an Uber car testing autonomous mode, which led to the death of a pedestrian in 2018, just because the sensors failed to detect the pedestrian.

So, what fail-safe mechanisms are we putting in place to allow the 'human' to take back control, while there is sufficient reaction time available to the human being?

What does all this have to do with business and leadership? We have seen several examples of systemic failures of data driven leadership, which ignores the human element of the skill - case in point, once much celebrated, and then unceremoniously debunked 'bell curve'.

Too much dependence on data and models undermines the immense capability of the human brain to make elegant decisions, far superior than any algorithm, programmed for a defined set of parameters. No auto pilot would have pulled off the 'Miracle on the Hudson', but for the experience Capt. Sully gained over the years.

Having said that, the situation with regards to Boeing also highlights issues related to ethical business decision making, which 'perhaps' prioritised time-to-market over rigorous testing, documentation and pilot training... read as - 'time and money'. The pilots of both the ill-fated flights - the Ethiopian Air flight 302 and Lion Air flight 610 were experienced pilots. So the second lesson for the corporate world is that past experience and pedigree cannot substitute the need for appropriate relearning / training for the new world order.