The Power Of Silence

Power of silence yield more power than words and is a tools for a successful management in airport or airline operations. Silence is not to remain silent without communication, silence is not to manipulate another person’s opinion by silence, but it is to know when silence is a necessary tool to communicate safety critical information. Silence is natures tool to rejuvenate the mind. Without silence there could be a safety overload among all personnel, including the accountable executive (AE). Safety overload, or information overload is a hazard in itself. When information is processed from an overload of new data, there is a gap of associate new and unknown data collected to known and comprehended data, and different paths may overlap or shadow the other. 

Comprehension of systems, process and work practices is to turn data into information, information is then turned into knowledge and knowledge is turned into comprehension. This is a time-consuming process, and needs to be recycled, renewed or rejuvenated over and over again before it can be applied to practical use. Learning about data could be as simple task as learning what power setting is required when conducting an x-ray inspection of a 120mm thick steel plate for material flaws. While learning how to select a number is a simple task, the complexity is to comprehend systems by understanding what, when, where, why, who and how to apply the correct selection processes.  

Information overload is a state of being overwhelmed by the amount of data presented for one's attention or processing. Information overload reduces capacity to function effectively, which can lead to incorrect decisions, as well as the inability to make decisions. When the situation persists, safety burnout is a common result. Information overload may impact organizations significant in many ways. It can lead to decreased productivity and decreased efficiency, or it can lead to increased stress levels and conflict within the organization. Information overload may affect a person’s awareness, decisionmaking process, and the ability to complete simple tasks, such as submitting a hazard or incident report. 

A decisionmaking process is a tool to reduce or totally eliminate information overload. When a person has made a decision, or made up their mind, the data input process for that decision is completed, and does not need to be processed again.  All related data and information are cleared from the mind, while knowledge and comprehension remain intact.

Effective communication only happens when the intended message is expressed successfully by one person and received and understood by another. If executed correctly, it cuts down the unintended consequences that arise as a result of miscommunication. When a word is chosen to communicate a thought, idea, or description, there is no guarantee, or assurances that the intended meaning will be clearly understood by recipients. 

The importance of choosing the right word may not seem critically important to everyone, but as an example in the x-ray above, using the wrong term in the nondestructive testing industry (NDT) can have severe consequences. A flaw may not be discovered, and mechanical parts are signed off as compliant. 

Nondestructive testing is a required inspection used by many industries to ensure the safety of the public by ensuring the reliability and integrity of construction materials, manufacturing and fabrication processes, and the products in use meet the minimum quality standards required. One example could be that before an aircraft is placed in service, hundreds if not thousands of its components are inspected for compliance to specifications utilizing various nondestructive testing methods. After the aircraft has been in service, nondestructive testing is again performed at specified maintenance intervals on many of these same components in order to assess their continued reliability and integrity required for airworthiness. 

Several years ago, a flaw was discovered in compressor turbine disk by applying nondestructive testing of the CT disk. This test was the first test after the final production stage, after it had left the production line and just before it would be installed in a jet-engine. The test discovered a flaw in the material and was reported. There was no safety management system reporting avenue at that time, just an inspection report. This material flaw was the very first flaw in a CT disk that management was aware of and was dismissed as an inspection error. There have been several CT disk failures in turbine engines, with Sioux City IA as the high-profile accident. This does not imply that the same or similar flaw was the cause, but that a flaw was dismissed by the decisionmakers due to information overload. 

Information overload is not necessarily the volume or amount of information received but are the datapoints of unknown information received to be processed by the mind. Learning new tasks is simple when tasks are learned step by step as micro building blocks, and in a sequence from known to unknown. When a learning block becomes too large to carry, or process, information overload occurs. What is a simple task for a highly experienced pilot, may be a conglomerate of complex tasks for a student pilot. The most effective flight instructor is an instructor who demonstrate a flight control input task to a student, allow the student to perform under supervision and directions, and then the instructor sits back, relaxes, and remain silent while the student perform the newly learned task on their own.

The approach to learning the safety manage system is to apply processes similar to what professional sales people do. Telling is not selling. An inexperienced salesperson often falls into the trap of never stop talking about themselves, the product or service they are selling, and what past clients did. By the time they have completed their speech, a potential buyer is more confused than what they were at fist contact. 

Today’s sales model is based on relationship selling. The key to success in selling is to develop high-quality professional business relationships with customers. This model requires building high levels of trust, learning, accountability, information sharing, and reliability. Professional salespeople identifying needs carefully and accurately, showing the customer how a product or service will satisfy those needs, and then encouraging a prospect to take action and wrap up the transaction. 

Several years ago, a young salesperson started a new job selling glass that does not shatter. This concept was new, and potential clients did not believe that a window would remain intact after being violently hit. Since the person was new in sales, the approach was to learn from the other and more experienced salespeople. However, it was impossible to make enough sales to make a living. The following year the same new salesperson sold ten times as much as the other. The salesperson was called in to the sales manager who wanted to know why the sale was so much higher. The salesperson explained that when approaching the prospect for the first time, a simple question was asked if the client would like to see a glass that does not shatter. So, the salesperson took out a piece of glass and a hammer and smacked it as hard as they could. The glass did not shatter, and the sale was made. Every persons in that sales department were equipped with a glass and a hammer, and the sales skyrocketed. But still, the new salesperson, who was not so new anymore, still had the highest sales numbers at the next annual sales review meeting. Again, the salesperson was called into the sales manager’s office, who wanted to know why the sales still were so much higher than anyone else. The salesperson explained the same story as last time, but this time, the hammer was given to the prospect who hit the glass as hard as they could, and the glass still did not shatter. Words are helpful, but selling is not telling. Selling is silence. The power of silence in selling a safety management system to airports or airlines is to give them the hammer to test the integrity and reliability of an SMS system. 

An SMS manger’s knowledge level of a safety management system is the foundation of credibility, confidence, and sales competence. Without extensive and detailed knowledge about what an SMS are selling, no sales success is possible. The very best salespeople know their products and services inside and out and can describe them in detail even without their sales materials or brochures. Ensure that nobody can ask a question about the SMS that cannot be answered clearly and persuasively. When there is clearly an SMS manager is viewed as a highly qualified SMS expert and trusted. SMS becomes a trustworthy tool that can help an accountable executive and other managers to improve their work performance. Giving the hammer to an accountable executive to test the SMS, does not imply that the AE must enforce SMS by threats, but that justifications for decisions are tested to be solid, reliable and with integrity. 

A safety management system is not about safety but is about processes that makes daily task successful without deviations. When safety becomes the priority, an SMS is not needed, since safety priority is to cease all operations as an airline or airport. Anytime there is one single movement, safety is jeopardized. An SMS therefore becomes the process tool for successful operations yielding a desired outcome. This could be called safety, but there are no guarantees for future events. When looking at safety as successful processes, information overload is reduced since the task is to work with what is known, and not to guarantee that an unknown event will not happen in the future. 

The power of silence increases self-awareness, self-compassion and improve decision-making skills with improved clarity. The power of silence enhances conversations. By choosing silence, a person will naturally listen more, and others have the opportunity to share more and enhancing organizational and work performance relationships. 

Power of silence builds trust, emphasize a point, set the sage for consensus, empower others, provide answers, and centers the AE as the hub in organizational matters.  

An enterprise may look at its SMS as an umbrella or a wheel. If the SMS is under an umbrella, the umbrella protects from above and the strength of the SMS is in the person carrying the umbrella, or the Accountable Executive. When the SMS is under an umbrella there is little or no room for changes, except for staying within the protection of the umbrella itself. When looking at the SMS as being under an umbrella, the safe spot in the SMS is where the Accountable Executive is with safest travel to blindly follow their directions.

When an SMS is built as a wheel, the SMS may travel in any direction where their data points leads to. A wheel is built up by a hub, spokes, and a protective surface. The hub and spokes of the wheel is the strength of the wheel, or the SMS, while the protective surface, or rubber (wood or steel in the old days) is what carries the load of the SMS. The protective surface is dependent on a strong hub with strong spokes to function.

When the accountable executive is given the hammer, one of their tasks is to test, find flaws, or shatter the SMS. Remember, the AE is the final authorly on behalf of the certificate holder and must be ensured that there are no flaws in the system, or that their SMS is weak and will shatter when tested. The power of silence by an AE lays in their patience of allowing processes to work. 

The power of silence of an SMS lays in the non-punitive policy and is to allow for mistakes without punitive actions. An SMS based on information overload of words allows for the checkbox syndrome to take precedence over processes.


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