Repairing relationships is the career superpower nobody talks about
- sciart0
- 4 days ago
- 1 min read
Excerpt: "Sometimes the stakes around workplace culture are actual life and death. Other times, they’re more nuanced.
The safety lapses at Boeing that led to two deadly crashes in late 2018 and early 2019 are the extreme examples of what happens when people don’t have hard conversations in the office.
A group of engineers spotted a major safety risk in their 737 MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, software, and raised concerns in emails, during meetings, and in hallway conversations. Investigators later revealed that these engineers were repeatedly mocked, hushed, and told to move on.
The concerned engineers who persisted? Transferred, sidelined, and forced into early retirement.
For Boeing, avoiding conflict and uncomfortable truths resulted in accidents that killed 346 people. It also cost the company and its shareholders tens of billions in lost value, a production halt, a negative credit outlook, and immeasurable reputation damage."