09/06/2022
When the Wright Brothers launched Flyer 1 at Kitty Hawk in 1903 their objective was to achieve the first manned flight in a powered aircraft. With Wilbur at the controls, their best attempt flew 250 metres in 59 seconds, pioneering the aviation industry, and the rest is history.
120 years later, aircraft are beyond complex by comparison. The information available to pilots is presented in a sea of instruments, screens, buttons and dials. The way we fly today has dramatically changed too but the basic premise remains the same. To fly safely from one place to the next requires fundamental information all pilots need. They need a petrol gauge, no surprises there. To avoid mountains they need an altimeter. A speedometer to tell how fast they’re going. A compass to point them in the right direction. These instruments are in every aircraft, whether biplanes from the 1930’s or today’s modern jets. The difference to the untrained eye is that these key performance indicators are now immersed in a console of complexity.
Similarly in business, our efforts to innovate and progress can sometimes be overly complex with too much information bloating decision making. Data has never been more accessible, if it’s there why not use as much as possible? Most leaders would prefer to be fully informed over winging it anyday. But the desire to inform and understand what is often complex and uncertain can sometimes open the throttle on information overload. This can impede the need for speed when taking opportunities and getting things done. There is knowledge in information, there is also virtue in simplicity. Sometimes less is more, and as champions of progressive change, our leadership challenge is to seek and select the right information at the right time to make the right decisions.
