Principled Innovation LLC

The Power of Transparency

August 8th, 2006

This is #4 on my list of favorite items from We Have Always Done It That Way: 101 Things About Associations We Must Change, the new book by Five Independent Thinkers.

I recently met a former flight attendant who knows a great deal about my preferred carrier, United Airlines. (She did not work for United, but for one of its partners.) As a United frequent flyer, I was interested to hear the story behind the airline’s decision to offer Channel 9, the on-board audio channel that gives passengers the opportunity to listen to communications between the cockpit and air traffic control. As an anxious air traveler, I rely on Channel 9 as a tool for relaxing during my flights. I frequently tell others that listening to the cockpit, while it might sound quite boring, is actually quite interesting because the exchanges between the pilots and ATC are always so polite and professional, and reflect genuine competence. It is such a refreshing change of pace from so many workplace conversations, which often are laden with hidden meanings and political agendas, and sometimes try to mask incompetence. In contrast, when a pilot is told by an air traffic controller to “descend and maintain 1-5-0,” or 15,000 feet, the response is always, “1-5-0, United 540” or whatever the specific flight number might be. No arguments, no politics, no BS.

But things apparently were quite different before the introduction of Channel 9. In the aftermath of President Reagan’s firing of air traffic controllers in 1981, there was significant vitriol between pilots and air traffic controllers at United. From what my acquaintance told me, I gather that yelling and cursing were commonplace in communications between planes and ATC. In fact, by the late 1990s, when Washington, D.C.’s National Airport was renamed for President Reagan, pilots calling ATC using “Reagan” would simply be ignored by the tower, creating a remarkably unsafe situation.

United management tried many approaches to ameliorate these problems without success. Finally, there was a brainstorm, and a decision was made: All ATC-cockpit conversations would be made available to passengers! The airline secured the necessary approvals and the whole game changed. Now, the air traffic controllers and pilots had to clean up their act or face the wrath of the flying public. Obviously, they chose the former, because if they hadn’t, United certainly would not exist today (not that it’s out of the woods by any means).

This story compels me to ask association leaders a question: What would your members hear in your HQ office or boardroom if they could listen in to their own association-specific Channel 9? Would they admire the professionalism and competence of your staff or board, or would they simply wonder what the heck is going on? Transparency clearly has been a very powerful tool for shifting both thinking and action at United, and it can be for your association as well.

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