{"id":1012,"date":"2023-06-28T15:52:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T15:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getthegrit-uk.qbd2.co.uk\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2024-02-29T16:01:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T16:01:22","slug":"oceangate-titan-tragedy-stark-warning-for-ceos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/oceangate-titan-tragedy-stark-warning-for-ceos\/","title":{"rendered":"OceanGate Titan Tragedy: Stark Warning for CEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stark warning issued for CEOs and Boundary Pushing Leaders from Teresa Swinton and RJ Jubber – Incident Investigation Experts\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like most people, our team were glued to the television for updates on the Titan Submersible incident at the site of the Titanic Wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

Of course, our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies go to the families and friends of those who died in this tragedy.<\/p>\n

However, this tragedy is far from unique \u2013 in fact similar tragedies and close calls happen every minute of every day in organisations all over the World; hundreds of workers die every year, they just don\u2019t get the attention that this one is getting but they should. When a CEO dies it makes headlines.<\/p>\n

The price of pushing boundaries\u00a0<\/strong>
Stockton Rush is not the only person in the world to push boundaries beyond what has gone before. Take the famous inventors we all know; some were hero\u2019s and considered brave for pushing beyond what was thought possible. Edison, Tesla, Fanklin, Faraday, the Wright brothers \u2013 the list goes on. Others were just considered crazy people who died in their shops with their stupid experiments. The only difference was the outcome of their work. Many people take risks every day that most of us would consider intolerable and certainly wouldn\u2019t want our loved ones to take \u2013 many understand dangers but continue regardless believing it will never happen to them and just like Rush, some pay the ultimate price.<\/p>\n

It seems ironic that Thomas Andrews, the Irish Businessman, Shipbuilder and the Architect in charge of plans for the Titanic itself, perished when the ship sank on 14 April 1912 along with 1500 other souls. It is rarely a CEO, Board member or Senior Leader who dies because of their refusal to listen \u2013 normally it\u2019s the workers who pay the price. These incidents, however, rarely make headlines and rarely does a workplace fatality make the headlines for four days straight. It is always a tragedy when someone dies at work. No one should ever die trying to put food on their tables or clothes on their children\u2019s backs.
This awful event does offer us some valuable learning, even before the official investigations are completed and the findings made public.
Yes, Rush admitted to \u2018breaking some rules\u2019 when building the Titan and we\u2019ve all heard about the number of individuals and professional bodies who raised concerns about its safety back as far as 2018, perhaps even including people who had been employed by OceanGate itself. We shouldn\u2019t be surprised because this is parr for the course in many companies \u2013 diligent people who want to do the right thing and Leaders who don\u2019t or won\u2019t listen or act to prevent bad outcomes when the obvious is staring them in the face.<\/p>\n

In our work as incident investigators, we come across people in paid jobs every day taking unacceptable risks to which their employers turn a convenient blind-eye. Often, concerns have been raised on multiple occasions by workers to employers, who do nothing until it\u2019s too late and only then, do they do something under duress or the threat of prosecution.<\/p>\n

How many investigations, public inquiries and forensic examinations into both infamous and not so well-known workplace tragedies remind us that we could have and damn well should have, done something which would have prevented them?<\/p>\n

Hindsight vs Foresight\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, hindsight bias, a term that is being bandied about in relation to this incident, is a wonderful thing but it doesn\u2019t apply here! It has been demonstrated pretty much beyond doubt that OceanGate, just like many employers, had the benefit of foresight! They knew the shortcuts they were taking and the potential of a catastrophic failure and still they did nothing! But, as with any incident that involves public safety, we must always consider the massive amount of context around the decisions that CEOs and Corporate Executives take. Whilst easy to push blame on, they are workers too. For example, CEOs of investor-led companies have boards to report to, quarterly earnings calls to hold and market analysts to field questions from daily. Rush may not have been running a publicly traded company but the context around why he made the decisions must be considered.<\/p>\n

Concerns need actions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The professional bodies who expressed concerns about the design and build of the craft did nothing (apart from write a few strongly worded emails). There are laws they could have invoked and steps they could have taken to protect the paying public, regardless of OceanGate\u2019s gung-ho attitude towards rules, but they didn\u2019t. Now, however, they are quick to state their 5-year-old concerns after the event. A little too late and a great example of hindsight bias!
If Stockton Rush knew for sure that his submersible was doomed, he would have made different decisions, even given his safety bashing protests are now laid bare on the world stage. Rush was certainly not trying to lead his passengers to their deaths, he was however pushing the limits of what others thought possible and he chose to take a calculated risk. We must remind ourselves that there are explorers and boundary pushers in this world, and we are a more advanced society because of them. Just consider what Elon Musk and Space X is attempting in the field of commercial space travel. Hopefully, he continues to make the loss of human life a zero-tolerance policy as he is also pushing the boundary of what is possible.
If we lost a CEO or a member of the Board every time a worker died during his or her duties, workplaces all over the world might look and sound very different.
We do not want to deflect attention from the poor people who lost their lives. Their loss is tragic and sad, particularly given some of their philanthropic work which benefitted huge communities around the World.<\/p>\n

But there is a clear message to CEO\u2019s and Board Members everywhere \u2013 just like OceanGate, your workers are doing the best they can for you. Are you listening and are you acting upon their concerns? Act!<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, find a way to have a conversation with your frontline workers. Just pick two or three. Ask them two very specific questions:<\/p>\n

1. Where will our next bad accident come from?
2. What can I do today to prevent it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stark warning issued for CEOs and Boundary Pushing Leaders from Teresa Swinton and RJ Jubber – Incident Investigation Experts\u00a0 Like most people, our team were glued to the television for updates on the Titan Submersible incident at the site of the Titanic Wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland. Of course, our deepest condolences and heartfelt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}