Be Different!

Be Different!  The Key to Business and Career Success, by Stan Silverman, Business Expert Press, 2019 

An understated title in a book marked by real organization insight.  Silverman tells a touching story about the Challenger disaster, and NASA management's unfortunate reaction to real concerns from five engineers:

When the space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds after liftoff, it took some time for the truth, both technical and bureaucratic, to appear.  But Morton Thiokol engineers were concerned early on about the effect of lower temperatures on the solid rocket boosters, and they wouldn't let it go.  Turns out the  O rings were designed to operate at temperatures of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but that day the temperature was stuck at 30 degrees.

According to news reports, Morton Thiokol pushed for a postponement - denied by NASA.  One engineer, Robert Ebeling, carried that failure with him until his death -

        "I was one of the few that was really close to the situation.  Had they listened to me and waited for a weather change, it might have been a completely different outcome... NASA had their mind set on going up and proving to the world they were right, and they knew what they were doing.   But they didn't."

Silverman contacted Ebeling's daughter and had the opportunity to speak with Ebeling, telling him that he and his Morton Thiokol colleagues were true American Heroes for trying to delay the launch.  Ebeling passed away five days later.

Physicist Richard Feynman, a maverick straight-shooter, was called by then President Ronald Reagan  to serve on the Rogers Commission that would investigate the disaster.  Feynman, however, seeing that NASA miscalculated the risks, wrote a minority opinion which is now credited with shining a spotlight on how this disaster was handled.

And this is what Silverman boosts as a high point of his Be Different!  He's looking for leadership to think beyond widely accepted beliefs and traditions, and look at the data, listen to the "different voices."  If anything, good consultants, outsiders with fresh viewpoints and power, can seize that great opportunity to uncover truth - management may not initially approve, but that's what we're paid for.

Patricia E. Moody