The Precision Approach

Category: Communication

The Communication Dimension – Wanna Learn How To Talk Like A Pilot? It May Help You as a Leader…

“Communicating.”

I have been a part of a number of organizations that wanted to “improve communication.” It was/is a very noble goal. There are studies that show the cost of ineffective or inefficient communications.

Here’s one.

And another one.

And…another one.

I’m sure there are others. And while the “fixes” for communication gaps are out there, organizations can struggle mightily to overcome the obstacles to effective communication. And I do mean mightily…

AVIATION COMMUNICATIONS – THE SECRET

As you read this, there is an airliner receiving the required information to fly from somewhere very near to somewhere far, far away in not that many words and in not that much time. It will sound something like this:

“United 515 is cleared to San Francisco via the JEFE7 departure, then as filed. Upon departure, climb and maintain 5,000. Expect Flight Level 200 ten minutes after departure. Departure frequency 118.1. Squawk 0327.”

Translated, the flight is cleared to depart the airport via a standard departure route (the “JEFE7”) and then on to its filed flight planned route (“as filed”). There are initial takeoff instructions, followed by expected climb instructions after takeoff. Finally, there is a radio frequency that the airplane will use after takeoff and the transponder code it will use (the “Squawk”) to be discretely identified on radar. This format is more or less then same for international flights also.

But there is also an extremely simple format for almost any type of aviation communication. The format is this:

“1)You. 2)Me. 3) My location. 4) I want to do something.”

On the radio, it will sound like this:

“Tower, Cessna 11 Charlie Bravo, 10 (miles) west (of the airfield), inbound (for a) full stop (landing).” Everything in parentheses is unsaid but understood by air traffic control and other aviators. So what’s the secret here?

First, communications are standardized among all aviators, airline pilots down to student pilots. This provides a common language and mutual understanding. Second, brevity is essential (shout out to the second hour and beyond of a staff meeting…). Radio space is limited and cannot be overwhelmed by yammering. Flying into LA, New York, Chicago, and similar airspaces will cure any verbose tendencies. Finally, innuendo and ambiguity are not welcome. The nature of aviation requires a direct and pointed exchange of information.

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

1. How does your organization communicate? Understanding the topography of an organization’s communication tendencies is essential to any effort to improve communication, include what things or which people are the obstacles to effective communication.

2. How do you personally communicate? Who are your trusted agents to give feedback on your communication style? Knowing this is just as essential. In aviation, post flight debriefs can still include how well communications went during the flight, even with all of these tools in place.

3. What effective processes and practices does your organization currently use to communicate? Even an effort to improve communication can still leverage things that have worked or are working now.

While aviation communication may not exactly translate to how you or your organization can communicate more effectively, there are some aspects to consider to overcome barriers and find efficiencies. In fact, try listening to air traffic live streams to see what all of this is about. There may be some small spot of inspiration for your communication aspirations.

More to follow…

May 8, 2026
The Communication Dimension – The “Miracle on the Hudson” and Air France Flight 447

This is a talk I gave at the International Association of Emergency Managers back in 2018 on time-critical communications and communication in emergency situations. Is your organization ready to communicate under difficult or urgent circumstances?

April 24, 2026
High Reliability 101 – A Pilot’s Perspective

Just a few-ish years ago, myself and some other young student aviators departed Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida in our T-45 “Goshawk” training jets to do the final phase of jet school which would require us all to land – in a sufficiently safe and precise manner – multiple times aboard the USS George Washington, at the time churning off of the north Florida coast. Known as “Carrier Qualification” or “CQ,” it was the final right of passage to earning your wings as a Naval Aviator.

In a formation of four airplanes, we arrived overhead of the ship after about 30 minutes of flying over the open Atlantic. My first thought in looking down on what seemed to be an impossibly tiny slice of metal to land on was both, “I’m petrified” and “I’m ready.”

Let’s first look at the principles of High Reliability:

1) A Preoccupation with Failure: a hypersensitivity to error, both past, present, and unanticipated.

2) A Reluctance to Simplify: the perpetual examination of the complexities and dynamics associated with systemic breakdowns.

3) Sensitivity to Operations: the integrity of the business line(s) is/are paramount.

4) A Commitment to Resilience: an understanding that failure or challenge can occur and when it does, operations can continue.

5) Deference to Expertise: the depth of knowledge is more important than the position on the org chart.

All of these principles add up such that organizations must accept that errors and disruptions will occur at any time and those errors must be managed so that first, errors do not compromise desired outcomes and second, every effort must be made to ensure that the error never occurs again. These principles form the foundation for safe operations in complex and high-consequence environments.

The Joint Commission – the quality accreditation organization for a significant portion of the nation’s healthcare systems – outlines a straightforward methodology for implementing High Reliability practices in pursuit of operations excellence. The framework consists of three elements:

1) Leadership Commitment.

2) A Pervasive Safety Culture.

3) Robust Process Improvement.

The framework forms a feedback loop in which organizational leadership promotes an environment that cultivates effective safety practices while empowering employees or groups within the organization to have a voice for change or betterment of the organization.

Most important, the first point in the framework does not say, “Leadership Approval” or “Leadership Encouragement,” etc. It says, “Leadership Commitment,” which implies an enduring effort to improve the organization. This long-term focus is critical to any High Reliability effort. Without it, it will fail.

In 2004, the United States Marine Corps experienced one of its worst years in aviation safety. There were 18 Class A aircraft mishaps, where a Class A is defined (in 2004) as aircraft damage exceeding $1 million, loss of life, or the permanent total disability of a service member. Despite it being a time when operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were underway, many of these incidents had no connection with operations overseas. In response, the leadership of Marine Aviation put into place sweeping reforms and initiatives to rebuild the safety culture and drive down these mishap trends. By 2009, Marine Corps Aviation operated with record-low mishap rates even with almost a decade of flying missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So how did a bunch of young and relatively inexperienced flyers bring their training jets, moving at around 120 miles per hour, aboard an aircraft carrier safely and with the desired outcome of completing the event to finish Flight School?

T-45 “Goshawk” coming aboard the USS George Washington

More to follow…

April 21, 2026
Here We Are: Success in the Present

Communication, Decision Making, and Leadership Lessons from Right Now

My three previous posts examined case studies illustrating times when deficiencies in communication, decision making, and leadership – or some or all of these combined – prevented excellence in operations and/or screamed for overhaul in process. By the early 1980’s, the aviation industry recognized the need to place structure within its operations to stop the poor communication, flawed decision making, and lack of effective leadership.

Crew Resource Management, previously known as Cockpit Resources Management, became commonplace in aviation in the 1980s as the community extracted the difficult lessons from Eastern 401, United 173, Tenerife, and other incidents. Through improvements in process and training in communication, decision making, and leadership, aviation incidents plummeted to the point where, as mentioned in my very first blog entry, in the years between 2009 and 2025, there was only one passenger fatality in domestic commercial aviation. Before we go into the fundamental building blocks of communication, decision making, and leadership and how they contribute to making High Reliability Organizations, here are my favorite case studies in each of these areas to show how effective dedicated energy in each of these dimensions can be:

COMMUNICATION

Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was the one passenger fatality incident between 2009 and 2025. On April 17, 2018, the flight suffered a catastrophic failure of its left engine, which resulted in significant damage to the left side of the airplane, including depressurization. If you listen to the audio in the link below, the Captain articulates the nature of the problem, succinctly requests resources for assistance, and provides continuous updates to air traffic control. Also not present on this audio, the decompression caused enough noise inside the airplane that the Captain and First Officer had to use hand signals to communicate with each other, despite being just feet apart. Here is the audio from the incident.

DECISION MAKING

USAir Flight 2998 is not an incident you have heard of. On the night December 6, 1999 in Providence, RI, a United 757 had just landed. However, it is not only dark, it is also foggy and the United crew became lost on the airfield. The impeccable decision making by the crew of USAir 2998 prevented disaster, even in the face of an air traffic controller’s certainty that what was happening was not happening. Here is the audio from the incident.

LEADERSHIP

I am including two events for leadership. The first is the “Miracle on the Hudson” because it shows excellence in all three dimensions of Communication, Decision Making, and Leadership. Of note but not in this video, the Captain consults the First Officer just before touchdown to make sure that they had not missed anything in the course of the four minutes of the incident (“got any ideas?” on the CVR at 3:20:21pm).

The second is United Airlines Flight 232. The aircraft was a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 with 296 passengers and crew aboard on a flight between Denver and Chicago on July 19, 1989. Over central Iowa, the aircraft experienced a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine which caused such extensive damage to all of the hydraulic lines of the airplane that the controls became useless for the remainder of the flight. Using differential power settings between the two wing-mounted engines, the crew managed to get the airplane back to Sioux City, IA’s Sioux Gateway Airport, despite essentially flying an uncontrollable jumbo jet. One final note: I included this clip because it shows the human side of the incident and how personal leadership can help navigate tragedy.

More to follow…

April 17, 2026