For many years, I’ve thought Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most thought-provoking authors out there. I first read The Tipping Point in 2000 and am always interested in what Malcolm shares. One of his most recent discussions involves driverless cars and brought up interesting and thought for me. Can we play it too safe?
Safety on a job site is one thing. There is nothing more important than protecting our people. What he’s talking about is automated safety. The way that the sensors on a driverless car pick up any kind of surrounding motion and can bring a street to a standstill. The car knows there is an obstacle, but all it’s programmed to do is wait for it to be removed. What if the obstacle never moves? What if the roadblock is more permanent?
This got me thinking about the way different types of team members make decisions. The first thing that comes to mind is that when a challenge surfaces, we can’t always bring a project to a halt until it works itself out. The real value is finding the workaround. This often requires creativity and maybe even betting on yourself. After all, successful people rarely got that way without taking a calculated risk or two.
