It’s been a few months since (Jun 2023) the Titan submersible operated by the American expedition firm ‘Oceangate’ imploded while on an expedition to the Titanic wreck in North Atlantic Ocean off the Canadian coast killing all five of it’s passengers – a British paid explorer, an Asian British paid explorer along with his 19 year old son, a French technical expert and the CEO of Oceangate. It’s notable that each of the three tourists would have paid a hefty $250,000 for their seats for the experience so it was a big ticket business indeed.
Since the discovery of the titanic wreckage which got insanely elevated after the Cameron movie in the 90s, there has been deep interest from experts and noobs alike in going to the titanic wreckage site as a bucket list activity. The fact that it lies 3810 m below sea level is not a deterrent but seems to egg on enthusiasts more, just the way a climb to Mt Everest does at 8848 m above sea level in the death zone. Clearly a heady mix of money, social media’s impact and lack of meaningful life goals leads those who haven’t spent a hot minute training to brave the elements, want to go to depth of oceans or peaks of the world. Or on the other side you could define the marvel that human curiosity and courage is through such pursuits. Guess this one is a write up of the paradoxes!
The CEO of OceanGate Stockton Rush was notorious for flouting regulatory requirements when he could as he believed and has publically stated them to be a hindrance to innovation. He’s quoted in a 2022 interview calling ‘safety, a pure waste’ at one point. You can google away his passion for innovation and notably his belief that safety is a ‘hinderance’ to innovation.
So I come to my questions, 1) At what stage does does the desire to innovate and do something different become so intense that human life, basic safety sense and common sense leave the building 2) Do we as a society celebrate the wins without proportionately weighing the ‘how’ of those wins? Do results overweigh the values which were at work to achieve them? 3) Where does the buck stop with risks? When do we know in our life and work that a line has been crossed with risk which puts not ourselves but others’ life, livelihood, health or other fundamentals on the edge without them knowing about it? 4)Is there a proportionality between the cause for which the risk is being taken, and the size of the risk?
For instance, soldiers risk their lives knowingly to protect the life of civillians, firefighters, cops and such also do for a noble cause. But there is little merit in putting people through same level of life risk for a toy making company testing path breaking innovative AI based toys.
There are those who speak about Rush’s passion for innovation and mention that titan would have been celebrated along with his risk taking capability had things not gone fatefully wrong. But that combined with the history of his attitude towards safety show that enough education to ALL his customers and general public wasn’t given about safety risks and facts were moulded. Otherwise the 19 year old who solely took the trip to please his father, terrified as he was, didn’t have to die.
There is a big yet simple lesson for us all as leaders, employees, entrepreneurs, humans et al from this tragedy. It is not to not take risk. But weigh the cost of the risk on our stakeholders and be clear about it to them. And then when they come onboard it makes sense. Integrity and passion when put together on a scale – passion will always be outweighed by integrity. Those who put their lives, savings, loved ones, health or anything crucial on line for you as they play beside you need to be educated about what they are putting on line and be ok with it. When that happens – it’s true Leadership and Camaraderie at play. When you have to hide what people are having to bet to go along a risky journey with you that can be labelled many different vices, none of them deserve to have the word innovation, leadership or vision around them. It can be Machiavellian to get people onboard on a risky project or vision without telling them about the risk but then you don’t deserve the credit of the win as much as you totally are responsible for messing up for yourself and them.
There is also courage and honesty in sacrificing the innovation so as to not cross the line of life at risk or anything that your conscience or value system doesnt allow you to hedge away. If that wasn’t true, animal testing of cosmetics would still be normalised and not a topic of debate. Corporate integrity maybe a touchy topic but personal integrity is never one.
What’s your views on this topic? Did this tragedy evoke any thoughts or insights in your mind? Did you take any lessons and reflections from it back in your life? Do share with me, I’d love to chat on this further.
Nehapedia 