Volume XVIII, Issue XIII:
Creating a Culture of Imagination
By Bob Kirchman
In the frantic moments following the September 11, 2001 attacks by airplane on American targets, American airspace was quickly closed. Hundreds of approaching aircraft were suddenly denied the clearance to land. Hundreds of aircraft began turning around at once. Some returned to their point of departure. Others were quickly diverted to Canada.[1.] If you are familiar with the way aircraft are separated in flight, you know that Eastbound planes fly at one altitude, Westbound another. Thus, hundreds of aircraft turning presented the potential for terrible disaster. Pilots are smart. As the planes turned, their pilots also remembered the rule and independently of one another moved to the correct altitude. They also managed to safely queue up and land at airports far too small to normally handle such traffic. Hundreds of pilots turned their planes around and landed them safely in crowded situations. In the aftermath, aviation experts felt they needed to develop a scenario should such an event ever happen again. They ran simulations, wrote procedures and ran the simulations again. They determined that no matter how well they crafted a centralized solution for the problem, they could do no better than what happened with pilots thinking on their own. In fact, the ‘one size fits all’ approach had the distinct possibility for creating more risk.
When it became clear that COVED19 was deadly to nursing home residents, the Shady Oaks assisted-living facility in Bristol, Connecticut chose an innovative approach, choosing to isolate as a facility. They offered bonuses to staff members willing to live on site and isolate with the residents. By isolating the entire group from physical interaction with the outside world, Shady Oaks had no cases among staff or residents. Tyson Belanger, who owns Shady Oaks, credits their success to a decision to pay hefty overtime to the staff who isolated, roughly tripling the facility’s labor costs.[2.] The result – priceless, as residents enjoyed safety and less disruption to their lives. Belanger got a Payroll Protection Plan loan but dug into his personal savings to fund the significant increase in labor costs his plan entailed. The result is far different from the sad situation in New York, where facilities were mandated to take COVID19 patients in by the government.
This morning a friend of mine sent out an article about the Baader-Meinfof Phenomenom. This oft-studied by marketing gurus phenomenom basically states that we can be conditioned in our perception. Buy a red Toyota and guess what car you suddenly notice everywhere. Marketing people will sling phrases like “we’re all in this together” in an attempt to create unity in purpose – or buying habits. Witness the disappointment of a child who wanted a name brand product for his birthday when presented with a knock-off. Those who don’t buy the right sneakers or parrot the popular mantra experience a shaming process. Thus you will find a group of people so conditioned having the same perception in a given situation. Worse, those who do not follow this lockstep thinking become all too often “the enemy.” Now imagine, if you will, our pilots all conditioned in such a manner. Rather than assess their unique situation, they follow the script. “Bank RIGHT…” there is no requirement for critical thinking if you have a script! But the script CANNOT anticipate what the alert mind might apprehend.
In the 1960s, Chris Craft and his Mission Control group created simulations for spaceflight. Their mission was to find out every way a spacecraft could kill an astronaut and simulate it so astronauts would learn how to survive. This methodology kept the astronauts sharp and no doubt led to the incredible success of the moon flights. They even imagined a crippled spacecraft scenario and practiced the LEM ‘lifeboat’ procedure that would later save the crew of Apollo 13. But before the first Apollo mission would fly, there came a tragic awakening. For years, NASA had pumped the spacecraft with pure oxygen without problems. When the much troubleshot Apollo One was being tested on the pad with a pure oxygen atmosphere, disaster struck. A frayed wire under the crew seats sparked and the fire that ensued killed Gus Grissom, Roger Chafee and Ed White. There was thought of abandoning the program. Was spaceflight worth the risk? In a dramatization of the Congressional hearings of the Thompson Commission, Frank Borman is asked by an investigator: “What killed those astronauts?” His response is brilliant: “Lack of Imagination… we imagined every way these men could be killed in space, but we NEVER imagined it would happen on the ground!” Humbled by the disaster, and with a new resolve to be “Tough and Competent” (that’s what Gene Kranz had everyone write on their whiteboards) NASA forged ahead.
As we negotiate our current crisis, it is well to remember the importance of unprejudiced perspective and fresh imaginative thinking. There’s a restaurant owner who hung clear shower curtains between the tables to create isolation. The Inn at Little Washington plans to have mannequins at every other table. I’m not quite sure I’m up for dinner at Madame Tussaud’s but I like their creativity. What MUST be avoided is a hard ‘either/or’ mentality. We need to open up for business. We need to protect our most vulnerable. Indeed, many of us have found ways to have church and work at home by creatively exploiting resources such as ZOOM. We need to continue being creative. We need community. We need wide open spaces. We need to think outside of the box to achieve this in a way that works in OUR particular situation. We need local, close to home thinking and not one-size-fits-all mandates from bureaucrats. We need to carefully examine how we teach our young people. Are we conditioning them to groupthink or are we nurturing their minds for the wonderful opportunities presented by fresh observation and independent thinking!
Edward Jenner, Smallpox
[click to read]
In science credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs.”
— Francis Galton
For many centuries, smallpox devastated mankind. In modern times we do not have to worry about it thanks to the remarkable work of Edward Jenner and later developments from his endeavors. With the rapid pace of vaccine development in recent decades, the historic origins of immunization are often forgotten. (read more)
In 1797, Jenner sent a short communication to the Royal Society describing his experiment and observations. However, the paper was rejected. Then in 1798, having added a few more cases to his initial experiment, Jenner privately published a small booklet entitled An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire and Known by the Name of Cow Pox. The Latin word for cow is vacca, and cowpox is vaccinia; Jenner decided to call this new procedure vaccination. The 1798 publication had three parts. In the first part Jenner presented his view regarding the origin of cowpox as a disease of horses transmitted to cows. The theory was discredited during Jenner's lifetime. He then presented the hypothesis that infection with cowpox protects against subsequent infection with smallpox. The second part contained the critical observations relevant to testing the hypothesis. The third part was a lengthy discussion, in part polemical, of the findings and a variety of issues related to smallpox. The publication of the Inquiry was met with a mixed reaction in the medical community.”
“Edward Jenner Advising a Farmer to Vaccinate His Family.”
Oil painting by an English painter, ca. 1910.
