Leaders know common sense just as important as rules

Rules can be a good thing. We need them in our society for order, civility and safety.

In the aviation community, pilots literally live and die by them. It has been said that a pilot’s flight manual (rule book) is written in blood; you don’t follow what’s in the rule book, bad things can and will happen.

In Navy/Marine Corps aviation, the rule book for all aircraft is the NATOPS flight manual. In the opening paragraph of the manual is this blunt statement: “This manual contains vital and required information on all aircraft systems, performance data, and operating procedures required for safe and effective operations. … Read this manual from cover to cover; it’s your responsibility to have a complete knowledge of its entire contents.”

There’s another statement in this opening paragraph that is equally powerful and important. It states: “This manual, however, is not a substitute for common sense and sound judgment.”

In early 2000, I was a military flight instructor teaching students how to fly the Cessna T-37. On one particular flight, I was evaluating/instructing a student on his fourth flight in the touch-and-go landing pattern.

On our third landing, right after touchdown, we were shocked to see four deer beginning to bound across the runway, on a direct collision course with our flight path.

We were in a very precarious position. Traveling around 100 mph on the runway, with four deer 800 feet in front of us, we didn’t have many options or much time to react. In fact, we were in blatant violation of three flight-manual “rules” that prevented a safe take-off.

First, we didn’t have enough power. The rule book says you can’t take a T-37 off with less than 100 percent power. Our engines were at 88 percent, slowly spooling up to full power.

Second, we didn’t have enough speed. The rule book says you can’t take off with anything less than 105 knots. We were at 88 knots, slowly accelerating with the notoriously sluggish engines.

Lastly, we were at 100 percent (full) flaps, which meant we had too much drag for take-off. The rule book says you shouldn’t take off with anything more than 50 percent (half) flaps.

Though the rules were stacked against us for getting airborne, common sense told us that it was not smart to hit four deer head-on traveling 100 mph with nothing to protect us but hollow sheet metal and a plexiglass canopy.

In the end, it was the broken rule of 100 percent flaps that saved us. Though we had too much drag with this setting and not enough power to overcome this drag, we did have some extra lift.

Just enough, in fact, to “pop” the aircraft 8 feet in the air – up and over the four deer, allowing us to avoid hitting them head on.

Though I actually did strike two of the deer – one with my nose gear and another with my wing – the accident investigation concluded that I averted near-certain fatality by choosing not to hit all four deer head on and instead choosing to break the rules and fly over them.

The reality is there’s no manual, set of rules, process or law that can cover every situation or scenario. This is certainly true in the previous example and in aviation in general. It’s true in leadership and life as well.

Too often, we focus on being effective managers and making sure that all of our rules and processes are followed to the letter; sometimes at the expense of common sense.

As leaders, we have to keep our eyes on the big picture and realize that rules are man-made and can’t deal with every possible contingency.

Leaders realize that rules and process are required, important and necessary. But leaders more importantly understand that doing what is right is sometimes in direct conflict with what the rule book dictates.

Leaders understand there is no substitute for common sense and sound judgment.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Leaders know common sense just as important as rules."