How the Airline Industry Navigates Beyond Organizational Silos

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The Gist

  • Maintain “unified accountability” for customer outcomes. Although intricate organizational structures may become inevitable, avoiding siloed operations is crucial for maintaining accountability toward customer outcomes.
  • Seamless handoffs between departments are vital. Taking inspiration from the aviation industry, the precision of handoff procedures between air traffic controllers exemplifies the preservation of customer-centricity during transitions.
  • Achieving efficiency through specialized tasks should not compromise customer experience. Business operations methodologies exist to strike a balance between cost optimization and customer satisfaction.

Boeing’s recent setbacks with the 737 Max 9 aircraft have once again thrust the company into the spotlight, shedding light on critical lapses in its quality management practices, potentially exacerbated by organizational silos. The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to suspend further production of the aircraft underscores the perils that even iconic brands face when prioritizing efficiency over all else. Boeing, once renowned for its engineering excellence, has witnessed a decline in its reputation due to a shift away from its historical commitment to quality.

In a bygone era, Boeing’s meticulous quality management practices during the production of the Boeing 777 exemplified a commitment to excellence. For instance, the decision to place heads of software engineering on the aircraft’s test flight underscored the clarity of accountability for quality — since software played a new and critical role in the Boeing 777’s flight controls.

However, with the 737 Max, Boeing opted to outsource software testing to offshore contractors at $9 per hour, eroding the accountability for outcomes. This deviation from a culture of “skin in the game” accountability serves as a cautionary tale of the dangers of organizational silos.

Related Article: Your Silos Are Showing in Your Customer Experience

Unified Accountability Across Organizational Silos

Rather than critiquing efficiency goals or complex organizational structures, this discussion aims to prompt reflection on the risks tied to fragmented accountability. Maintaining “unified accountability” for outcomes is crucial, even amid organizational complexity.

To understand how that is possible, let us use the example of an industry which still continues to be a model for how to operate with extremely high reliability, despite a highly fragmented organizational construct — the aviation industry. Yes, I realize this sounds counterintuitive given the Boeing example, not to mention the high probability of a bad customer experience these days due to increased flight delays. But when viewed in the context of the incredibly complex organizational model in the aviation industry, a pattern emerges. It is a model for maintaining high reliability despite organizational complexity.

If you think that the business processes in your own company are complex, try running an operation globally that moves 5 billion passengers every year, in roughly 25,000 commercial aircraft, via 15,000 airports located in 195 countries. And do that with over 99.999999% reliability.

And just to make things interesting, do it in a decentralized organizational construct where laws, standards and procedures are not as tightly controllable as within a single company. There is no single CEO-like entity and no hierarchy for single accountability. That is the context of the aviation industry, and it spins up lessons for other organizations who want to operate efficiently and effectively across organizational silos.

Front view of Boeing 737-800 Aircraft parked in an airport with one wing and one engine emphasized in piece about organizational silos and how the airline industry avoids them.
If you think that the business processes in your own company are complex, try running an operation globally that moves 5 billion passengers every year, in roughly 25,000 commercial aircraft, via 15,000 airports located in 195 countries. And do that with over 99.999999% reliability. arenaphotouk on Adobe Stock Photos

Related Article: 5 Signs Your Organization Is Too Siloed

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