This week my son and I got to participate in the winter travel madness that is “flight cancellations at scale” when our Delta flight from Minnesota was cancelled due to weather. Three days later we were able to get an outbound seat, via a balmy scenic route from Minneapolis to Texas and then back to Salt Lake City where we connected with a flight back to Idaho.
I am one of the rare ones, I suppose, who absolutely loves airports and air travel, even in the midst of crowds and cancellations, so I enjoyed the adventure – even more so as it offered an opportunity to reflect on the current collapse of the Southwest Airlines infrastructure that has impacted countless travelers, and the wisdom it offers us all as we go into 2023 – related to complexity and connection.
The short version is this: the IT software that schedules Southwest’s pilots and planes for flights was perilously outdated, which meant that when “the perfect storm” caused a number of weather and operations-related flight cancellations, the system couldn’t keep up with rescheduling the crews and the planes due to complex issues I’ll skip here, and the only way to get back on track was to shut things down to reset the entire scheduling infrastructure. Hot. Mess.
We could look at this as a technology issue (yes) and a leadership issue (yes), but for today we’re looking at it as a complexity and connection issue in a rapidly evolving system – which is why it’s relevant for you. More on this in a moment.
When we look at any system – whether it is an airline, a society, or a biological organism – we can see cycles of creation and destruction which, while not predictable in terms of timing or specifics, are predictable based on patterns of contraction and expansion.
In the case of the airlines, a number of FAA regulations in recent decades made it more complex and precise to keep track of crew rest requirements and other details that determine who can fly which route and when – yet to cut down on expenses, the company’s technology hadn’t been updated to include this much complexity, at least at scale. (I am oversimplifying to make the point here.)
In addition, it seems that the operations side of the business shifted over the last two decades into a focus upon profit-based efficiency rather than designing a healthy ecosystem based on effective human engagement – which led to staffing and scheduling challenges in addition to the outdated technology.
In both aspects, the single-pointed focus upon one aspect of “success” – that of efficiency and profitability – created blind spots and insurmountable deficiencies which, then, blew up when winter storms provided the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
We will talk more about the evolution of values (organizational, societal, and individual) into more integrated and holistic systems another day, but for now, the reason I bring this up is this:
This IS how it works. Where we have not placed our attention… where we have “blind spots” that inhibit our growth… where we have ignored aspects of our own ecosystems … these are the areas that, in the words of my good friend and colleague Mary Ann Allison, remain “frozen” in a rapidly evolving system.
And when an aspect is frozen, no energy can flow. No creativity happens. No expansion is possible. And so it “blows up” in the “release” phase of a system’s growth cycle, to release energy that has been bound up there, and to allow creative energy to flow again — ultimately finding new ways for the system to reorganize, and ideally in ways that hold the complexity required for sustainable growth in the next phase.
So why does this matter for you? Because you ARE a system. A self-organizing, highly intelligent system — just as our world is.
- HEALTH: Your body is a multicellular work of supreme intelligence, and where there are areas that have been ignored or “frozen” from lack of attention or buried trauma, they become “outdated IT networks” that can’t carry the load of your rapidly evolving and complex life. Enter stage right: crisis, conflict, catastrophe, in the form of health challenges or annoying symptoms.
- RELATIONSHIPS: All of your relationships are your interpersonal “IT network,” which either allows energy and connection to flow, or becomes stagnant or troubled. (Particularly if the style of relating is one of making potential customers or clients into “objects” or “transactions” rather than genuine human connection, or if your close relationships have diminished into avenues by which you can “get” your needs met rather than generatively giving, sharing, or extending goodness in your own beautifully unique way.)
- TEAM: The culture of your business, your team, your organization, is a system, and where things are not flowing – don’t worry, they’ll blow up eventually so you know where to place your attention. 🙂
- WORLD: Everything in our world right now is demanding that we expand our capacity to think differently, to include more complexity, to connect with ourselves and each other in more mature, inclusive ways. Everything. And what we fear, reject, or resist is simply the inevitable implosion of that which must implode to release the bound-up energy.
When you can see yourself as a rapidly evolving ecosystem with daily calls for attention from the micro-elements in your own system, you can better tend to the whole of your Self, as well as navigate the needs of your greater business, cultural, and social ecosystems.
THE GOOD NEWS:
In today’s world, it’s easy to slip into nihilism, hopelessness, or despair over the magnitude of the “wicked problems” and planetary crises that we are facing. Our so-called “leaders” seem to be getting more juvenile and impotent; we are more polarized and divided than ever, it seems; we are staring imminent doom in the face when we really see the impact of our species on the planet; and on it goes.
BUT! And. Each one of us is an integral part of the greater interconnected system of our world. Which means, EVERYTHING about your perspective and choices matter. And while you may feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of our societal and planetary crises and either slip into quiet despair or kick into workaholic overdrive, the simple (not easy, but simple) truth is that by tending to the microcosm that is your own ecosystem, you impact the whole simply by how much energy and aliveness you allow to flow through your own system.
Part of this means tending to the “frozen” or neglected aspects of yourself, doing the inner healing work, allowing catharsis, practicing loving self-compassion, correcting your own outmoded beliefs in limitation, imposter syndrome, not enoughness, and the many habits of disconnection that our society normalizes in us.
But the other part is ALLOWING yourself to choose more joy, more risk, more adventure, more openness, more expansion, more ALIVENESS. Because it is only in following your “joy compass,” so to speak, that you discover your own way of holding even more complexity and creating greater connection within yourself, with others, and with life itself – in ways that powerfully serve the whole.
It’s not about “doing enough” to fix a broken world.
It’s about recognizing that YOU ARE a microcosm of the macro, and that as you allow more energy to flow within yourself, you are upgrading the whole for and with us all.
Consider it your evolutionary duty to have more fun.
Consider it your societal obligation to allow more lightness of being.
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No pressure or anything. 😉
Your contribution will flow into the larger system in a way that feels generative when you are embodying the energy that you want to contribute to the whole.
What if the most radical move you can make for 2023 (and beyond) is to become utterly, devotedly responsible to your own joy?
It matters.
The “system” is not outside you. You are a powerful co-creator of the world we think is ‘out there.” We need your light, your creativity, your joy.
Here’s to “being the change you wish to see” in 2023 … starting with your own capacity to include more complexity, allow more aliveness, and to be more fully yourself. The airlines are not the only ones being cosmically nudged to uplevel. 😉
Much love,
Anne