Playing the Long Game
Don't let the big picture get lost in the detail of small gains
I grew up in an era when cars had metal dashboards, no airbags, no seat belts in the back seat at all, and unused ones in the front. I remember lying on the rear-view window shelf, staring out the back of the car as I fell asleep on long trips. Safety issues were far from my mind and my parents were unaware of just how dangerous this all was.
My grandkids ride in child car seats. No responsible parent would ever allow a child to ride without one. Some claim that one reason why there are so few large families today is due to car seat requirements. Parents must drive larger vehicles (yes, I remember all the kids in the back seat, adults up front, regardless of the number of kids). I was shocked to learn recently that child car seats “expire.” I guess after a few years of use, they are no longer deemed safe enough.
I was thinking about this one day as I sat on an airplane waiting for everybody to sit down. I live in Orlando, which means families coming and going from Disney on pretty much all flights. I noticed that there were lots of noisy kids on this flight and it dawned on me that the babies were not in car seats. Parents were holding them in their laps. The airlines did not require them. How is that responsible? I wondered.
At about that time a pilot, commuting to his next city and thus a passenger on this flight, sat down next to me. After he got settled in, I asked him, “How come these kids are not in car seats? Would that not be safer?”
He explained to me that if they were in child car seats, they would be safer. In heavy turbulence, small children are sometimes flung about the cabin and get injured. “Yet,” he went on, “the airline safety folks know that flying is far safer than driving. If child car seats were required, the family would have to purchase another ticket. Many would choose to drive rather than fly. Thus, by letting babies fly free in their parent’s arms, they are more likely to fly. The child is safer flying in their parent’s lap than if they were buckled into a child car seat on the highway. So, they do not require child car seats in airplanes.”
This is an of playing the long game.
I can imagine that in the meetings of the safety board, passionate arguments were made about the need for child car seats to be used in airplanes. There is no doubt that, in the event of turbulence during the flight, child car seats would make kids safer. The solution is clear and has been wildly successful in the auto industry. The “safest” thing would have been to apply that same solution set in this circumstance. Who would have faulted them? Had they implemented a child car seat policy, the bureaucrats on the safety board would themselves be safer. Nobody would sue them for not taking all possible measures to make kids safe. Conversely, it is quite conceivable that somebody will legally challenge a policy that does not require child car seats. Yet, the long game won out.
These sorts of nuanced, murky, decisions require gathering input from diverse sources. They require that the big picture take precedence over small gains. They require a level of detachment from apparent solutions. This is hard for those who have an emotional connection to the obvious answers.
Are you wrestling with a problem in need of long-game thinking? If so, step back, look at the big picture, and don’t let people talk you into winning a smaller, safer game.