Shui Miles via Unsplash
Your flight to Utah is late, and mid-air, the flight attendant gets on the loudspeaker and says, “Who is ending their journey in Salt Lake City? Raise your hand.” Most of the hands go up.
Then she says, “Now, everyone with your hands up, imagine how you’d feel if you had to catch another flight tonight and weren’t sure if you’d make it.” Then she asks the people who are making connecting flights to raise their hands. And she tells the first group, “Look around. These are the people who’ll be sprinting off the plane tonight as soon as we land. Look at them and imagine this was you…. Let’s help them make it…. If we all play our part, they can make it. Please stay seated and give them their space to exit as quickly as possible. Thank you so much for your consideration and help. Everyone of those guys appreciates you for it.”
This really happened to Kathrin Peters, an “organizational creativity” consultant. She posted the story on LinkedIn, and it was picked up by Inc. magazine and reprinted on Apple News this week. She continued, “The energy in the cabin shifted entirely. Everyone suddenly shared the same mission… we were all in it with them, feeling their adrenaline in our veins… the whole plane was rooting for them as they exited as fast as they could.”
Notice that the flight attendant first asked the people who weren’t changing planes to identify themselves. Once she caught their attention, she asked them to do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise – to imagine themselves in the other people’s shoes. Once they did that, she could ask them to take collective action to help those who were changing flights. And the way help was to physically make room for the changers to exit quickly so they could run to the next gate. Instead of the usual plane full of disconnected, self-interested people elbowing each other to get through a small doorway first, she used the passengers’ collective imagination to create a cooperative group with a unified goal. She spoke to their best nature by assuming that they would want to help. And they rose to the occasion – everyone was rooting for the changers!!
I love this story because it’s an example of people working together to care about each other. It was a small sacrifice for the first group and a big help to the second. And every passenger got to walk (or run) off the plane smiling.