Friendly Fire

In the organizational behavior class I’m teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School, this week we discussed a Harvard Business Review case study called, Friendly Fire, dealing with a 1993 shooting down of two Black Hawk helicopters carrying 26 US & UN diplomats by two F-15 jets in a safe zone over Iraq.  The “Swiss Cheese” effect came into play, when numerous organizational holes align to produce a catastrophic effect.

I thought of the countless number of young leaders who get shot down by their teachers, principals, coaches and parents, who do not understand how young leaders behave and who identify them as enemies, troublemakers, and belligerent adolescents.  The unfortunate result as that we hamstring our very young whom we need to lead, but are set back or turn to the “dark side” because those striving to do good don’t recognize the power of very young social influencers.  I’m sickened by the apathy re: young leader development, all the while we complain about the caliber of adult leaders in charge.  Friendly Fire kills, nonetheless.