In your Reflection Blog, relate a knowledge sharing story from your personal experience. Be sure to describe the context of your story.
Knowledge sharing applies to imparting information that can be recalled and used for future applications, but unless context comes with the knowledge, the sharing is not a useful as it could be (Denning, 2011). Knowledge sharing stories are used to spread knowledge and pass knowledge on from one generation to the next and are generally not very interesting but are very informative. Unlike the typical story, knowledge sharing stories include an explanation. (Denning, 2011).
In the flying world, knowledge sharing stories are crucial to pilots’ successes. Without hearing the stories of the mistakes or positive accomplishments of pilots before us, we would continue to make the same mistakes over and over. There is an old saying in the pilot community that goes like this: 'There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots' and I think this is mainly because of the prolific storytelling.
Over the years of flying it has become apparent that the weather certainly is the biggest killer of pilots, and in certain parts of the world or country, some aspects of the weather are always bigger killers than the rest. In the North of the US snow and icing are the biggest problem, in the NE it is likely low clouds and poor visibility but in the South it is always Thunderstorms. The problem is, that if you have only flown most of the time in one area you get caught out by a weather pattern that is unusual. This was the case a few years ago when I was flying in the NE and was explaining to a pilot about my experiences with thunderstorms.
We were flying from Poughkeepsie to East Hampton, NY and in front of us were two thunderstorms with about a five mile gap between the two. My copilot wanted to 'thread the needle' and slip between the two storms to our destination. I told him wouldn't do it and this is the story I told him by means of an explanation:
In 2007 I was flying in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to oil rigs. In the GOM the Pilot in Command really is the person in command - when he makes a weather decision nobody can argue with him - the decision is final. This is how it was one morning that year in Fouchon, LA. Two storm cells clearly visible on the radar but over 10 miles apart were sitting offshore in the direct path of almost every flight. Every other pilot in the room decided they would take off and slip between the two to get to their respective rigs. Everyone did take off except for me. Even my copilot questioned why we were the only ones that hadn't - believe me, I even at one point questioned my own judgement.
But I believed that if the two cells came together I would get stuck in the storm, or pinned behind it unable to get back. I elected to sit tight. The manager of the base asked me why I hadn't taken off yet, and I explained why. He wasn't allowed to argue against the decision, but he looked at me like I was a fool.
20 Minutes later, the radio crackled into life, and every single pilot, regardless of age, ship type and experience was returning to the base - nobody could make it through the storms, which had closed together. One pilot actually made it half way through and turned around in the blind as it closed in around him. He was lucky to escape in one piece.
As I related this story to the PIC in the NE he understood how safety was the main priority. A few extra minutes can make the difference between life and death - messing with thunderstorms just is not wise. Of all the hazards mother nature can throw at us, thunderstorms can be the most unpredictable, the most deadly and the fastest changing hazard. The story put a human face onto the danger, and demonstrated in this instance my point about the gap in the storms. I have told that story on countless occasions - sometimes for the same purpose, in other cases to highlight why pilots should stick to their decisions, on other occasions to show how following the crowd can get you killed. In one instance the story was used to demonstrate how safety rules and not questioning pilot decisions (they call this pilot shopping) can help prevent a link in the accident chain. Every time the story is told, some facts are left out, some are embellished, depending on the listener. This is a natural occurrence. "Each time we tell a story we level and sharpen it in different ways to meet the current context" (Denning, 2011, p.184). On this occasion, we went round and made it safely to East Hampton.
Reference:
Denning, S. (2011). The leader's guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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