The Danger of “Move Fast and Break Things”
What the OceanGate tragedy teaches us about conscious leadership
For the past week, international media have been fixated on the tragedy of the Titan submersible that went missing on June 18. For days, there was speculation about why the submersible had lost communication with its mothership. Were the five men on board trapped somewhere, expending the 96-hours of oxygen remaining? Or had they met the same watery fate as those on board the Titanic wreckage they had hoped to visit?
By last Thursday, it was confirmed that the submersible had most likely been crushed by the incredible pressure at such a depth. Now, stories are coming out about how the CEO of OceanGate—the company which launched the submersible—defied the advice of experts in his pursuit of “innovation.”
While CEO Stockton Rush believed using a carbon-fiber hull was innovative, peers in the ocean-exploring community expressed alarm about its safety. There are emails and text exchanges between Rush and these peers where he explicitly tells them he’s “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation…” Rush even admitted that he’d “broken some rules” in designing his submersible, but assured potential passengers it was safer than scuba diving.
James Cameron, who famously directed the blockbuster Titanic film and is an avid ocean explorer, noted that the OceanGate CEO failed to learn the lesson the Titanic taught us: "I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet, he steamed up full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many people died as a result."
We still don’t have all the facts about what precipitated this tragic event, but the stories about the OceanGate CEO’s behavior remind me of the popular Silicon Valley motto, “Move fast and break things.”
This motto was coined by Mark Zuckerberg back when he was launching what would become the world’s biggest social media platform. With Facebook’s success, it became the motto of Silicon Valley and every entrepreneur who is willing to do whatever it takes to make their business a success.
But how do you define success? And what does it cost to achieve that success?
OceanGate moved quickly and ended up breaking their submersible; taking the lives of its creator and four others along with him.
The move-fast-break-things mentality can be quite dangerous. It perfectly captures the sometimes-reckless nature of the Tech Industry in its pursuit of disruption and creating exciting new technology. But innovation and disruption need to be guided by conscious leadership. Conscious leaders understand that while risk-taking is inherent to creation and innovation, the ramifications for all stakeholders must be considered.
In a 2019 article for Harvard Business Review, venture capitalist Hemant Taneja contended that the era of “move fast and break things” is over—and rightfully so because of its terrible consequences.
Taneja observes, ““Minimum viable products” must be replaced by “minimum virtuous products”—new offerings that test for the effect on stakeholders and build in guards against potential harms.”
This is conscious leadership: considering the long-term impact of our pursuits and who will be directly and indirectly affected, and minimizing potential harms.
It’s unfortunate that in the pursuit of inventive new products or services many brilliant entrepreneurs, including the OceanGate CEO, fail to recognize the impact on all stakeholders. Just like Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick, they sacrifice everything to achieve a singular goal, regardless of the consequences.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
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