The Third Book The 3rd Chapter - Captain WestJet

Captain WestJet

April 29/2018

Change for improvement or is it reactionary change? Have you ever experienced a rare one-off event and due to that one event, new changes are in place that creates a reality that is different?

I truly believe in change in the value of change to work on improvements daily — whether it is personal development or in our work-life. Before you make a change, ask yourself, if there is value on this change? Will the change end up providing more value to you or your organization over the long-term.

Recently I had the privilege of sharing some time with a WestJet Captain. In that time I asked her all kinds of questions on being a captain of a large jetliner. Questions I asked were from what “V1” means and how to determine when to de-ice a plane and many more topics. After the hour conversation, I was able to learn much about the job of aviation, and I was grateful for her sharing of her job.

One thing discussed is how the magic of the captain experience has disappeared, and now cockpit tours are gone to an entire generation of kids. She shared that a big reason she became a pilot was access to the cockpit, while she was traveling as a young child.

As our society level of security has changed over the last 25 years, I understand the intent of why the cockpit experience is now gone. This change is reactionary change and a logical way to ensure folks don’t bring harm to others by gaining access to the cockpit area. This process of change should ensure that people will not harm again.

The underlying issues are our young people not having that opportunity to explore is a question now. With all, we do in our life it is important to do a risk-reward exercise before initiating change. Determine with this change what will be the net value increase to you and your organization. Quick decisions will usually lead to the change you feel you need at the time but what are the long-term impacts of your change? With your immediate change are you closing the doors that will impact you on whether you will achieve what you were meant to achieve? Are you making choices that are reaction based? On the surface, of course, it makes sense to ensure our safety is protected but how do you measure the cost of the loss of magic to kids? Does this loss of magic translate in the loss of something even bigger that does not start due to the loss of the value of imagination?

Sometimes the effect of those choices will be the elimination of your magic. That magic or that special feeling of being alive that will help you grow. Your magic is the passion mixture that allows you to achieve what you were set out here to do in this lifetime. When you are ready to grow, are you changing with your purpose in mind or changing for change sake? Or are you changing because of a one-off event has impacted you?

Perhaps you will need to reopen your cockpit door to allow positive energy to build and have your magic return. With your positive selection of an inner circle of friends, you will experience this energy to grow, and this energy is unlimited in its ability to grow.