Making it easier to challenge authority in teams and cockpits

Executive overview

People often fail to speak up even when they see a critical problem unfolding. The cost can be catastrophic — aviation accidents in the 1970s repeatedly showed crews who knew the danger but stayed silent.

Crew Resource Management (CRM) reframes challenge as obligation, not option: "It's not your right to challenge me — it's your obligation."

The same principle applies in any team. Leaders who set this expectation explicitly, before a crisis hits, dramatically reduce the friction that stops people from speaking up.

The 1978 United Airlines Flight 173 crash

• Experienced crew — captain with ~27,000 hours, both co-pilots with 25+ years — became fixated on a gear indicator issue
• Nobody effectively monitored fuel while circling Portland for over an hour
• Gear-down and flaps increased drag; crew didn't account for the extra fuel burn
• Two crew members knew the fuel state was critical but deferred to the captain
• Both engines flamed out; aircraft crashed six to eight miles short of the runway
• NTSB probable cause: captain's failure to monitor the big picture, compounded by crew's failure to communicate the fuel concern

Why people don't speak up

• Cognitive tunneling — hyper-focus on a minor problem causes the bigger picture to disappear
• Deference to authority creates a reluctance to appear to challenge the person in charge
• Fear of being perceived as weak, incompetent, or disruptive
• "Mission leaning forward" culture discourages admitting personal limitations
• Accidents are almost never a single failure — they are a chain of innocuous events; any link in the chain is an intervention opportunity

Crew resource management: the core framework

• CRM creates an open, transparent, non-judgmental environment where the mission overrides ego
• The foundational phrase: "It's not your right to challenge me — it's your obligation"
• Declaring this out loud, especially from the person in authority, sets the cultural contract before a crisis
• Applies equally in corporate settings: frame it as "we can't crash this organisation into the mountain"

Practical tools from aviation training

• Red/yellow/green status phrases — universal, simple signals anyone can call out mid-situation; hearing "I'm in the red" halts everything and refocuses the team
• "I have the aircraft" — a single phrase that asserts control, reduces the startle factor by half, and restarts compartmentalised thinking
• Annual recertification training focuses almost entirely on communication in abnormal situations, not flying skill

The three-step escalation model for challenging authority

1. Ask a question — "Hey, Skipper, ready for the gear?" — non-confrontational, often enough to snap someone back
2. Make a directive suggestion — "We should have put the gear down three miles ago; I suggest we do it now"
3. Take control — physically assume command if the situation demands it (rare, but trained for)

Setting expectations before the moment of need

• State the obligation explicitly during onboarding and team briefings
• Reference the prior conversation when you do need to raise a hard issue — it lowers the barrier significantly
• Ask a hiring manager upfront: "If I find you're contributing to the problem, do you want me to tell you?" — they always say yes, and it creates a permission structure
• Technical skill is assumed at senior levels; what drives success is the ability to communicate in difficult moments