What the 1923 Honda Point Disaster can tell us about leadership now

This is a very well written, engaging overview of Intelligent Disobedience. I thank James McCusker for the skill he brought in conveying the concept to his readers:

The incident, known as the “Honda Point Disaster,” became a staple of leadership courses and wardroom discussions. The incident was and to a certain extent still is, used as an illustration of the conflicting goals in a situation where obeying an order is believed to endanger the ship…

Few of us will have the experience of being responsible for the safety of a ship and its crew when given a questionable order while navigating in either a dense fog or a typhoon. Navigating today’s workplace is tough enough, though, and we really need a memorable example that everyone can relate to…

Author and executive coach Ira Chaleff was teaching a class on leader-follower relationships to a group of middle managers and asked if any of them could provide an instance of when disobeying an order was the right thing to do. A young woman responded with an explanation of why she had brought a dog to class. The woman was assisting in the dog’s training as a guide dog…

Intelligent disobedience comes into play when there is a conflict in goals. A guide dog’s training is to obey commands, but the primary goal is the safety of the blind person. When the dog sees a hazard or threat that the human cannot, it is time for intelligent disobedience…

In his book, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You’re Told To Do Is Wrong, Chaleff provides an insightful analysis of today’s workplace environment and how workers and managers are sometimes faced with orders that will create dangers to individuals or to a company itself…

Hazards and threats in our lives and especially in our work are likely to present legal, moral, ethical and safety issues. Our relationships with authority are complex, yet most of us are trained from childhood to obey rules and orders. Result: conflict…

Today’s workplace is a navigation hazard in its own right and sometimes we are faced with decisions that seem so complicated that we don’t know what to do. In his book and in his guide dog principle, Chaleff provides a useful chart and a compass so that we don’t end up hurting ourselves and others.