In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with silver title on the spine.

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Black Box Thinking – Aviation as a Learning Industry

Throughout the book, author Matthew Syed uses to the aviation industry as an example of one of the great learning industries. Hence the name ‘Black Box Thinking’, and how they use what is called open-loop thinking. This growth mindset way of learning has made air travel the safest form of transport available today.

Syed analyses air crashes and near misses and sets how the aviation industry learns from failure. He brilliantly explains how the crash landing of US Airways Flight 1549 (The Miracle on the Hudson) was only possible by learning from the crash of US Airlines Flight 173 which occurred over 30 years earlier. Syed, however, identifies that sometimes the human condition gets in the way of our ability to learn from our failures. He states: ‘We cover up mistakes, not only to protect ourselves from others but to protect us from ourselves. Experiments have demonstrated that we all have a sophisticated ability to delete failures from memory, like editors cutting gaffes from a film reel. Far from learning from mistakes, we edit them out of the official autobiographies we all keep in our own heads.’ He also introduces us to the term cognitive dissonance. This is when we spin the evidence to fit our beliefs rather than adapting our beliefs to fit the evidence. These are things we can all relate to and makes Black Box Thinking all the more powerful.

Final Thoughts – In conclusion, Black Box Thinking shows us the power of failure. Although failure is not desirable, Syed robustly demonstrates that failure can change the world if we are prepared to learn from it. This is a very engaging and thought-provoking read from the start. There are a lot of takeaways you can use and refer to as part of your working life. I recommend this book very highly.

Matthew Syed is one of the world’s most influential thinkers in the field of high performance in the context of a complex and fast-changing world.

He draws on a vast array of case studies and real-world examples across sport, business, education and politics. Matthew looks at the inside story of how success really happens – and how we cannot grow unless we are prepared to learn from our mistakes. In his latest book, You Are Awesome, Matthew distils the principles of growth mindset, resilience and adaptability in his other books for a younger audience.

In his previous career, Matthew was the former England table tennis number one for almost a decade. Nowadays Matthew is a multi-award-winning journalist for The Times, a highly acclaimed speaker, and a regular contributor to radio and television. He is the author of three bestselling books on the subject of mindset and high performance – Bounce, Black Box Thinking and The Greatest. Matthew’s fourth book is planned for publication in 2019, following his children’s book, You Are Awesome, which is available to order now.

Matthew lives in London with his wife and two children. To find out more about Matthew’s work, visit: www.matthewsyed.co.uk