WARMUP:
Slow mosey around the parking lot area to the flags in front of GHES, approx 1/2 mile, then circle up for the following:
- 20 SSH, 4ct
- 10 WM
- 15 imperial walker
- 15 hillbilly walker
- 15 MNC
- 10 strawberry pickers
We are now warmed up.
Slow mosey to the backside parking lots, where the famed light poles are, meet up at the first pole at the parking lot near the dumpsters (NO Golden Corral funk in those!).
THE THANG:
On this day in history: April 14, 1912, approx 11:30pm, the HMS Titanic struck an iceberg. The rest as we know is tragic history. We honored that year, that day, with a 1912 Light Pole walk. There are 14 light poles, we only used 12. Do an exercise at each pole, transition to the next, until done. 19 reps of each exercise at 12 poles. Exercise stations were:
- Merkins
- LBC
- LSS
- CDD
- Big boy situps
- Sumo squats
- Diamond merkins
- Box cutters
- Calf raises
- Wide-arm merkins
- LBC
- Burpees
- LUNGE WALK BETWEEN EACH STATION. Yes, a LOT of lunge walking. Ended up being approx half mile of lunge walks.
Between each station, as we lung walked, mumblechatter was off the hooks, but I also managed to spit out some Titanic facts as well as things leading up to the iceberg impact that doomed them all. See NMM below.
By the time we got to the 12th pole right near Dam Rd, we had 4-5 minutes left to slow mosey back to COT. Perfect timing!!
MARY: None
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Alot going on. Tortoise and Hare, Greater Than Ruck overnight event, Bethel Men's Shelter, 2nd F meetups, and so on. Read the newsletter, get involved.
If you have something close to your heart that you are involved in. and you want to see PAX get involved – FREED TO LEAD. Invigorate your male community leadership, put it out on Slack and the newsletter and push it.
COT:
Prayers lifted up for marriages, physical/mental health, ending of the school year, and more.
NMM:
As mentioned, 4/14/1912 at approx 11:30pm the Titanic struck an iceberg in the middle of the northern Atlantic ocean on its maiden voyage to NYC, loaded with passengers and crew. It sunk a few hours later on the 15th. The rest we know is tragic history. Could it have been prevented? Who knows, but….there wasn't one 'smoking gun' cause that led to the event, rather it was death by a thousand cuts so to speak, several things that, when combined, put things on a tragic course.
Sure, there were bad decisions made from the design of the ship right up until it struck the iceberg, and even afterwards to its sinking. Those decisions are symptoms or outputs of underlying issues. It is easy to point out symptoms and say they can be fixed, it is tougher to pinpoint the causes of those symptoms and address them, for those tend to be more human in nature.
Things That Doomed the Titanic That Can Doom You:
I. The Bad Decisions Made:
- Cutting corners – they used cheaper, lower quality rivets and steel.
- Turn! – the decision to turn was fatal, it allowed the iceberg to damage more of the ship along its side than a direct hit would have.
- Lack of planning – they did not have enough lifeboats; design of bulkheads was flawed; they plotted a course right into danger instead of avoiding it.
- Lack of preparedness – lookouts did not have access to binoculars; they did not practice evacuation of the ship (a practice drill was called off the day of the iceberg strike); crew were not trained well enough on evacuation procedures, leading to chaos after impact.
- Failure to communicate – captain missed reports of ice in the area; cargo ship SS Californian, who was much closer, only 10 miles away, missed distress calls; Titanic ignored messages from Californian warning them of large ice in the area.
II. Underlying Human Factor Causes of the Bad Decisions:
- Complacency, overconfidence – they ignored warnings of ice in the area, and even sped up; designs of safety features (bulkheads) were cut back; they had too much reliance on new tech.
- Not having a questioning, challenging, or empowering attitude – nobody challenged some of these bad decisions in the design, fabrication, and operation of the ship. Many never questioned 'authorities'.
- Not listening to valuable input from others and or fostering a challenging/empowering environment – 'authorities' never took those challenges seriously, and some were afraid to challenge anything so people never got input from 'below'.
- Pride – this would never happen to us! Led to complacency in design and also operation of the ship, among many other things. Peer pressure – Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line, pushed the captain to go faster, arrive ahead of schedule, as well as never stood up for the ship being safer. Grandiosity, as well as getting the ship done quickly, trumped safety for him and others in the White Star Line upper management team.
- Not taking risks seriously – items 1-4 lead into this. It is too late to take risks seriously after something bad happens.
- Rationalizing things away instead of fixing the issues – a combo of all of the above. Weighing odds of something happening vs costs or time to correct things, mitigate issues, often leads to issues happening. Doing things right the first time is only a one-time opportunity.
As someone who has been part of several incident investigations at my former place of employment, Kennedy Space Center on the Shuttle program, as well as my new job at Siemens Energy, these underlying factors most always pop up on serious incidents in one form or another. We must always remain vigilant in the workplace, but also how we live our lives as men. Any one of these contributing factors above can doom us. We can try to do it alone but it is best when we rely on others to help us.
As the saying goes, if we do not learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. The only real 'failure' is failing to learn from failure. Do not be a failure. Keep 4/14/1912 in your mind and learn from its hard lessons.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead, and if you read to this point, thank you for your time and patience as well.
Blessings and SYITG
-NASA