By Barb Kachelski, CAE
"How could the designers of the World Trade Center be so stupid?" was my persistent thought when I listened to Chief Richard Picciotto.
"Chief Pitch," retired Fire Department of New York battalion commander, was the last firefighter to escape the World Trade Center after its collapse on 9/11 and the highest ranking survivor of the devastation. Obviously the 9/11 story has been told over and over again from many points of view. But Chief Pitch shared inside information with attendees at CUES' Directors Conference that was still pretty shocking.
When he was dispatched to the World Trade Center, he was returning to a building he knew well, since he had led the bombing evacuation in 1993. Chief Pitch knew:
1. The building was 121 stories.
2. Each floor was the equivalent of one acre of land. (121 acres x 2 towers = 242 acres!)
3. 20,000 employees and another 20,000 transients entered the building each day. (40,000 people!)
4. Each tower had 99 elevators.
5. And, here's the shocker: Each tower had three stairwells. (Six stairwells for 40,000 people!)
Chief Pitch evacuated the tower that was second to collapse. In the process he discovered two of the three stairwell exits were blocked by debris. So he needed to direct evacuees to exit via a single stairwell.
At the time they were designing the building, I am sure the designers were lauded as visionary thinkers. (The building was an engineering marvel. And who could possibly plan for terrorists to send planes into the building?)
Just like the designers of the Titanic. (Who planned on icebergs?)
Just like the leaders of the corporates. (Who planned on the housing bubble bursting?)
So my takeaway is this: Maybe our next meeting agenda should include three questions:
What wrong moves are being made today that are being lauded as visionary ...
- ... in the financial services industry ...
- ... in my organization ...
- ... by me as a leader?
Barb Kachelski, CAE, is CUES' SVP/chief operating officer.
Read another post by Barb on decision-making.
