A long time ago in a workplace far, far away… a moment of complacency led to the destruction of a government facility and an enormous number of preventable fatalities. In the opening sequence of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the heroic Princess Leia uploads the schematics of the Death Star into the droid R2-D2. The little robot eludes capture by the evil Galactic Empire by flying off into space with his counterpart C-3PO in a captured spaceship’s escape pod. The robots’ flight sets in motion the events of the rest of the movie, leading to the destruction of the deadly space station by the Rebel Alliance. But it almost didn’t happen.
An Imperial gunner, just doing his normal job, spotted the runaway probe containing the Death Star plans and alerted his supervisor. Because there were no signs of human life onboard it was wrongly deemed a misfire and allowed to continue on its way. It’s a significant oversight and one that might seem confounding to outside observers. After all, these people are surrounded by sentient robots every day and it would take a serious lapse to forget that, in their reality, a pod without people in it still might be occupied by artificial beings. But human factors like complacency tend to make even the most capable workers let their guard down. And complacency doesn’t descend randomly on individuals, but rather it is built up over a long time, often reinforced by an element of “how things are done around here.”
Zoom out on the Galactic Empire and you’ll see this blunder is just one symptom of larger organizational dysfunction, indicating there are unproductive elements affecting its larger work culture. From chronic frustration among managers and supervisors to PPE that appears to restrict stormtroopers’ visibility to an alarming lack of proper guarding on industrial trash compactors—it’s easy to see that Imperial safety needs improvement across the board.
But why stop there? Let’s celebrate the upcoming Star Wars Day (May the 4th) by examining the work culture that led to the catastrophic failure of the Death Star.
Disclaimer: The destruction of the Death Star is a good thing, and so is the Rebel Alliance prevailing over galactic tyranny. But just because the Empire is evil doesn’t mean we can’t learn from their errors. In fact, one of the best ways to stay alert to the human factors that could influence one’s own safety is to observe the incidents and near misses of other people—and other empires.
Blame-heavy culture
“You have failed me for the last time” is not something you ever want to hear from a manager or member of senior leadership. But it is a phrase Darth Vader—the most notable supervisor of the Galactic Empire—has made famous. And it’s an indication that in the workplace he manages, people are blamed for incidents.
Nobody fails on purpose, and more often than not, when an error occurs in the workplace, a human factor or two is close by. This is why it is so important to curate a no-blame culture at work. Rather than reacting in the moment and lashing out as he so often does, Vader would be a better leader if he acknowledged the impact of habituation and autopilot on how human brains work, especially within the conditions of the system he’s leading.
A no-blame mindset is a leadership skill that can open up constructive conversations about human factors and how they amplify risk in the workplace. Those conversations build a healthy safety climate, which over time will solidify into a robust culture. A better approach for Lord Vader might be to say, “If you’re feeling stressed out or rushed, take deep, measured breaths and focus on your task at hand. As a former Jedi, that’s how I manage human factors under pressure.” But given how hard it is to even imagine him speaking to an employee with empathy, it’s clear there are other factors at work in the toxic Imperial workplace.
Volatile leadership demonstrates a lack of trust and engagement
Blame-heavy culture rarely stands on its own. It is often supported by other toxic leadership qualities. In the Empire, Darth Vader is demonstrably inconsistent with his actions and moods and ambiguous with his expectations. His employees don’t know if their failures will be met with curt second chances or corporal punishment—the Sith Lord is renowned for strangling workers with his magical powers. Consistency is crucial in helping a workforce stay focused on their tasks. It’s easy to see how human factors flourish if workers regularly wake up and ask themselves, “What version of my boss are we getting today—the one who will barely acknowledge me or the one who will punish me with telekinesis?”
Darth Vader has a high level of system awareness when it comes to the workplace he manages, and a preternatural ability to spot hazards thanks to his proficiency with the Force. He knows what he wants, how he intends to get it and how to avoid getting injured doing so. But that information is rarely communicated to his employees with consistency. As a manager, Vader is responsible for more than just himself and in order to live up to that responsibility he needs to build trust and engagement through effective communication skills.
Trust and engagement are crucial leadership tools when nurturing a positive work culture with a healthy climate. Volatile leaders like Vader—who bark orders, discourage active dialogue and find their employees’ “lack of faith disturbing”—aren’t just incapable of building those positive qualities, they actively repel them. Of course, when we apply a no-blame mindset to the situation, one must ask what human factors and cultural influences have kept Vader from becoming a stronger supervisor and leading this way.
No active leadership or personal commitment
As intimidating as he is, Darth Vader is human, prone to the same human factors as everyone else. And he has a boss—the Emperor Palpatine. Climate and culture is a group responsibility that starts with active leadership and personal commitment.
Walking the floor, engaging employees in conversation and demonstrating that you care about them as people are exactly the kind of climate-enhancing activities the Emperor should do, but doesn’t. In fact, he is completely absent in the first Star Wars film, making his debut appearance in the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, and even then he only addresses Darth Vader through short and intimidating video calls. How can employees feel like their contributions matter when their senior leadership is completely absent from their lives? It’s very clear how complacency and other human factors leading to Death Star-exploding errors proliferate in the culture of the Galactic Empire.
The Empire never learned from its incidents and near misses. Its plans were foiled by the positive-thinking, empathetic, effective communicators of the Rebel Alliance. But it’s never too late to learn from the Empire’s mistakes and make sure you are employing positive leadership skills to influence climate and shape culture. Mitigating risk and managing human factors is a proactive discipline and one that calls for heroic leadership.
The Jedi can rely on the Force to take the wheel when human factors get in the way. The rest of us have human factors management resources like the white paper Six Leadership Skills for Improving Safety Climate. Read it today and help your workforce stay on the light side of workplace culture.