Aviate, Navigate, Communicate: The 3-Step Rule for When Everything Hits at Once
When everything hits at once, pilots don't start with the loudest problem. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate — the order that keeps you flying.
Tuesday morning. 7:14. Your kid wakes up with a fever. The school bus is 11 minutes away. Your boss just texted that the 8am call moved to 7:30. The dog has not been let out.
Most people start with the boss. They text back. They explain. They apologise.
That is the wrong order.
In aviation we have a 3-step rule. Always in this order, never negotiable.
Aviate. 🏡 Handle the thing that keeps you alive. The kid is sick. The kid is first. Forehead, water. That's it, nothing else. Do it well.
✈️ We handle the airplane and make sure it remains under control. That's it, nothing else.
Navigate. 🏡 Pick a direction - take a decision: school or not? Today is no school. So the new plan: GP appointment by 10, work-from-home for the morning, disregard the school bus.
✈️ For us, it's time to assess where we are and where we are going. For now, let's avoid that mountain ahead.
Communicate. 🏡 Now you tell people. The boss: "I will join the 7:30 call from home. My kid is sick. Expect background noise." The partner: "I have the morning, you do the afternoon." The school: "Out today."
✈️ Only now we start speaking to Air Traffic Control, the cabin crew, the passengers and the airline operations.
Most people start with Communicate. They panic-text. They vent on Slack. They explain to everyone before they have solved anything. Perfect display of wasted time.
The classic case: United Airlines Flight 173, 1978. The entire flight crew fixated on a landing gear malfunction. They troubleshot it for an hour. The fuel ran out. The aircraft went down in a Portland suburb. The crew forgot to Aviate.
Fly the plane first. Or there is nobody left to communicate.
