The Bystander Effect

In 1968 the psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané published a study on whether people help someone who is having a seizure. When participants believed they were alone, 85 percent went for help before the seizure ended. When they believed one other person was present, 62 percent did. With four other bystanders, only 31 percent did. The authors called the effect diffusion of responsibility.

The research was prompted by the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens on March 13, 1964. A New York Times story reported that dozens of neighbors saw the attack and did not call the police. Later reprints of the headline gave the number as 38.

That story was wrong. A 2007 article in American Psychologist found no evidence of 38 witnesses. In 2016 the Times itself called its story “flawed.”

Pilot in Command

“The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.” This is the first paragraph of Section 91.3 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

The next paragraph gives the same person room to act. In an in-flight emergency that requires immediate action, the pilot in command may depart from any rule of that part as far as the emergency requires. Afterward, the pilot must send a written report if the FAA asks for one.

The rule speaks of one person. The pilot in command is both “directly responsible” and “the final authority.”

The CEO’s Signature

Every quarterly and annual report of a US public company carries a personal certification from its chief executive and its chief financial officer. Each officer certifies that he or she has reviewed the report. Each certifies that, to his or her knowledge, it contains no untrue statement of a material fact. Each also certifies that the financial statements fairly present, in all material respects, the company’s financial condition and results.

The rule comes from Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, signed on July 30, 2002. The two officers also answer for the internal controls that bring information to them. The SEC rule adds one detail. They may not have someone else sign it for them under a power of attorney.

Trust the Process

As general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, Sam Hinkie traded away the team’s most valuable players for high picks in the NBA draft, and the team lost in the meantime. The plan became known as the Process, and “Trust the Process” became the fans’ slogan. In the 2015–16 season the 76ers won 10 games and lost 72.

After a 1–21 start that season, the team brought in Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations. Hinkie stepped down on April 6, 2016, before the team had a winning season.

Plans Are Worthless

On November 14, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told a defense conference: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” He said he had heard it “long ago in the Army.” His reason: “the very definition of ’emergency’ is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.”

Another version, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable,” appears in Richard Nixon’s book Six Crises (1962). Nixon was paraphrasing Eisenhower.

Objectives and Key Results

John Doerr learned objectives and key results, or OKRs, as an engineer at Intel under Andy Grove in the 1970s. In the fall of 1999 he introduced them to the founders of Google, a start-up he had just funded. His book on the method, Measure What Matters, was published in 2018. OKRs are typically set for a quarter and reviewed often.

Real Artists Ship

At a retreat of the Macintosh team in Carmel, California, in January 1983, Steve Jobs told the team: “Real artists ship.” To ship is to deliver a finished product to customers. The account comes from team member Andy Hertzfeld, who wrote about it later. Quote Investigator concludes that Jobs popularized the expression.

The Save

In baseball, a save is credited to the pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team under certain conditions, for example with a lead of three runs or fewer. The sportswriter Jerome Holtzman lobbied for the statistic in 1959. It became official in 1969, the first new official statistic since 1920.

The save created a role, the closer, a pitcher who comes in to finish games. The writer Bradford Doolittle called it “the only example in sports of a statistic creating a job.”

Closing the Loop

Let’s close the loop on this. — Let us finish it and confirm that it is finished.

Check the box. Cross it off the list. — The task is done, and the list shows it.

What are the next steps? Who owns this? — The questions at the end of a meeting.

Let’s wrap up. Tie up loose ends. — Finish what is still open.

Get it over the finish line. — Complete it, even if the last part is hard.

One more thing off my plate. — One less open task.

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