Stealing language from FDR, September 11, 2001 is a day that will go down in infamy.  Dramatic shifts happened in the world resulting from the horrific attacks on American civilians in New York, Pennsylvania and D.C. .  But can we say that most organizations have reacted effectively to those shifts?

Few industries were more affected by the attacks than the airline industry.  Shut down for a week, revenues plummeted immediately and were hard to win back from a frightened public.  But if ever there was an industry of needing to push the "reset button" on how things worked it was airlines.  All the major players (except Southwest) had struggled with profitability, many declaring bankruptcy.  Some never emerged (like PanAm, Eastern, Braniff).  Mergers had been rampant as companies tried to expand into greater profits – unsuccessfully.  Customer satisfaction had been on a straight southeasterly direction, lower and lower, ever since deregulation.  Here was a collection of businesses for which nothing was going right, and in dire need of changing their business model.

The shut down and economic downturn provided a tremendous opportunity for the airlines to change their Success Formula.  The government allowed unprecedented communication between companies, and unions were ready to make changes, to get the air traffic system working again.  A sense of cooperation emerged for finding better solutions, including security.  Market shifts which had been happening for a decade were primed for new solutions – perhaps implementing operational methods proven successful at Southwest.

Unfortunately, everybody chose instead to extend Lock-ins to old practices and bring their airline company back on-line with minimal change.  Instead of using this opportunity to Disrupt their practices, taking advantage of a dramatic challenge to their business, and use White Space to try new approaches – to a competitor every single airline re-instituted business as usual.  To disastrous results.  Quickly profits went down further, customer satisfaction dropped further and in short order all the major players (except Southwest) were filing bankruptcies and hoping some sort of merger would somehow change the declining results.

The airlines' problems were not created by the events of 9/11/01.  But on that day long-developing market shifts become wildly apparent.  The airlines, and other industries like banking, had the opportunity to recognize these market shifts, admit their impact on future results (not good), and begin Disrupting old practices in order to experiment with new solutions that better fit changing market needs.  None did.  It wasn't long before America was mired in another long and expensive military conflict, and an extended deep recession.  For most businesses, things went from bad to worse.

Leaders need to recognize when external events pose the opportunity to Disrupt things as they've been – Disrupt the status quo – and start doing things differently.  These prime opportunities don't happen often.  Reacting with reassurances, and efforts to get back to the status quo as quickly as possible prove disastrous.  This is an emotional reaction, seeking a past sense of stability, but it creates additional complacency worsening the impact of market shifts already jeopardizing the future.  Instead, one of the most critical actions leaders can take is to leverage these market challenges into a call for Disruptions and use White Space to implement new solutions which meet market needs. 

If only the airlines had done that perhaps they could operate on-time, let customers check luggage without a charge, provide quality meals on long flights and internet access on all flights, and provide a reliable service that customers enjoy.  If they had sought to find a better solution, rather than Defending & Extending what they had always done, airline customers would be in a far better shape.  And that's a lesson all leaders need to learn from the events of 9/11 – use challenges to move forward, not try reclaiming some antiquated past.

To read how GM ended up bankrupt by refusing to recognize opportunities for changing to meet shifting market needs download the free ebook "The Fall of GM."