Beyond Top Gun: 3 Real Aviation Principles Your Business Needs

Okay, let’s talk aviation and business. When most people think “aviation principles,” their minds jump straight to Maverick pulling impossible Gs in Top Gun.

High speed, high stakes, maybe some questionable volleyball scenes. Fun stuff, sure, but about as relevant to running a reliable operation as learning management from a pirate movie.

The real world of aviation, especially flying heavy metal like the C-5 Galaxy I used to pilot, isn’t primarily about gut feelings and daring maneuvers. It’s about discipline, process, and engineered resilience. It’s about meticulously designed systems – both mechanical and human – working together flawlessly under immense pressure. Forget the Hollywood hype; the lessons that truly translate to building a successful, resilient business are far more practical, and frankly, far more powerful.

As I detail in my upcoming book, Built to Soar, applying these battle-tested principles can transform your business from a chaotic scramble into a high-performance machine. Let’s ditch the movie myths and look at three core aviation principles your business probably needs, like, yesterday:

1. The Almighty Checklist: Your Brain is Terrible Storage

In aviation, checklists aren’t suggestions; they’re scripture. Before takeoff, during flight, before landing, for emergencies – there’s a checklist. Why? Because pilots know human memory is fallible, especially under stress. Forgetting one simple step – lowering the landing gear, setting the flaps – can be catastrophic. Checklists ensure consistency, prevent errors, and make complex procedures manageable, every single time.

I felt like I knew the checklists so well, that I could tell you by page what was on them .. that’s not the point, we still had to review them … because we’re all fallible.

• Business Translation: How many critical processes in your business rely on someone just remembering all the steps? Sales handoffs? Client onboarding? Month-end closing? Project kickoffs? Relying on memory (“tribal knowledge”) leads to inconsistency, dropped balls, endless rework, and makes scaling a nightmare. Implementing simple, clear checklists for recurring, critical tasks isn’t bureaucracy; it’s building reliability into your operations. It frees up mental bandwidth from routine tasks to focus on bigger problems.
• Quick Action: Identify ONE critical, multi-step process in your business that currently relies on memory. Draft a simple checklist for it this week.

2. Crew Resource Management (CRM): Talking Straight, Even When It’s Hard

Flying a complex aircraft isn’t a one-person show. CRM is a cornerstone of aviation safety, focusing on how the entire crew communicates and collaborates. Key elements include: * Clear Communication: Using standardized language, confirming instructions (closed-loop communication). * Challenging Assumptions: Encouraging even junior members to speak up if they see something wrong or question a decision, regardless of rank. * Shared Situational Awareness: Ensuring everyone understands the current status, the plan, and potential threats.

• Business Translation: How often do mistakes happen because of miscommunication? How often do good ideas die because junior team members are afraid to challenge a senior leader’s bad plan? CRM principles combat this. Structured communication reduces errors. Fostering psychological safety, where people can respectfully disagree or point out risks without fear, leads to better decisions and faster problem-solving. Breaking down silos ensures everyone is working off the same flight plan.
• Quick Action: When delegating a critical task this week, don’t just explain it – ask the person to briefly summarize their understanding of the goal and the key steps back to you to ensure alignment. (PS: In flying we always do this which ensures we understand the directions from the controller!)

3. Redundancy & Contingency Planning: Hope is Not a Strategy

Aircraft are designed with backups for critical systems – multiple hydraulic systems, backup flight controls, emergency power. Pilots always plan for what could go wrong. Before every takeoff, we know our options if an engine fails. We identify diversion airports along the route in case of weather or system issues. We don’t just hope everything goes perfectly; we actively plan for failure.

• Business Translation: Where are the single points of failure in your business? What happens if your top salesperson quits? If your key supplier disappears overnight? If your main server crashes? If your website goes down during a major launch? Operating without clear contingency plans is like flying over the ocean with just enough fuel to reach the destination if the weather is perfect. It’s unnecessarily risky. Building redundancy (cross-training staff, diversifying suppliers) and having clear “what-if” plans for critical functions builds resilience.
• Quick Action: Identify ONE critical potential failure point in your business (key person, system, supplier). Brainstorm a basic contingency plan – what’s Plan B?

Bringing it Down to Earth

These principles – rigorous checklists, clear crew communication, and robust contingency planning – aren’t glamorous like a high-G turn. But they are the bedrock of safe, reliable, high-performance operations in aviation. They are about removing ambiguity, mitigating risk, and ensuring consistent execution.

Applying this kind of disciplined thinking to your business isn’t about stifling creativity; it’s about building a stable “airframe” and reliable “flight controls” so you can confidently navigate turbulence, scale effectively, and ultimately, reach your strategic destination. Stop winging it. Start engineering your success.

(Want to learn more about applying these principles? Keep an eye out for the “Built to Soar Book” by Greg Born and explore other articles here at builttosoarbook.com!)