leadership dot #2181: mitigation

My sister lives in close proximity to a major airport, a fact I often forget until I see a plane fly overhead at such a low altitude that I can read the tail number. When I was inside her house I did not hear the planes at all until I was lying in bed in the silence of the evening, and even then, it sounded more like thunder in the background instead of a jet engine roaring overhead.

Her home is in the Noise Abatement Zone – an area that receives compensation to provide extra insulation and windows so that those who live there can do so without intolerable audio pollution. It certainly has cost the airlines and airport thousands (millions?) of dollars to provide this mitigation but in the end, it has made it workable for everyone.

The aviation leaders knew of the negative consequences of airport noise on adjacent residential homes and schools and took steps to address it, even though the cost was great. Don’t fly over your problems. Instead, think of how your organization can identify rumbles in your environment and proactively abate them.