Do you smell smoke?

My last article on the Titan tragedy was a bit deep and somber. So, I plan to lighten it up a bit with this short story. Fun and quick and starts in bed with my wife. Okay, stop. This is a family channel.

So, we live in the Midwest of the good old USA and the other night we were laying down to go to sleep when my wife asks "Do you smell smoke?" Instantly my mind raced to any electrical equipment I may have left plugged in or recently used. I tend to collect vintage electronic stereo equipment and sometimes pretend I remember something about my electrical engineering degree. Each time I do this I usually leave a decently working piece of vintage 1970's or 80's stereo equipment destroyed or in need of professional technician. This sometimes involves a soldering iron or other electronic gadgets that make me feel more like a man. I have various issues and clinging to tools pretending I am a craftsman is one of them. I am not. But, I digress.

So, I pop up and start my walk around the house looking for any signs of a fire. I find none after a rather quick search because I was tired, it was bedtime, and I recalled rather quickly that what we were smelling was likely the Canadian fires whose smoke had blown down into the Midwest and created quite a haze. Of course that was the smell. Case solved. Back to bed.

But as I lay down, I was thinking about how we dealt with "acrid odors" on a submarine. When someone smelled an acrid odor on a submarine we would make an announcement: "There is an acrid odor in the ship's control room. All hands search for the source of the odor." Seems odd but our fear was that this acrid odor was some piece of electronic or electrical equipment slowly heating up or arcing causing this smell and that could quickly lead to a fire. A fire on a submarine, if you are not aware, is BAD. We could not just shrug it off. We must find the source.

Fires can quickly engulf the entire submarine in smoke and within minutes can overcome the crew. We feared fire more than almost any other possible incident on a submarine. So when the announcement was made about the acrid odor, I left my stateroom and went to Control Room to observe the search and guide the Officer of the Deck to periscope depth just in case a fire broke out. Better to be safe than sorry.

So, sailors started searching all over the boat for the source of this acrid odor. Reports started coming in, "The acrid odor is now in the Crew's Mess (second deck)." Minutes later..."The acrid odor is in the Torpedo Room". Oh my, this is odd. It appears to be spreading out but no one has yet found the source.

One of they guys searching was the original person who smelled the odor. He came into the Control Room and declared "I smell it here now." The Chief of the Watch announced, "The acrid odor is now in the Control Room." What the heck?

Finally, the messenger of the watch (youngest, unqualified sailor who basically gets coffee for the watch team) says quietly, "Uh, FT2 Smith, that laptop you are holding seems to be smoking a bit..."

Sure enough, the guy who first smelled the acrid odor was carrying around with him a laptop...that was the source of the acrid odor! Ha! He was basically searching the entire forward end of the submarine for himself. He was the source of the acrid odor!

We all had a good chuckle except those who where awakened from their pre-watch sleep.

What is my point with this story? Well, not much, other than to help people understand why we nuclear submariners are the way we are. We can't let some things go. We can't shrug them off and go back to bed. We must find the source of a problem. Sometimes it is an acrid odor that may be indicative of a fire. Don't ignore it. Find it. Search for it until you assure yourself you have located the source.

So when we coach operational and maintenance leaders about becoming High Reliability Organization (HRO) leaders, one thing we emphasize is "pulling the string" on seemingly minor issues. It might be the acrid stench of an unplanned equipment or system trip or safety system activation. An example would be during a system start up and a pressure relief valve lifts momentarily to relieve pressure in the system. That is not normal or per the start up procedure. It is not per the "design basis" of the system. That is an acrid odor.

We could just move on. The valve reseated. Pressure is back to normal. Let's assume it's okay...NO.

An HRO leader would not just move on. An HRO leader would search for the cause. Did we operate the equipment improperly? Do we have an equipment malfunction or system not lined up properly? If we just move on, we may find out much later there was a "latent fault" that only emerges during a transitory operation when we need it to work properly. And then it will be too late.

So the simple moral of the story is to always search for and find the source of "acrid odors" in your organization and operations. Even when the acrid odor is you.

Bob Koonce served for over 20 years in the U.S. Submarine Force and retired from active duty in 2011 after commanding USS KEY WEST (SSN 722), a nuclear submarine based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Bob frequently speaks and writes on Operational Excellence and High Reliability Organizations based on the leadership and culture of the U.S. Nuclear Navy. He is co-author of Extreme Operational Excellence: Applying the US Nuclear Submarine Culture to Your Organization available here. You can learn more about High Reliability Group by visiting www.highrelgroup.com.