Don’t Succumb to Your Stereotype

You’ve heard of live tweeting events. Well, this is a live blog. As I’m writing this, I’m aboard Spirit Airlines Flight 631 to Atlanta for a cohort meeting for our non-profit, DEUCE Community Inc. I know I breezed right past the “Spirit Airlines” part. Yes, we’re flying Spirit. It was the only direct flight, so despite their brutal reputation, here we are.

I don’t know how else to say this but, I’m live blogging because a gentleman in the row behind me is being removed from the aircraft. I hate to stereotype, but let’s play the game. If you lent me a $1000 to wager on which airline I’d experience my first police removal of a passenger, it’d be on Spirit. And, here we are.. winner, winner!

Surely, stereotypes are generalizations that are at best unfair, non-nuanced judgments that diminish the value of those stereotyped. Spirit likely had nothing to do with this singular instance of this guy needing to get removed. The same thing could and does happen on Delta, United, etc. However, it’s their stereotype and right now customers like me are being reinforced on this generalization.

Knowing your stereotype can drive value-creating action.  

It can be humbling to inquire about your own stereotype as a person or even as a business, but I’d argue it’s helpful as a guide to drive explicit behavior to do the opposite. If you’re in the business of creating value, which we all are (including Spirit Airlines) we’ll need to start changing minds about who we really are. I find that resisting a self-fulfilling prophecy around our worst stereotypes is a great place to start.