It's been my fault. I admit it. I demand you cancel this trip. Demand? You don't think you're putting anything over on me? China, Red Cross, plenty of unmarried women. Oh, please. You're going to see someone else who's asked you to come.  I'll charge you with desertion. All right, Alex. If that's the way you want it, do that. This is Alexander Wesson. All passengers for the seabird, please collect your tickets and go immediately to the sponsor now. Yes, sir. No, Marshal. Is everything in order? Yes, Miss Chase. Here are your passports and health certificates. I made the reservations in the name of Doris Bailey. Thank you, Marshal. I'll cable as soon as I reach Hong Kong. Yes, Miss Chase. Thank you. Have a pleasant journey. Say, buddy, who is that? I'm Miss Doris Bailey. Everything's in order, Miss Chase. I mean Miss Bailey. You know we feel a great responsibility having you on board. Won't you just wait in the lounge, Miss Bailey? State Senator Corey. Senator Corey, just a moment. Hold it. Thank you. Now, Senator, give us the old star-spangled banner, love. Thank you. Are you blind to China, Senator Corey? Well, I'm not walking. First step, Senator? Yes, this will be the first time that I take wings over the Great Pacific. Pardon, Senator. Is this a government business or a private deal in China? You will astonish me. What kind of a private deal could I... Senator, you know they need a lot of war supplies over there these days and with the right man on the day. Very great. Very clever. Good day, gentlemen. But, Senator... Here you are, Mr. Honeyman. Thank you. Mr. Brand. All in, Mr. Brand. That's it. Brand. Is that Mr. Harrison Brand? Is he a passenger? Yes, sir. Sidney. Mrs. Franklin Sidney. You have your passport and certificate of health for your return, Mrs. Sidney? Yes. May I have them? Oh, yes. Yes, here they are. They're going to be very exciting. Really? Oh, yes. My son is in Shanghai. Don't know I'm coming. It's been so long since I've heard from them. Oh, I'm sorry to be taking so much time. Are you one of the passengers? I won't be if you don't step on it. Iris Compton. Mr. Brand. All in, Mr. Brand. Hello, Curtis. This is Honeyman. Say, I thought you said this deal was under cover. Oh, is that so? Well, you know who's on this plane? Brand. Brand have called well munitions. Sure, there's a fortunate stake if he doesn't start cutting prices. If he does, I'll cut his throat, and I'm not kidding. Who? Senator Corey on this plane? Say, if I can get to him before Brand. Right. I'll cable you. One more passenger. Robert Malone. Mr. Malone. Calling Mr. Malone. Please report at once to registration desk. We weren't going to leave me. We thought possibly you'd been delayed, Mr. Malone. Delayed. Now, whatever made you think that. All aboard, Mr. Malone. Happy landing, Joseph. So long, Jim. Son, if I thought me better, I'd sing. And then you'd be sorry you messed it. Sorry I did. I'm John P. Corey, formerly state senator. I'm merely Miss Bailey. I need you. We at the nation's helm have done a great work for modern transportation, don't you think? We've made this ocean a mere mill pond and the whole world our neighbors. Can I say more? I hope not, Senator. It's too funny as it is. Don't spoil it. Hello, honeymoon. Pleasure trip? And what a pleasure. It'll be a honeymoon if I meet the right party. Oh, that's fine. And if you don't meet the right party, I will. Now, that's quite a thought. Hang on to that. Look, my name is Malone. Does it make you happy? Honolulu, Hong Kong, Shanghai, kid. Shanghai. Help? No, vacation by request. Then you and I ought to knock over a few hours without boring each other. What's your racket? Besides help? Me, I'm the forgotten man, trying to make myself a little more forgotten. On the land? Don't be so definite. But I'm not exactly on parade. Well, I suppose you're one of our countries that is enterprising young men girdling the world for new business. Perhaps you'll make a forfeit bridge. Cards for money? Why, that would be gambling. Hey, we seem to be too of a kind on this deal. Let's keep it that way. Now, don't get your face read. This is a long trip. We both have a lot to think about. Let's hold everything under control. Sure, that's okay. Hey, you seem to be pretty regular. You're regular, too. Excuse me, Miss Bailey. Excuse me. No answer. I bid one club, pardon me. I'm so sorry. Oh, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. I must be very awkward. Oh, perhaps the ship is. It's the ship. Have you made the trip before? No, and I think this once will close the book for me. And you? My first trip, too. I think women have more courage than men. I think you've got something there, Mother. You can't prove it by me. I always defend men when I'm with women.  There are some good ones. My son is one. Your son is in China? Yes, I haven't seen him in five years. He doesn't know I'm coming. Oh, no wonder you're so excited. There's a great surprise for him. He hasn't written me in over a year, but I supposed all the trouble over there and he's been very busy helping settle it. He must be very clever. He is. I may be boring you. Oh, no, not at all.  I read the cards, you know. Oh, I don't believe in that. You may not believe in it, young woman, but it's very funny how often the things we see in cards come true. Cut three times, please. You're married. Right. You're returning to a dark man in China. Maybe I didn't cut the cards right. Oh, yes. Here's another man. Very much in love with you. No. That card is never wrong. It always spells romance. There he is again, the same man. Maybe it's the altitude. No. I'm sure it's a man. Isn't there always? That's what's wrong with the world. No more men in my life. Oh, Stuart, aren't we over the Japanese current? Why, yes. You must be an experienced traveler. I don't know. I've never been near the ocean before. Well, how did you know then? Well, there's a great many things in 50 years, young man. Some of them very strange. You have to wait until you're 50. Oh, look at the clouds. They look like strange worlds where anything might happen. This is the sunken continent to move. We're over it now. That's how Asian America would join. Right below us this minute, there was a very high civilization. I think we must be off our course a little. Obviously, aren't we off our course? No, madam. That is not more than one or two degrees. Of course, nothing serious. One or two degrees is quite a lot. I think we're coming into a storm.  Why, my dear lady, it's all sunshine. You were right, Mr. Sidney. Maybe you can tell us when we're going to come out of it. We haven't really gotten into it yet. That's very encouraging. Seabird calling Carl Allen, 16703. Approximately position. North, 42. West, 143. Stealing closing in fast. There's no danger. Switch like this. The path will go up. The path will come down. Are you trying to be funny? Yes, sir. How am I doing? You're going to get back, will you? I can make out where nowhere. Where the office is. We went down with the ship. I guess the door must have stuck. Oh, it's too bad. I'm very sorry. But here we are, cast on an uninhabited island. It's unprecedented. Oh, is that what it is? This is pretty funny. I was trying to run away from a nervous breakdown. I listen, everybody. There's no use getting excited. There might be a town right around the corner. Do it. The least you can do is to try to find some shelter. Lady, I lost my job a few hours ago. I'll do my share and no more. Now, see here, young man. Make out a report for the investigating committee. Blubber puss. They're all in the same boat now. Cheer up, everybody. That's a pretty nice place. There's nothing to worry about. Yet. Just one big happy family. Hey, what is that over there? Isn't that smoke? What are we wasting our time for? Let's investigate. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What is it? You see anybody?  It looks creepy to me. Lay off that gun, will you? We'll start eating with it.  All right, look out. Look out. Young man, who are you? Suppose I ask the question. What is this place? Where are we? About 1,200 miles off the nearest ship or airline. You enjoy privacy? You like it here. Are you alone here? I was. Say, pal, what about some food? We dropped out of the sky last night in a burning plane. Guess we're what you'd call survivors. Where are the officers? I only went down with the plane, the poor fellas. We want transportation at once to the nearest port. I'm sure you do. How about a boat? Sorry. How far are we from Shanghai? 1,500 miles. Do any boats ever stop here? No. But I've only been here a year. We must get away somehow. Look, there's a boat. Don't get excited. It's mine. I thought you said you didn't have a boat. I said you didn't have a boat. Now, just a minute. Are we to understand that you refuse to pilot us? Don't you think a good breakfast would be about the most important thing right now? That's the most sensible thing that's been said yet. Good, excuse me. Very good, Father. Mr. Harrison. Good. Any more coconut milk? No, I can almost. That's a bad meal, do you think? Excellent. Well, it served its purpose, Mr. Taylor, but now let's get down to business. Business? Yes, you must be reasonable. Why? Why?  Why should any man be reasonable? I'm sure. I don't know. You seem to resent our coming here. I most certainly do. Well, obviously, it's not to our own choice. I imagine not. Why won't you take us to the mainland, apart from your inconvenience? Let's say that is the reason.  We're people of affairs. We have missions in this world. No, no, Senator, you're taking yourself too seriously. But really, Mr. Taylor, it's the only decent thing you can do. Decent? Yes, decent. What's to prevent our taking the boat? Is there a navigator in the car? I think I can read a compass. I think. Well, if you think you can navigate a thousand miles of treachery sea-wise... Is it possible that your man, Mr. Pink, can sail the boat? Yes, we can. But he's not going to. Ah, this is not great. And I'll look for you. Let's understand each other thoroughly. You want to get to your destinations for reasons of your own. I refuse to take you for reasons of my own. That I have personal reasons goes without saying. And I don't want any more probing. I didn't invite you here. But as long as you are here, I'll do my best to treat you as guests. Only as long as you act as guests. Is that clear? Mr. Teller, time for news bulletin. Put it on, Pink. Radio? Just an old-fashioned battery set. And with troops of the borders, all Central Europe is tense, awaiting the next move of the dictators. We now swing across from Central Europe to somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, where the mystery of the giant plain seabird is cloaked in silence. Although hope has not been abandoned, it is considered almost certain that the plain and all its occupants went down into the sea. We formally broadcast the identity of those aboard with the exception of three passengers. They have now been established through dispatches from San Francisco. Travelling aboard the plain in Cognito, under the name of Doris Bailey, was Miss Thelma Chase, heiress to the Chase Millions and one of the richest girls in the world. It is said that she was going abroad to absent herself from the growing labor troubles in one of her factories, which is now closed by strikes. Another on the plain was Robert Malone, known in the underworld as the Torpedo, a former member of the notorious Dutch Swanson gang. Malone was fleeing to the Orient with $150,000, which he had held back from some gang operation. The reason for his hasty fight was said that he had been marked for death by his fellow mobsters. Another on the plain was Miss Iris Compton, who was being sought for the district attorney's office for questioning regarding her knowledge of underworld activities. Newspaper men alleged that she was ordered to leave the city until the investigation blew up. Harrison Brand and T. L. Honeyman, whose identity was reported before, were ammunition salesmen for two unnamed competitive firms, both hastening to the Orient to close gigantic deals for the sale of ammunition. And this brings to a close our news broadcast for this evening. The program comes to you... That makes at least three murderers. Ladies and gentlemen, now we're really getting acquainted. It seems to me, Miss Compton, that from now on, out of respect for these ladies that you...  I advise you to take that advice, Senator. You too, Malone. Mr. Taylor, I'll give you $100,000 to take me to China. You mean just you? I can't speak for the others. You can put me down for 50 Gs and another 50,000 for Miss Compton. Thanks, buddy. That's very thoughtful. That's splitting the bankroll with you two to one. I need the last 50,000 to get started again. How much Miss Shater's off for Taylor? But you'll have to wait until I put over this deal in China. That is, if the senator here learns proper influence... Well, if it's that kind of a deal, I'll double it. Senator, here's your chance. These gentlemen are insinuating that your help can help put over their munitions deal. Of course, there are thousands of lives involved wouldn't matter to you. Really, gentlemen, you put me in a very embarrassing position. I don't know what you're talking about.  I'm a nurse returning to China for humanitarian reasons. Of course, I realize that means nothing to you. A graduate nurse? Yes. Been in China before? Yes. In what hospital? The lady of the lamp and kook child. Why? Oh, just curious. Well, what about it? I'm sorry to inconvenience Mrs. Sidney and Mrs. Wesson, but I'm not taking any of you.  Why get excited? We don't care much where we're going. Long as it isn't back. And there's just one other little thing. When I arrived on this island, the first thing I did was to build this shack. And then I began scouting for food. If you think you're going to run this island, tell me what you'd like for dinner. You'd better try and think up another idea.  To live on this island, two things are necessary. Food and shelter. And from now on, if you want either, you'll have to find your own. I prefer my own company. He means we're very welcome, folks. Wait with us. We've got a right to eat. I'll talk to him. Talk. Did you want something? Now, look here, Mr. Taylor. We're perfectly willing to pay for the food. I'm sorry, Senator, but your money is no good here. I'm quite willing to let you use my fishing tackle. In fact, I might even stretch it for it. I'll give you some of my fish. Oh, no, not this one. Oh. But you'll have to cook them yourselves. Oh, I don't mind that. Can anybody cook? And one other thing. If you don't clean up afterwards, you can't use my fireplace again. I'll see to that, too. And you'll have to gather your own firewood. Oh, very well. You'll find the fish outside under the damp leaves. Oh, my God. What are we going to do, Mr. Taylor? I don't know. I'm just as anxious to get rid of them as they ought to go. We stay, they swim. You don't take charge. You can't go back. I know that thing. Very well. Put it here. We must all cooperate. Ah, very clever of you girls. I'm very fond of Taylor. Now, let's go about this and organize the Democratic faction. We'll divide up the work. Mr. Sydney, can you cook? I've been frying fish for 30 years. Fine, fine. Just if you can prepare the vegetables. Malone, you can clean the fish. Mrs. Spelma Chase may serve the meal, if you will. And Mrs. Wesson, you can clean up afterwards. Brandon Huneman, you can gather the wood. There now. That's Democratic. Outside of eating, Senator. Just what do you do? I'm the organizer. Oh, who elected you? If this is going to be Democratic, let's have an election. Here, here, here. I nominate the senator to clean the fish. Well, I have to submit it now. I second the motion that the senator cleans the fish. All in favor? Aye! Again. Aye, I protest. Over, over, over. This is against all conceptions of democracy. It's a virtual dictatorship. On the contrary, Senator, it's perfect democracy. It's the voice of the people. If you don't clean the fish, you don't eat. This was my fault. Maybe I'm wrong. Come on out. I've got yourself in this. I've got tired. I stopped to rest. Good. I'm glad to see you. Oh, really? I'm waiting to talk to you. Conscience when bothering you? You do have a conscience. Oh, little. Well, that's at least one human quality. That was a pretty speech you made last night. Wasn't it deserved? Maybe, but still you can't expect us to accept it gravely. After all, our lives do mean something to us. You don't think the men are going to let you get away with it? Sorry, there's nothing they can do about it. Anyhow, I'd rather you've treated your own case. Well, I'd rather not. But what are you going to do about Mrs. Sidney? She can't stand this place. It's too bad. But it'll be too bad for you if you don't sail us, because we'll take the boat ourselves. Now, look here, young lady. You're wasting your time inspecting this boat. I can tell you and all the others everything you need to know. The magnet is hidden on the island. So is the gasoline. And I don't think anybody can handle sail so I left that. And all the charts are hidden too. All right, Mr. Taylor. But if you think you can keep eight people on this island when you have the means of taking them away, you're crazy. There, there, not to keep on talking like this. We're both going to get feverish. Come on, come on. Let's cool off. Mr. Taylor, what's on your mind, Ping? I've been thinking, Mr. Taylor. You have? Wow. So have I, Ping, but it hasn't gotten me anywhere. Get Ping somewhere. Well, I've always said you were better thinker than I. Yes. Ping, these people here, it's bad business. I wish we knew what we could do about it. They must go. Yes, but how? I think there's something in what you say, Ping. Pretty risky. Even if we took a chance and dropped them off in the nice, ladies' spot in the main line at midnight. Thanks, Ping. That's probably a very good idea. Ladies and gentlemen, I have some sad news for you. I've changed my mind. You're leaving here. Well, young man, I'm glad you see the path of decency at last. My conscience is stricken, Senator. Mr. Honeyman and Mr. Brand being kept from their noble work causes me sleepless nights. I can't stand it any longer and poor Miss Chase. 30 millions and no place to spend it. That's a tragedy. You're going to take it for sure. You'll pilot it. I'm not going. My Chinese servant will be your captain. However, there's just one little difficulty. There are nine of you and the boat only holds six. The rest of you will have to wait about three months. Oh, well, the time will soon pass for the others. Now, about the six. Naturally, age comes first to them. The ladies... There's nothing to be gained by disorderly conduct. Now, it's obvious that the first to go should be those whose objectives are the most important. Certainly, it's more fitting that a lady like Miss Chase should proceed this... Forget it, will you? Take that back. I'm sorry, Mr. Compton. I apologize. I wasn't going to offer this thing, but that's all. Well, if you're all through, I'll give you my decision. Number one is Ping. Number two, Mrs. Sidney. Three and four, Miss Compton and Mr. Malone. Number five, Mrs. Wesson. But you said there were six. Yes, that's my difficulty. Let's see. There are four left. Well, I suppose we'll have to toss for it. It's just a... Well, I don't understand why this is actually... One toss for four people and then you... It's silly. Senator, I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. Too bad, Miss Chase. You can't leave me here. You simply can't. That $100,000 that you offered me, Miss Chase, perhaps Miss Compton would take that for her place. For three months? You know, that's fair. Now I can have that nervous breakdown line by putting off for years. Boy, well, I enjoy it. Now, look, everybody, when you come right down to it, there's no particular rush for me to leave this island. I mean, after all, what's three months more or less to me? Well, and that gives the rest of that very fine of you, Malone. Well, that's settled. Oh, by the way, you sail at noon tomorrow. You can't get away with this talent. Take it easy, Brian. He won't. Your best course, Ping, will be to avoid this Sarman Group of Island. You understand the map? Yes, Mr. Talent. It's going to be tough taking five people. We make it. Well, go along now and check everything. Yes, Mr. Talent. Oh, hello, Mrs. Wesson. Your bag's all packed? I wanted to thank you, Mr. Talent. I've been doing you a great injustice these past few days. Mental murder? Just about. I'm sorry you're not going with us. I'm sorry you're not staying.  I suppose all my life I'll be wondering who you are and why you're on this island. It'll be most irritating. You'll forget all about this island the minute you get back to civilization. I don't think so. Goodbye. Goodbye. We don't want to pull any strong-arm stuff, Taylor, but right here or now you're going to listen to reason. I thought you understood me. That was your mistake. You're going to understand us. Listen, Taylor, you can't set yourself up as a tin god. You either take us or we take you. It wouldn't be a riot if I had to become the cop around this joint. Fine boys, honeymoon and brand. Very. You should find that company quite enjoyable these next three months. Yeah, maybe I ought to keep them here. You know there's an idea in that. Quentin all munitions makers and their salesmen on an island let them shoot it out. Do you ever do anything with your ideas? Oh, I just dream them up. That's what I thought. Well, it's about time you started putting them to work. Anything you say. Leave honeymoon and brand here. You sail us instead of Ping and then start kidnapping munitions makers. I have a better idea. Will it work? No, that depends on you. Send honeymoon and brand back with Ping and you stay. Thanks.  We haven't begun to know each other yet. Why should we? For the best reason in the world. What's that? Because we want her.  Don't shoot. Cut off that line. She hurt badly. It's nothing serious, Mr. Sidney. We'll take you up to the shack and fix you up right away. Give me that metal. Take it easy now, boys. Careful.  We'll clean that cut. Picture like new. All you got to do is be a good boy. You want to make some money, don't you? Yes, sir. You bring us the money. You bring us the money.  We'll clean that cut. Picture like new. All you got to do is be a good boy. Make some money, don't you? Yes, sir.  I don't make you the richest gentleman on the coast. What do you say? $5,000. That was a lot of the money.  Well, can you beat this? And to think that guy, Taylor, was pulling all that stuff about leading the clean, simple life, the Shanghai news. Get this. Convicted doctor escapes. Dr. James Taylor, prominent Shanghai surgeon who was convicted of murder in the first degree for the slaying of Thomas Sidney, a young American connected with the underworld escaped from prison last night. Aided by his Chinese surgeon. That's me. Police however feel certain he will be captured within the next 24 hours. When was that? A year ago. I guess cops are like the world over. You never can tell. There might be a reward on that guy's head. We'll find out when we notify the authority. I want to see that guy, Mr. Dr. Taylor in Shanghai when they bring him back. The rest of you wait outside, please. Malone, get that hot water off the fire. Right. This is the lesson you find on the table addressing through inside. Mrs. Wesson, see where Malone is with that water? Yes, doctor. Sidney, please don't say anything. Thank you. On that plane, remember. I had a feeling this was going to be an adventure. Yes, that's right. You did. Now, please. Over here, Mrs. Wesson. Now, Mrs. Sidney, just grit your teeth and let it poke that bullet now. We haven't any. I'm afraid it's too late anyway, but we'll do what we can. It is too late. Don't worry about me. It seems as if I was right about everything. See my son again. Please tell him, buddy. You'll find his picture. His name is Thomas Sidney. Did you know him? Yes, I know him. He's a very fine boy, Mrs. Sidney. I'm awfully sorry, Anne. I'm afraid I've made an awful mess of everything. You mustn't blame yourself. Oh, yes, I feel responsible for Mrs. Sidney's death. But it was an accident. If I'd have taken him away the first day, this never would have happened. Oh, they'd have had to wait for the second trip just the same. The only difference is it might have happened three days ago. I wish I could forget it. I keep thinking of Mrs. Sidney's son waiting for her. He won't be. He was killed a year ago, Anne. You really knew him? I thought you were just trying to comfort her. He was mixed up in the most vicious depraved racket in the Orient, finally causing the innocent woman to commit suicide. The woman's brother killed him. Maybe it's just as well, Mrs. Sidney never got there. But how did you know? I was that woman's doctor. That couldn't have anything to do with your being here. In a way it has. Do you really think we'll get away from here in three months? As soon as honeymoon and brand reach the mainland, they'll tell you... I don't think so. Don't really think they've killed Ping, do you? If they have, they'll never get to the mainland. If they haven't, Ping will never take them there. In which event, they probably will kill him. Well, the future doesn't look very bright, does it? Like the way you're washing those pots. The sweet potatoes we had for lunch today tasted of yesterday's fish. I haven't yet mastered the art. I'm sorry. There's no art to it. It's just elbow grease. If you weren't so lazy, you'd take those things down to the beach and rub them with sand that cleans them thoroughly. And I've told you that before. Hello there, Monaco. What's on the menu? Well, I'm inventing something. It's a combination of all kinds of things. You mean all kinds of fish? Yeah. What's he going to call it tonight? Ask the chef. What do you call it again? It's William Bates. Oh, yeah? Fish Charter and Brooklyn. Come on, let's get the table set, honey. I'll set the table without the honey. How about a swim? I can't. I've got work to do. We're not all so lucky. Well, well, who just thought three months ago you'd wind up here? There you were. Oh, dear, life is so difficult. I don't know whether to spend the summer in Southampton, a bar harbor, and the servant's problem, my dear, and my stocks and bonds and factories. Say, I wonder how those poor guys are getting along in your factory. You know the ones that were striking for shorter hours and better pay.  If you don't shut up, what did I say? What did I do? You said too much. Isn't it bad enough around here? Work, work, work from early morning to late at night. I can't even go for a swim. And look at you, supply clerk and housekeeper. That's because I've had experience as a scenario. In what type of establishment? Never mind that. I know my business. And how? I'm a white collar worker. What can you do? There are plenty of things I could do. It so happens that Mr. Taylor and Mr. Malone won't give you a tumble. And are you a burn?  Yeah, you're just sore because you're left out in the cold.  There's always been. Just as... Like we can call them in now. Taylor, here I... I'll show him something. So, we still have two roofs on the wall at Venice. We need to leave a hundred more. Hello, Selma. Hello, Johnny. Hello, Blubberfoot. Where is everybody? Swimming, enjoying themselves as usual while we do the work. Selma, we're being exploited. Don't I know it? The nerve of them assigning the menial work to us. Our services can be used to much better advantage in many respects. Do you know that I offered to write a history of our stay on this island and what did Taylor say? All right, what did he say? Unproductive. Well, there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. If there were something we could do about it, would you be interested? You've been thinking again. Don't be silly. Don't be silly. Did it ever occur to you that Taylor's reasons for hiding upon this island must arise from some criminal past? Are you just catching on? That occurred to me five minutes after we got here. All right, then.  So are most people. What of it? What of it? What of it? What of it? What of it? That bird hears everything. Listen. He told us that we were hundreds of years old off any ship lane, and we, like a pack of fools, believed him. How do we know? How do we know? It's possible that every day, just beyond that horizon, the ships are passing back and forth, and we, like a pack of fools, sit here. What do you want to do? Swim out there and thumb your way? Oh, no. But those ships can be reached. Has it occurred to you how I've spent my time this evening? Frankly, Senator, it hasn't. The first few weeks were spent purely in thought. General strategy. And then, I hit upon a tactic. A tactic? A tactic. And I immediately set to work. Here they come. I'll tell you more after supper. We'll be off this island in a week. I wonder what we're going to have for dinner. Oh, it's nice to wonder, isn't it? You don't suppose it can be fish, do you? Let's get that food. Come on, Velma. Get the insurance, then. You hungry? Good to be hungry, I'll tell you. You know, when I was a boy in Chicago, I worked in one of the big packing firms. All I did all day long was just smokefish. You must have looked awfully sweet. I got so I thought I could never look another fish in the eye. But it gave me an idea. Now, suppose that I built a smoke oven. Then when the stormy season comes along, we'll have plenty of smoked fish. Not a new idea at all, Mr. Malone. I can assure you. The government's been talking for years about shortage and drought. It's an old story. Talking? Then if we really do it, it'll be quite new. Hey, what's the idea? Is that all I get? I'm thinking about your figure, dear. You're getting awfully busy. Has everybody been served? Fine. Yes, thank you. Then maybe I can sit down and have my dinner. Sure, yes, ma'am. Have you young ladies had a nice day? A perfectly lovely day. I paid a social call on Miss Velma Chase of Long Island. She gave me a delightful luncheon. That was sweet of you, Velma. I'm so happy to see you girls getting on so well. Sweet of me. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There's an unfair distribution of work around here, and I object. Some people do practically nothing and have all the funds. You're all taking advantage of me.  I'm entitled to a fair share in all the comforts, and if I don't get it, I'll... I'll... Well, I'll just sit down. Hey, you know, if the workers at the chase company had an eloquent leader like you to speak for them, I'll bet they wouldn't have much trouble getting what they're after. Too bad you're not all shareholders, isn't it? I think Selma's complaint is justified, and I nominate Johnny to do the housework for a while. All in favor? Aye! That's too preposterous! Sorry, Johnny, but it seems you're elected. You see, as you're completely unequipped for any productive work, you'll have to remain unskilled labor. Join the Navy and learn a trade. But I cannot... We'll... We'll see about this later. One big happy family. They're only three meals a day. I'll be taking them. I doubt it. Well, keep them back. Don't worry, I will. Hey, where's Iris? Probably waiting on the corner. Well, what did I do? That's just what I'm gonna find out. Why don't you ask your questions first and sock afterwards then? Because I like it this way better. Now, come on, what's going on between you two? What, too?  You know who I mean. What do you mean, Selma? You know better than that.  Honest. What do you know about honest? Didn't I see the way she's been heaping your plate, feeding you up? What about that undercover talk she was giving you just now by the tape? What do you mean when she was kind of whispering in my ear there? Yeah. Well, that was nothing. It seems that she's just learned how to weave this grass.  What for? Well, she said she thought I might like a little privacy. That's just what I thought. If the time ever comes when you need privacy, I'm making the curtain. Oh, why don't you wait before this can start? I'll get this straight. The next time I catch you fooling around with that common kitchen help, it'll be curtains for you, not the house. Well, I didn't know you can.  I hated the idea at first, but now everybody's changed. It's not so bad. Nobody's changed. They haven't changed inside. Never satisfied, are you? No, and I never will be here. Never? Don't you see, I've got to get that. Back to what? Civilization. This isn't living. Oh, it all depends on how you look at it.  Well, you won't change that by running away. I suppose I did run away from my childhood. I didn't think much about it at the time. It didn't affect anybody except me. But I'm not alone anymore. Maybe the others haven't changed, Ann, but I have. I couldn't be content to stay here again without you. You could never be happy living here, even with me. Our lives are just beginning. We've got to make something of them. I'm returning! Hey, there! The island's on fire! I'm returning! The island's on fire! What? Heaven and the wind turns it's going to be terrible. Everybody down to beach! Please, gentlemen, jump! Come back down! Crazy! If I'd known you were cold-centered, I'd have offered you a jacket. Time's limited in something. You studiously avoided making any effort to signal the pulse of ships or I'd put it on myself. If you were so anxious to leave, how did you come to me for advice? Without enough of your advice. Well, it's a pity, but this is all wasted effort. The ship lanes are miles away and in the opposite direction. It couldn't possibly have seen your fire from here. This is North, Johnny. The nearest northern ship lane for me is over a thousand miles. Well, I think you'd better pick up your pale and shovel it and play nearer home. But... I'll find a way out! Well, I hope it's at least as good as this one. But then... Oh! Oh! That Chinaman's pulling a fast one. We should have hit Chinaman now. I don't know what we're trying to do about it. We ran out of gas. What? We should have been in Chinaman before we ran out of gas. Well, we're not. I'll see to what I'll do. I'll see to what I'll do. I'll see to what I'll do. Oh, no, you won't. I'll take the Chinaman. Come on, I'll deal with him. Nice breeze. Yes, very nice.  Oh, yes. Well, we'll see to what I'll do. We'll see to what I'll do. Oh, someday maybe. We'll be back. We'll be back. You've been saying that for two weeks. When do we hit the mainland? Maybe two days. Maybe three. Maybe never. I'll give you three days. You'll meet some land. Don't you ever put your hands in the room again. All right. You say them both... We don't know how to say them both. Maybe we've been too good to you. You've got to do better. I do better than I can. I'm no better than I am. You've got to do better than that. Happier than I've been for a long time. Let's forget everything that ever happened in the past. I've already forgotten. We need never think about it again. From now on, we'll live in the present. And think of the future. That's just what we won't do. Why not? The future has everything to offer. Of course it has. Our little community is getting along very well. No, Jim. It's not our future on this island I'm thinking about. This is only half living. It's the nicest half. You know that isn't true. Unless we face our responsibilities, we can't respect ourselves. Or it's less each other. This may sound like an empty promise, Anne. That doesn't seem to be any way to fulfill it. But you mean more to me than anything else. If we ever can get away, we'll go together. Oh, it's you. What do you want? Are you alone? Yes, but I'm not lonely. Are you available? I want to talk to you. What about? Well, about yourself. All right. Come on in. But it's cozy little place. You're really very clever, Iris. Excellent hand-to-hand. Did Selma make this? So far, Selma didn't make anything. And if she knows what's good for her... I'm fighting with Selma. Allowing selfish motives to interfere with the welfare of the community. What's it to you? I want to put you in my book. I'd hope that you might furnish me with its most interesting material. Well, I'll do anything I can. Fine, that's the proper spirit. You know, in a community such as ours, it's one for all, all for one. What's mine is yours, and it necessarily follows that what's yours is mine. I want to record for posterity the reactions of a person such as yourself to, shall we say, nature in the raw. Well, if you're going to get a person, I... No, no, don't misunderstand me. I'm only trying to help.  Last night I happened to see not that I wanted to, Malone. Malone put his arm around you like this. Now, don't try to deny it. I saw you. It was just like this. Iris, it was a disgrace. What was the disgrace about it? Why, it was the very manner in which she... Now, wait a minute, Senator. What possible harm can there be to it? Why, all he did was put his arms around me like this and said, well, it's none of your business, what he said. Why, you act as if it was a crime. Well, maybe I've been a little too hasty. Perhaps I've misjudged, so I'm really beginning to feel as though you're perfectly right. I knew you'd see it, my way, Senator. Well, the little talk didn't hurt. In fact, I honestly think that the little understanding talk should come more. Oh, Senator, what was it you came to see me about? How am I doing, Polly? Look, Felma, I can't whistle at night because you want to sleep. I can't whistle in the daytime because it bothers your nerves. What can a man whistle? You're tough to get along with. I'm very easy to get along with. Just tell me how.  Now, look, Felma, you've got to get over the jitters. Why don't you settle down and calm yourself? Everybody else around here is trying to make the best of everything. You could be pretty happy if you wanted to be. Thanks for the advice. Well, that's more than advice. Really? Gee, Felma, don't you think you could learn to care just a little? We're going to be here a long time, you know. Is this your way of proposing? Yeah. Well, this is my way of accepting. She loves me! Can't you put that stuff down? We finally got to the one place in the world where you don't need money, and you can't even forget it here. Oh, I'm just counting it to pass the time away. That's the best way you can pass the time. You're going to be a great disappointment. What do you want it for? What good is it doing you? If you must count something, we'll wait until the night. We'll count the stars. Do you want to have some fun? Sure. Okay, let's burn it. You crazy? Yeah, but not about the money. Okay, kid, let's both go crazy. As long as we're going to wipe out the past, let's complete the job.  Hey, our $1,000 bill. Funny, our geography changes the value of this stuff. You know what we made a great discovery? Money is no good at all. Have you seen it? Have you seen it? Why? It's marvelous! It's marvelous! I can't believe it! What's the matter? Did you see a ghost or something? A ghost! Well, what is it? It's a ghost. A boat! A big beautiful boat! A magnificent moniker of the sea! Coming this way! Come, let me show you! Oh, Johnny! He's better! A boat! A boat! The sex forest! Those greyhounds of the sea are everywhere! Oh, here come the Marines! Oh, they've got some decent clothes again and a manicure. Gee, I don't feel like I thought I would at all. Nice work, then. Come back, Mr. Dillon. I know you would, Bing. Where are your honeymoon and brand? Them four of them, Mr. Dillon. I think... I... I... I thought... It's a better... Where is everybody? Hasn't been so quiet here in a long time. They're down at the beach trying to hold the senator back. Don't tell me he's going to swim out to the pool. That's what they're afraid of. He wants to get the best bunk. Yeah, well, he'll sleep on back and like it. Oh, don't worry about the senator. He'll find something in the Constitution to provide him with a bunk. Now I'll have to start worrying about a job all over again. Don't worry. I'll help you find a job. Is a strike breaker in one of your factories? No, I learned something on that island. There are going to be a lot of changes. I'm writing a history of our stay on this island. Now, let's see. After I saved those who survived, I took on the responsibility of leadership and set about establishing a democratic community. I was given the title of... You know, honey, I've got a pretty good idea. It better be a new one. What do you say when we get that Hong Kong we tie the knot?  I'll go for the first part of it, but we'll spend the honeymoon and the money in Shanghai. Looks like I'm the boss already. Yes, you are. Well, things aren't quite the way you've figured them out for yourself, aren't they, pal? Not quite.  I had a hunch you were on the lam from the beginning. After all, if I didn't know the signs, who would? Look, Jim, if this dough is of any use to you, just say the word. I'm afraid I can't use it where I'm going. It's not for that, eh? Well, 150 grand's a lot of dough in any man's country. Don't forget you can count on it. Thanks. Here, take this wheel and keep the compass right where it is. Okay?  I thought we all had. Taylor's only going back on account of you the rest of us are riding on dough. And do you any idea why he didn't want to go back? Because the minute this boat hits the port, there's going to be somebody there to grab him. It looks to me like you better make plans for your future alone. I don't think so. Kept it right on the line, Captain. What's the matter? I was talking to Malone. Jim, is it too late for me to change my mind? Couldn't we go back to the island or anywhere else? No, you've made me see everything very clearly.  You have your work to do and I, well, I have a matter to clear up. We may be separated for a little while. No, Jim. Whatever it is, we'll face it again.


Hi all, Salvatore here. I was just googling myself, forgive me, and look what I found! Wikipedia has a notice board for India-related topics, and who's that at the top of the list? Hey, that's me! They didn't spell me right, it's Salvatore bubonus, not barbonus. Let's see if we can fix that. Well, I guess not. I'm globally blocked. I don't know if that's me or if that's... I'm not enough of a wikipedia to know how this works. Hey, wikipedia's out there. If you can fix this, I am Salvatore bubonus, as noted right here. And very funny, people talking about me mentioning my book, The New Authoritarianism. Hey, thanks for the mention, Catilia III. It says that it is a political screed. Didn't seem to mention that the book was named Best on Politics 2018 by The Wall Street Journal. I'm very proud of that little book. And let's look at this, the review on The Wall Street Journal. What I am so proud of is that Barton Swain, the reviewer, said, Mr. bubonus, whose ideological affiliations remain a mystery to me. Now, if you could write a Trump book in 2018 and no one knows which side you're on, I think that's an accomplishment. So look at all this stuff about me. Catilia III really doesn't like me. I'm not even amusing. If nothing else, I'm amusing. You might say I'm completely wrong, but don't tell me that I'm not amusing. Wow, so sorry, Sabatha Begum. Eat my dust, Sabatha Begum. Lock and crur. I even beat out Lock and crur vegetarianism. I am a vegetarian, by the way, but I'm so little for vegetarianism. Okay, Ananya Vajpayee, whoever you may be, and I'm going to go look you up. Wow, you've won. I mean, Ananya Vajpayee, wow, whoever this person is, this way out does anything about me. So good work, Ananya Vajpayee. You win the crown for most talk. But you know what, I beat out India's classical languages, so I'm certainly not going to complain. Ananya Vajpayee, good work, but Salvatore Beboni's second prize, and I'll take that.


stereo. This one is muted. Okay. Good morning everybody. Happy Sunday. Okay. So yes, I've traveled all the way from Ohio. This is my second time in Singapore and I just love coming here and I wish I could make it a habit. I hope I can make it a habit. So again, thank you, Cole Deep and thank you volunteers for putting together just a fantastic, intimate and yet really exciting workshop day and conference day. So the objectives, what I'd like to talk about today is define and then destroy the myth of the UX unicorn, then identify some critical soft skills for us UXers, discuss how we can incorporate them in our industry and in our practice. And along the way, we'll get to marvel at unicorns that poop rainbows. So a little bit about me. I trained as an aviation human factors researcher. My lab studied how aviation system in as a whole in general could be made safer through a combination of interventions at the organizational team and individual levels. I've built small and large UX teams in different organizations. I teach and lead the UX master of science program at Kent State University and I also provide consulting as well. I'm pretty busy. I also am aware that I am a plot device in a certain Pixar movie. So many people just kind of think it. So I figured I'd use it as my intro. Okay. So that's enough of an introduction. I went into the detail about aviation for a very particular reason and we'll come back to that soon. Let's get started by talking about the current user experience landscape. Now I know that we probably all look at the salary surveys in our respective countries and this is a US one and it seems like everything is awesome. Everything is great. Right. We see year over year growth in salaries and salaries are very, very attractive for all types of UX contributors. No matter what your job description is, you'll probably have noticed that there are very, very financially attractive opportunities and I just did a check. I pulled this about 10 minutes ago and look at that. Over 125,000 UX related jobs worldwide according to LinkedIn search engines.  Right. Otherwise I wouldn't be standing up here giving a talk. What is the catch? Why do so many of us feel like we don't have a seat at the grown up table? Meaning why do we feel like we have to constantly push and struggle to get UX properly positioned into our development, design, ideation, release, life cycles. It seems like it's a never ending, especially for people who are inside a company. But even for those of us who provide resources and services from outside, well, I am willing to bet that many of you are familiar with certain situations we find ourselves in. Organizations hire us. Why? Because they quote unquote need UX. But all too often they really don't know what that means or what it takes in terms of resources, in terms of time, which is a resource. So many of you have probably heard these kind of statements at one time or another. We need better UX. But wait, how long will it take to fix the product by the next release? No, there's no time to do that much. Or do we really need a UX researcher? We understand the product. We should use that head count for another developer. Are these familiar? Have you heard these at one time or another in one version or another? Yeah, me too. I've been internal. And sometimes we're blocked from accessing our users. Just talk to sales. They know what the customer wants. No, they know what the loudest customer wants. Who really isn't even a user. Just someone who signs the checks or is the gatekeeper and makes the decisions. So let me show you something that helps explain that it's part of the difficulty, not all of it, but part of the difficulty we have getting UX positioned and resourced correctly. So this is a job posting, a real job posting I received in email a few months ago. I don't expect you to read this because we're going to deconstruct this and discuss it. So the position title is Senior UX Consultant. Let's break down what this company is looking for. Well, they want someone who can conduct UX research. Okay, fair enough. Experience with usability user feedback test design and execution for mock-ups, prototypes, pre-release functionality and production systems. Fair enough. They also want someone who can design. Experience completing mock-ups and wire framing. Ability to create logos and graphics for websites, proposals and marketing materials. Build and test complex multi-tiered web apps, and this is their random capitalization, not mine. And UI framework components, actually that last one. Okay, maybe. Look at this. The candidate should also maintain a high level of unit and integration test coverage across projects to catch and prevent feature regressions. They aren't even finished yet. They want someone who can both drive UX consistency. Oh, and by the way, also write tight, maintainable code? What's happening here? And of course, this person should be creative and collaborative. So does this sound like a recruiter just smashed together four different job positions? Yeah, I think it's fair to say that this isn't just a UX unicorn. This unicorn actually poops rainbows, puppies and sunshine and probably brings about world peace and can cure cancer in its spare time. So let's not forget the obvious here, which is that unicorns are a myth. There aren't any. It's no coincidence that we call this mythical practitioner a UX unicorn. It's because I've never really met one. And if we do, we should probably be committed to an insane asylum because we probably imagined it. Okay, let's change gears now and talk a little bit about the different competency areas that our industry has defined for itself. Because this will help us understand, really, what a true UX effective practitioner can do. So let's do that. So the term competency area is just shorthand for the things that we do. Grouped into buckets that roughly, but not completely mirror the ideation, design, development, test, life cycle. Okay. So first there's user research and I'm pretty sure that we don't have to go through all of the definitions of these because we all have a good understanding of what these things are. But the important takeaway is that oftentimes there's kind of a fuzzy line between user research and then defining a high level structure and then there's a fuzzy line between these different areas and then these different areas and these. And what we typically see is that in my and others' experiences, when we see candidates come to us, they typically have these skills in common. You may see a user researcher who is just devoted to user research and ideation phase work. And content strategists and information architecture practitioners can tend to be kind of together. You'll find people with both of those skill sets. Visual design and interaction design tend to be lumped together typically. And oftentimes you'll see interaction design and front end development grouped together. With the advent of frameworks that are easy to use, you'll see that more and more. There's other structures. You may have seen this variation where user research again is alone. Content strategy is its own little practice area, competency area. And then information architecture and interaction design are together. And then maybe you'll see this group and that same kind of interaction design front end development mix. You could see, and I have seen and hired people who are fairly good in user research, information architecture and interaction design. And then still content strategy tends to be kind of on its own and then visual design can be grouped into the interaction design bucket. What's missing? What's missing here? Well, I gave it away in the title of the talk. What's missing is soft skills. I'm going to define the term soft skills in a minute, but first let me make this claim. The skills that people generally identify as soft, quote unquote soft, are actually critical to our success as UX practitioners. They're so critical in fact that I'm going to make the claim that they and not our research and design capabilities are what actually let us get the work of UX done. Okay. As I was working on this talk, I went back to the management research literature. And of course I found many, many different definitions of soft skills. The most complete yet concise description of soft skills I found came from a research team in the UK who described soft skills as consisting of these capabilities. Effective communication, a focus on problem solving, learning and personal improvement, which is key. The ability to work effectively in teams, self-motivation, having initiative and good judgment. One of my colleagues and co-authors actually defines the natural liaison as someone who can bridge gaps between functional areas and groups in a business. Adam Polenski says businesses have always needed people who can bridge the gaps between functional areas. There are these people, I call them natural liaisons who have always existed between camps and they bridge the gulf between groups. They enable communication between them and understand the frustrations they feel. Empathy. It takes soft skills to identify people's emotions and aspirations. It takes soft skills to communicate the information to product and development and to design solutions that successfully engage emotional needs and aspirations. And yet we just think of user research as the ability to create a moderator's guide, identify critical questions, run the research, synthesize the research. But really what it comes down to is empathy and understanding of another's point of view and pain and delight. So I believe all good talks actually bring data to the table so I have some evidence to share with you. In addition to working as a UX researcher and designer and teaching, I also, like many of you, take part in lots of formal and informal UX communities. And I had the opportunity to ask a question of a group of about 200 practitioners worldwide. It was not necessarily U.S. centric or U.S. and Western Europe centric. What I asked them was a question that came to me from one of my, well, from many of my students. They asked me, what should I be learning? What tools and applications should I learn? And what really do I need to know to be successful? And so I put that question to this group of practitioners around the world and I received answers from about 75. The question was simple. What should UX practitioners be learning to be successful? I intentionally designed it that way because I wanted to see where the respondents went. Would people concentrate on hard skills, on tools, would they concentrate on things I wasn't even thinking about? And I wasn't thinking soft skills at this point. The responses were interesting because when I did a bit of light coding, it was all soft skills and they grouped into these buckets. Am I missing one? Communication and influence, collaboration, judgment and initiative and empathy. It was interesting. And what I'd like to do now is share with you some of the most interesting, inspiring and representative quotes. So here's the data. Here's one that touches on both communication and influence. Researchers and designers need to work on how they present their research findings and designs in a compelling way that inspires the rest of the team to act on them. So if you think of the user experience of user experience deliverables, it's important for us to communicate effectively. We can't just hand in sloppy deliverables and it's not just to put polish on it, but to make sure that we're delivering our deliverables in a manner that helps the people who take the hand off. Ruth Ellison's take is that we as UX practitioners should be driving a shared understanding of the problem to be solved and how to solve it with design, which may seem like it's colliding a bit with the product owner's job, but ideally we are in lock step and together with a product owner, a product manager, depending on your terminology. And here's yet more evidence for the importance of communication and influence, this time from Rebecca Distello. She says that that 40 page usability study report that you got a 4-0 on at school won't be useful for or read by most companies. I have learned this on my own with much pain in the early part of my career and I have moved from writing long reports to holding in-person debriefs. Your work must always have something that can be acted upon by your client or team. Okay, what did people have to say about collaboration? John Atheid from Cargo Sense makes the case that effective UX practitioners should cross organizational and functional boundaries when necessary. And I don't know if you're familiar with this meme, but his direct quote was, the concept of that's not my job, I don't do that, deserves a Batman slapping Robin kind of reply. And so I didn't, I hadn't seen that in a while, so I had to go look it up and put, put it, put it together just for this presentation. Trying to get the right level means don't move this arm. Patrick Neiman, who is director of design in Seattle at a company called iCertis, says that you should dive in to understand the business needs as well as user needs, which always leads me to this question when I talk to people about this. How many of you feel like you know enough about your business's goals?  Okay, so if you, how many of you want to have a better understanding of your business's goals? Okay, yeah. Okay, so here's a take on collaboration. It actually touches on several points. To be effective, people need to step beyond design, look into change management, fostering leadership skills, learning to negotiate and raising your emotional intelligence. Now, you could say that that has elements of empathy as well, but I ended up coding it into the collaboration bucket because it was my data. No, but it actually does cross lines. And a lot of these quotes do. And you've got to make a choice when you code things. Let's go back to Kelly Goto for an observation about judgment and initiative. And she says, learn that synthesis of data and analysis are not the same thing. They're actually the opposite. Rigorous analysis involves taking apart or deconstructing your data. And this is specific to user research and value exploration. And then synthesis is the putting back together of that information and making sense of it. And this can make or break a good researcher. I've included these two responses because in Haas case, she touches on the importance of continuity in research. Do you have a feeling that your company actually reinvents the wheel every time you do a new research project? Yes? No? Let me ask it more specifically. How many of you have a research program where you actually build upon the findings of past work that you've done and you scaffold your research program? Anyone? That you are very lucky where you are. Don't leave those jobs. And just for everyone, that was two hands I saw. Was there anyone else who feels like you have a consistent and comprehensive research program? Okay. Yeah. You're lucky. Rachel's point about taking criticism. This deserves an entire presentation in itself. I think there should be more presentations and conferences that talk about the art of giving and receiving critique. And it's so important for us. It's so hard to design alone. For that matter, it's so hard to interpret research alone. Giles Colborne of CX Partners, a UK based firm, recommends that UX practitioners learn to have that quote, unquote hard conversation. I support this as well in the context of advocating for your user's needs and your design solutions. But it certainly applies to how we deal with our teammates and our colleagues as well. In our neighboring disciplines, that is, as well as within UX itself. And finally, here's a quote about empathy from Christian Krumlesh. I take this one to mean that everyone's doing their part in the way they know how best. And it's usually best to attribute good intentions to everyone, no matter what discipline they're doing their work from. And then a final one, didn't want to be identified. Learn the technologies and constraints that your designs will be implemented within. You should have a conceptual understanding of the technology stack that the development team is using, as well as a deep understanding of the organization. It seems like we don't have the time to do all that and also do the work, right? It seems like a lot. So again, survey 200 people, it wasn't a perfectly structured survey. I wouldn't publish this in a journal. I received 75 responses from around the world. The interesting takeaways are that no one, no one said they need to learn to write production HTML CSS and JavaScript. No one said learn sketch or flint or envision. The most important things consistently were learning how to develop your soft skills, which begs the question, can soft skills be taught? Answers yes or I wouldn't be standing up here. The other important thing is that soft skill interventions work. They actually work. You can teach soft skills and soft skill interventions if planned within an organization can work. This is my favorite slide in the entire world. I know that there's a couple of good diagrams from Edward Tufty. It's a tough call, but this one is my favorite because what it shows is the effect of a soft skill intervention that has affected all of our lives literally. So I'll let you look at this for a second. This is a chart showing the rate or number of aviation accidents in commercial aviation starting from all the way back in the 50s to the last time I pulled this data was 2014. Where is that green regression line going? Down. What does that mean? Flight is safer now. In 2014, there were only nine accidents. It's actually less if you take out the effects of sabotage, terrorism and things like that. So what changed? What caused this or what was correlated with this? It's a really fascinating story. There have been many books written about it and I'm just gratified to have been able to play a small role in this effect when I was in graduate school. So as you saw in that graph, the number of aviation accidents had spiked in the mid to late 80s. And an analysis of aviation accidents in that time revealed that over two thirds of crashes were usually attributed to what's called pilot error. That is, in most cases, pilots flew perfectly functioning aircraft into the ground. But this begs the question, what is pilot error? What does that actually mean? Well, you've probably heard of the black box. It's not actually black, it's orange, high visibility so you can find it if it's underwater or under wreckage. NASA and the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration as well as some international aviation organizations commissioned research to study how pilots were communicating both within the flight tech pilot to first officer and flight engineer if they had a third pilot, as well as pilot to air traffic control and even pilot to cabin. They analyzed the content and the quality and the quantity of the communication that was occurring. And what they found was that people, pilots who communicated often and communicated status and communicated their mental models showed better safety behaviors and that when they looked at the accidents, a lot of those accidents showed the opposite. There was less communication overall. There was less critique, criticism, constructive criticism and questioning. So what happened was around 1990, pilots were then given new types of training. First in, I believe it was United Airlines was the first one and then it spread rapidly within the US and then around the world. They were given training that was all about soft skills. They were told that human error is inevitable and the captain is not always right. So shifting the model of the captain is always right to the captain is not always right. And the captain should be cross checked and critiqued. And not just that junior officers should speak up, junior officers have a duty to speak up if they see something wrong or if they think the captain may be committing an error, cross checking each other and making sure that each has an understanding, a shared understanding of where the airplane is, where it's going and whether flight is safe. And then this is something actually new. Crews should debrief and critique after each flight. And I flew, I didn't personally fly. I sat behind the pilots during my graduate school time 146 legs. And I was surprised how much I saw this. And so how much, how effective this new type of training was. What were the results? They speak for themselves. Airplane maintenance and overall airplane quality in terms of build and longevity did increase along with this. So this is not completely soft skills based, but it is in large part soft skills based. Again, this chart should make you very happy, especially those of us who flew in. I always knock on wood when I show this. Okay, these same techniques of soft skill training have also been used in medicine. So there are different groups within the operating room. You've probably seen a lot of medical procedurals on TV where you've got the surgeons, the surgical nurses, the anesthesiologists and other technicians. So I don't know if this idea of cross checking each other for errors and impossible miscommunication has come to Singapore and other East Asian countries. But I believe it has. Have you noticed has this has been a thing where every step of the way, especially if you're in a hospital, maybe for a day visit or if you've had surgery, you get asked your name consistently. Is this happening where you are? Where you're constantly asked for your name and why you're there? Okay. Yeah, so what's happening is that medicine has adopted this idea of cross checking and using checklists and ensuring that errors don't occur in the field of medicine. So how do we evolve UX to focus on soft skills? And now we'll go into some detail about some of the difficulties that the aviation field experienced in bringing about soft skill training. I made it sound like it was easy. It wasn't. It's an interpersonal intervention, but it's also an organizational intervention. So what you're looking at here is that there are many, many different cultures within aviation. There's the professional culture of pilots. There's the training culture. There's a different set of pilots that only do training. There's organizational subcultures. Actually, 757, 767 pilots have somewhat different views and attitudes than Airbus pilots or maybe the short haul regional jet pilots. So these are organizational subcultures. There's formal processes, the things that are written down called standard operating procedures, but there's also a lot of informal processes. We're all familiar with this where we've got our process model and then how things actually get done. So it's the same idea. So what did the researchers do? They actually ran into a brick wall the first few times they tried to provide soft skill training to pilots because none of these other groups, these cultures had an awareness and a burning desire for change as did the researchers and the pilots. And so what they found is that they had to uncover the right keys to influencing these subcultures, these organizational components. So for the professional culture, it was teach pilots the safety value of communication, coordination, cross checking and questioning. That was the base intervention. For the training organization, the trainers needed training in why this was important and modify the curriculum that they taught as well as the evaluations they gave for the subcultures they needed to standardize the soft skill training, which meant reviewing lots of manuals and formal processes and making sure that they incorporated the soft skill training that no matter what airplane you were flying, still applied. Checking with your pilot as to whether you're ascending or descending at 3,000 feet per minute is the same on a 757 as it is on an A320. So it was a matter of doing a lot of subculture reorganization. And as well, reinforce safety behaviors through norms and informal conversations. So guess what?  This is my pitch to you. You are actually a change agent. And I would challenge you all to think about what subcultures exist in your organizations that affect how things get done. Where are the leverage points where you can bring about a change in values and a focus on soft skills? Who are the leverage points? Who can you talk to within your organization and not just and convince them not just to be UX boosters, UX champions but soft skill champions? So what I would say to you is say no to the unicorn. If you see a job posting like that, just put it in the spam folder, delete it. That myth is busted. This is not to say that if you are a software developer and you enjoy and you actually are skilled in doing user experience research and design that you shouldn't. I'm not saying there's no person who can do everything effectively. It's just the more you concentrate on the tightness of your code and the efficiency of your code, it's just natural that the less you're going to strive for that solution to the user's problem, there's a natural built-in tension. And then when you factor in the need to deliver, it becomes difficult. It's hard to go up and down the stack all the way from user needs and business needs all the way down to efficiency of code. You should start or join if it's already happening, soft skills training conversations in your organization. It may already be happening in your organization. How many people are actually in a position to who are management? How many of you are managers? Okay, a good chunk. So I've made the case that you can define soft skills. So it becomes incumbent upon you, upon you who are hiring managers to hire people who can communicate, collaborate, influence and show good judgment. These can be operationalized. And then finally set goals and measure demonstration of these soft skills for your hires. And then last but not least, this is my mission as a teacher and a leader of a master's program. We should be teaching soft skills to UX students at the beginning of their careers. This is something that I suspect most of us, unless you have a natural inclination to empathy and soft skills, I'd be willing to bet again that most of us have had to learn this through some lessons of various levels of pain and struggle on the job. Why don't we do this in the beginning? We should. So we're at the very beginning of this journey of incorporating soft skills into UX. We're not a mature field yet. We're a very exciting young field. And the skills we have and the our ability to affect how product and services are designed is fantastic. I love it. But to be more effective, we have to take essentially a page and lessons from management literature and business literature and safety and medicine literature and incorporate soft skills into what we do. So that's all I have for you this morning. What I'd like to do is I think I've got a few minutes time for questions. And my question to you is how do some of you actually incorporate or use soft skills in your work? And do we have a microphone for the audience? So does anyone have an example of how they have employed some type of soft skill to further user experience in your organization? Please. Thank you. Our company invests in that each of our employees get a conversation training. So that we are not just skilled in doing the research part, but also the communication part internally, externally and beyond. Fantastic. It's good. Anybody else? And it doesn't have to be a large overarching accomplishment. Have you been in a meeting and listened to your developer or your product owner and realized, oh, here's what they're dealing with. And here's how I can bridge that gap. Got one in the back. So for that we pass something to the developer and it's not getting implemented. So what we did was we came up with the design system. And so it has a library standard to bridge the gap. Okay, so you bridge that gap by providing what they needed. Yeah, it seems so trivial, but yet this is something we often find ourselves doing. And that's that's a fantastic example. Does anyone else have an example of implementing or employing a soft skill? Maybe not even realizing it was a soft skill up here. So my developers and stakeholders have different opinions and differences. And so I'm trying to give you some advice in the background, but my question for you is how do we actually push across our own activities across the digital cross. The developers and our stakeholders at times may not have the same approach that we come from. And yes, most of our time, stakeholders are used to what they want to do. Anybody else want to share a story? In the middle? I can't believe I didn't get my laptop off the table. I would say I'm a research researcher. And we have come up to the policy where we require a stakeholder to be a part of these areas. So there's always the need to use research involved as well as either PM or signer, even a developer who's going to be part of that solution. Excellent. Good. Anybody else? I've got about five minutes before I wrap up so we can do a few more stories. So one of the key things that we do at my company is that whenever we finish some user research or some usability test, we synthesize data. And whenever we have a key find it, we always share the entire thing, which is product analysis, stakeholders, and utility. We start out there to empathize with the user as well. And it's just not the US designers who are empathizing with the user. We just share the cross with the team so that everybody's on the same page and we're really good at interacting. Excellent. That's an excellent way to accomplish collaboration. Anybody else? Okay. So that's about all I have for you. First, I want to thank you for your time and share another unicorn picture that I found out on the internet. You can reach me at these coordinates. And just to the moving on to the quick marketing portion, I've got a little table there for the program I teach for and lead. It's a fully online asynchronous master of science program. We have been pushing to recruit a more international student body, because there are so many skilled practitioners out there who are looking for more education. We actually are built for the working professional. So it's anywhere between five and 20 hours per week. And it's asynchronous, and we make sure everything's due Sunday night so you can work on the assignments on the weekend. We've been filling out our offerings. And we've actually I'm really proud because we finally sorry, I don't want to laser you in the eye, Goldie. We've finally incorporated we built out a class in UX leadership, which we'll be going live with in the fall. So that's all I have for you. If you want a webcam cover, if you're worried about Trump or Putin watching you, I've got lots of webcam covers to give out. And that's it. Thank you. And thank you for sharing your stories.