Crashing With The Nose Up

Creating an Internally Collaborative Working Environment

An aircraft in flight has four forces of action upon it.  Thrust, provided by the engines is driving the aircraft forward while drag is holding the aircraft back.  Lift is generated by the wings while gravity is attempting to pull the aircraft down.  For flight to occur Thrust must overcome Drag and Lift must overcome Gravity.

Collaboration is a buzz word that is going around.  Companies talk about being more collaborative and the things they are doing to promote working together.  The problem is that most companies are not set up to be internally collaborative.  They are set up to be internally competitive.  Things they are doing to drive performance may instead be driving internal competition and holding the company back.  Examples are: Incentives, productions quotas, sales quotas, rating and ranking employees, managing by the numbers, forced distributions, and pay for performance to name a few.  These best efforts to motivate the troops may instead be adding drag to the organization and pulling it down, or Crashing with the Nose Up.

Robert Crow has been in the business of developing people for over 40 years.  He has been responsible for management development with three Fortune 200 companies and left a high tech Japanese company to become an independent consultant.  He is a past president of the Atlanta Area Deming Study Group, a senior examiner for the Georgia Oglethorpe Award, has published papers in Major Journals, and spoken at quality conferences from Calgary, Canada to Paris, France.