Chain-Link Systems

If a chain must not fail, there is not point in strengthening only some of the links.

A system has a chain-link logic when its performance is limited by its weakest sub unit, or "link."  Where there is a weak link, a chain is not made stronger by strengthening the other links. 

For the space shuttle Challenger, the weakest link was a solid rubber O-ring.   On January 28, 1986, the O-ring in Challenger's booster engine failed.  Hot gas knifed through the structure; the rocket exploded.  Challenger and its crew, the "pride of our nation" President Reagan called them, tumbled out of the clear blue sky and shattered on the ocean sixty-five thousand feet below.

If a chain must not fail, there is not point in strengthening only some of the links.  Similarly, for Challenger, there could be no gain to making the booster engines stronger if the O-ring was weak.  There was little point in improving guidance, or communications, or increasing the quality of crew training, if the O-ring was weak.  

ACTION POINT: The logic of the chain is at work in situations ranging from mountain climbing to the space shuttle to aesthetic judgement--situations in which the quality of components or sub parts matters.

Hierarchies of Objectives III

This presents the skills of coordination as if they were rungs on a ladder, with higher rungs in reach only when lower rungs had been attained.

To concentrate on an objective--to make it a priority--necessarily assumes that many other important things will be take care of.  In the case of PJ, he was able to concentrate on the coordination between his helicopter and landing on a rescue vessel at sea because he already possessed layer upon layer of competences at flying that had become routine.

This presents the skills of coordination as if they were rungs on a ladder, with higher rungs in reach only when lower rungs had been attained.  Indeed, PJ's concept of layering of skills explains why some organizations can concentrate on issues that others cannot.  

ACTION POINT: Master the basics of "flying" your business and then pursue higher rungs.

Hierarchies of Objectives II

The obvious reason is differences in skills and accumulated resources.

What is proximate for one nation, one organizations, or even one person may be far out of reach to another.  The obvious reason is differences in skills and accumulated resources.  An understanding of this is sharpened from an illustration discussing helicopters.

PJ lives on the East Cape of Baja California.  He is now a surfer and a fisherman, but was once a helicopter pilot, first in Vietnam, and then in rescue work. The land in Baja California is unspoiled by shopping malls, industry, paved highways, or fences.  One day in a conversation PJ was asked if helicopters were safer than airplanes, since if the engine failed, a helicopter could be auto rotated to the ground, like having a parachute.

PJ snorted "If your engine fails you have to pull the collective all the way down, get off the left pedal and hit the right pedal hard to get some torque,  You have about one second to do this before you are dropping too fast."  He paused, "You can do it , but you better not have to think about it."

He continued, "To fly a helicopter you've got to constantly coordinate the controls: the collective, the cyclic, and the pedals, not to mention the throttle.  It is not easy to learn, but you've got to get on top of it.  You've got to make it automatic if you're going to do more than just take off and land.  After you can fly, then  you can learn to fly at night--but not before!  After you can fly at night with ease, maybe then  you're ready to learn to fly in formation, and then in combat."  "Master all that--make it automatic--and you can begin to think about landing on a mountain in high wind in the late evening, or landing on a rolling, pitching deck deck of a ship at sea."

ACTION POINT: Sharpen key skills and take advantage of accumulated resources to make them automatic so that larger objectives can be pursued.

Hierarchies of Objectives

Proximate objectives not only cascade down hierarchies; they cascade in time.

In organizations of any size, high-level proximate objectives create goals or lower-level units, which, in turn, create their own proximate objectives, and so on, in a cascade of problem solving at finer and finer levels of detail.

Proximate objectives not only cascade down hierarchies; they cascade in time.  For instance, when Nestle purchased British chocolate company Rowntree, top management made a judgement that Nestle's transnational food-marketing skills would be able to take Rowntree's Britain-centered brands and move them into many other countries.  The first steps in that directions were very successful, and the combined management's then developed more subtle and nuanced objectives.

ACTION POINT: Anytime a company enters a new business or market, there is necessarily this cascade of adjusting and elaborating proximate objectives.

Mary Did You Know?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?  Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?  The child that you've delivered will soon delivery you.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?  Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?  When you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.  The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb!

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?  Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?  This sleeping child you're holding is the Great I AM.

Merry Christmas!