“Melbourn McBroom was a commanding boss whose temper intimidated everyone who worked with him. This fact might have gone unnoticed if McBroom had worked in an office or factory, but he was an airplane pilot.
One day in 1978, McBroom's airplane was approaching Portland, Oregon, when he noticed a problem with the landing gear. So McBroom set himself on a waiting course, flying in circles at high altitude while trying to fix the mechanism.
As McBroom obsessed over the truck, the fuel gauge lights got closer and closer to the end of their range. But the co-pilots were so terrified of his anger that they said nothing, even when disaster loomed over them.
The plane crashed, and ten people were killed.”
This short passage offers at least two elements to observe
What happens when we are obsessed with a problem and can't see anything else but that?
We focus too much on one detail and neglect those elements that, perhaps, are at least as important.
And what can it cause to have a boss who doesn't listen and from whom, indeed, the collaborators hide the reality?
It ends badly, without the person responsible even having the chance to realize it.
And finally: how many of the companies we know suffer from these problems and, perhaps, are doing something to try to overcome them?