"Everybody flies in their dreams..."

Sean Tucker, one of the Living Legends of Flight, made the comment on a radio talk show just before flying in the Chicago Air and Water Show this weekend.

Before we go any further here, Mr. Tucker was not one of the stunt pilots or aerial entertainers who died over the weekend doing what they love to do. As of this writing, he is on his way to yet another aerial show in Pittsburgh, where he will once again vertically descend his plane at over 100 mph -- tail first.

Mr. Tucker has been flying air shows world-wide since the mid-70’s. He flies the most high-performance aerobatic aircraft in the world, the Challenger II biplane -- with over 400 horsepower, the plane weighs just over 1200 pounds and reacts to a super-sensitive control stick at 300 mph. And if you're thinking Tucker is just another daredevil going through life simply to entertain himself and others, he is also an innovator and educator. Tucker created the Tutima Academy of Aviation Safety, a world-class flight training institution dedicated to flight safety -- a subject he has studied up-close and personal.

When you think about it, Mr. Tucker's enterprise has all the foundational elements written about in such how-to business books as Good to Great: Start with a passion for something, a pursuit you can be the best at, and through which you can make a profit. From there on, it's a question of staying in touch (grounded) with what your audience (customers) need and want.

Many industrial manufacturing leaders share the same disciplined and inventive spirit. In spite of this recession, it will be those who have no fear of flying, who will emerge from the clouds just fine.

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com

Talk about uncertainty, industrial manufacturers also need leadership...

You've probably heard that the daily economy briefings have "disappeared from Obama's White House schedule." Dig deeper and the truth is that Obama continues to be reminded often enough about the country's economic status. It's just that he and congress cannot agree on steps to solve it. Judging by their indecision, what our nation's managers have agreed upon is to postpone their decision-making responsibilities in hopes of shoring up sides next November, when perhaps a single-party consensus can somehow then move the nation forward.

Talk about uncertainty, what scares industrial manufacturing most is that this country's managers who were elected to make wise and collaborative economic decisions, simply will not; and worse, that this absence of management problem has somehow become systemic.

We have all observed that if the country's finances were managed like a household or solvent industrial manufacturing company, we'd all be better off. The comparison seems obvious. Neither a household, nor a company, nor a government can live beyond its means, and yet our government continues to do just that. Could it be that our government cannot be run like a business or a household, because it is neither? This of course is the deeper implication of "tea party" reform, that we have a systemic change issue to address in Washington DC. Talk about uncertainty, who really wants a third party system, when what is needed are better managers?

Whether in congress or in an industrial manufacturer's conference room, making decisions is not about achieving a total "consensus" in order to chip away at a problem and move the business forward. At some point there must be decision-making agreement. And isn't that the point?

Good management doesn't let uncertainty get in the way of business growth. Leaders look for the insights and strategies that make managerial decisions possible. You know – the kind of management that welcomes deeper daily market insights, really understands the needs of customers, and agrees on what to do about it.

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com

Hour town -- Washington's last-minute lesson in mis-management...

As any organizational change consultant will tell you, the first step to leadership is that the "core coalition" in power must feel a sense of urgency before it will act collectively in the best interests of the organization. Or a democracy.

Regardless your politics, the decision coming out of Washington tonight serves as a profound reminder of the risks involved when any organization seeks "consensus" when it should be seeking agreement as to how to how to move ahead.

Democrats and Republicans may never achieve consensus. But they can reach agreements, so long as they feel a sense of urgency.

Pursuing consensus is not the purpose of leadership. Consensus means everyone has looked at the facts and come to the same conclusion. People will not do this, because their brains don't work this way. Everyone's opinion is separately arrived at by separate beliefs and experiences, and moreover by mindsets that have been forged by years of unique experiences. Not to mention, people in Washington have especially differing capacities for full or diminished rational thought.

The distinction between consensus and agreement is critical. Whether you are the president of the United States or the president of an industrial manufacturing company, you cannot impose your will on people and expect to achieve the results you are after. Nor can you seek consensus, when it is your job to lead people toward agreements that will move the business forward by way of goals, objectives, activities and tactics.

It's the basic role of management, isn't it? Helping people make decisions. Planning, organizing, directing, leading and controlling an organization, or a country, progressively forward.

jb
www.centrifuge-now.com