This is a great history of focus, determination, appeal to progressive levels of authority and some other things. We leaders can learn a lot
The lookout on a battleship spies a light ahead off the starboard bow. The captain tells him to signal the other vessel,
“Advise you change course twenty degrees immediately!”
The answer comes back, “Advise you change course twenty degrees immediately!”
The captain is furious. He signals, “I am a captain. We are on a collision course. Alter your course twenty degrees now!”
The answer comes back, “I am a seaman second class, and I strongly urge you to alter your course twenty degrees.”
Now the captain is beside himself with rage. He signals, “I am a battleship!”
The answer comes back, “I am a lighthouse.”
This except, from the New York Times bestseller by the inimitable duo, Tom Cathcart and Dan Klein: ‘Plato and Platypus walk into a bar…’ is a delightful reminder of the dangers of omnipotence in a leader and the need to listen.
In fact, he as lucky that the lighthouse was manned (by not less than a seaman second class). The collision point is not necessarily manned in many businesses. Sometimes maps are not that good. Who knows, maybe maps do not exist but we are using an old one any way, just in case Or the navigation tools have been produced by old Business Schools when they were doing ‘research’.