Control Your Most Precious Asset

The Warning Light

The cross country flight had been uneventful. The Boeing wide body jet full of passengers had been cleared to descend to 5000 feet. The flight crew was executing a series of maneuvers to bring the plane to the specified altitude when that warning light came on again in the cockpit. The light had come on previously during the flight but the crew was always able to get it to turn off and assumed it was a faulty switch. The pilot decided to put the plane on autopilot at 5000 feet and with the assistance of the co pilot tried to troubleshoot the light in case the warning was real. As the pilot and co pilot tried several fixes to clear the light they heard the flight engineer behind them suddenly shout "Oh my God".

It was the last thing audible on the plane's cockpit voice recorder as the plane slammed into the ground. The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) later determined that while fixated on the warning light the pilot had inadvertently bumped the control wheel forward disengaging the autopilot and put the plane into a slight descent. As the pilot and copilot were completely focused on troubleshooting the warning light neither one noticed the plane's descent. The flight engineer noticed too late as he had his own series of tasks to perform in the rear of the cockpit. He had assumed that the pilots were in control. The passengers in the rear assumed that the plane was simply descending into the airport. Everyone on the plane (for different reasons) assumed that everything was proceeding normally until it was too late.

Your Most Precious Asset

Every person has a fixed mental bandwidth capacity. That is, you can only allocate up to 100% of your mental attention on a set of issues at one time. Whatever percentage you allocate to one issue leaves less for any others, including any new and unexpected ones that appear. This is why highly demanding professions such piloting commercial airliners have long employed the use of stringent checklists and regimented routines, especially during unexpected or emergency situations. They help control proper mental bandwidth allocation when stress (or human nature) urges the pilot to do otherwise. If a pilot allows himself to become distracted (i.e. misallocate bandwidth) at a critical time disaster can result as was illustrated in the actual event above. The same phenomena that doomed those pilots (and their passengers) happens every day to leaders (and their employees) of small businesses. They allow themselves to misallocate their mental bandwidth, overly fixating on an issue and often missing new, more urgent information until it is too late.

A good rule of thumb to follow regarding mental bandwidth allocation on a monthly basis for a business leader is:

• Global economic and political news - 5% maximum. You want to be aware and current on these events but you have no control over them. Many of them may not have any direct impact on your business. Monitor them only and only increase bandwidth if something occurs that may directly affect your business.

• Industry news - 10% is appropriate here under normal circumstances. Again, unless you are a Fortune 500 company you probably have little to no control over your industry. The 10% is allocated to pick up any new events or emerging trends that may affect your business.

• Your company - 85% minimum of your bandwidth should always be focused on your business. You do have direct control here and most businesses have many moving parts. Due to the dynamic nature of the above two categories you will need to constantly monitor and then decide what strategic and tactical modifications are warranted as a result of any new events or emerging trends that you believe may affect your business.

Some Additional Tips on Controlling Bandwidth

• Always be Scanning - As a business leader you need to make sure you are always scanning the above three areas on a continuous basis. I personally set up a selection of sources via the web and print that I check three times a day. Each scan only takes approximately ten minutes. I only stop and investigate deeper if I see something that may affect my or one of my clients businesses.

• Never Fixate - As a business leader you cannot allow yourself to fixate on any issue either external or internal. Your responsibility is to identify the issue, analyze the impact, direct the appropriate resources to act on it, and monitor. This also pertains to internal projects and initiatives. Kick it off, support it, but do not allow yourself to fixate on it at the expense of watching the horizon. If the pilot of the plane mentioned above had identified the warning light issue and assigned it to the flight engineer while he flew the plane the outcome would have been different.

• Your Employees Also Have Bandwidth - Your employee's mental bandwidth allocation is set in large part by your leadership and direction. It always amazes me when I see a business leader who wrangles over achieving a 10% productivity improvement and loses 25% of his employee's mental bandwidth (productivity) due to his erratic and emotional leadership style. If your employees are worrying or gossiping you are losing valuable bandwidth. The best way to combat this is with consistent and clear company communication and by having them totally focus on what they can control, the performance of their roles. Keep them focused and keep them busy.

• Seek Objective Input - It is impossible for most business leaders to objectively evaluate the economy, their industry, and most importantly their company. They are often too close, too familiar, and too emotionally attached to the outcome to be truly objective. This is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a physiological realty. Especially during stressful and challenging times like this seek out and listen to trusted and experienced objective advisors to help chart your company's strategy and prevent disastrous fixation.

The Rockland Group was founded to address the growing demands being put on today's technology and manufacturing business owners and executives. We recognize you are under increasing pressure to achieve profitable growth in a more challenging global economy.

We understand your challenges because we are not business academics like those employed by many consulting firms who try and "squeeze" your business into ready made template style approaches. Rather, like you, we are experienced operating executives who have actually managed through these types of challenges. And, like you, we have the scars and bruises to prove it. This means we can provide objective, real world experience to help you achieve your goals by creating a powerful partnership backed with hands on business and technical expertise.

Contact: Bill GatelyTel: (781)-710-4064E-mail: bill.gately@rockland-group.com