The entire book is built around three simple ways you could get others working towards better methods.
To ASK a question that gets other thinking about collaborative problem and looking for a solution
To OFFER your thoughts and invite others to use them, build on them or correct them
To DO something that will serve as a model for better behaviour
Whatever limit there may be on our official authority, we need to see ourselves as political leaders. Time and again we will find that we can change things for the better by using the skills of lateral leadership.
The problem and solution for good collaboration are illustrated very succinctly through stories and contemporary illustrations that will be familiar to most of us. For example:
There is an old railroad story of an expert being called because a brand-new diesel locomotive would not start no matter what the engineer did. The expert arrived, studied the situation and then gave a light tap to the locomotive with a hammer. It started right up. When the railroad asked the expert for a break-up of the $1000-bill,the reply was
- Hitting the locomotive with a hammer $10
- Knowing where to hit it $990
The task of stimulating good cooperation is similar. The precise step you take at the end is minor part of the cure.
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson –
