To Ditch, or Not to Ditch!

I was rushing down a two-lane road in my 1984 Ford Country Squire station wagon. I was a P.E. coach during the day, a cemetery plot and mausoleum space salesman at night, and was heading to the cemetery office to pick up my contact list. OK, please stop laughing! A huge thunder storm was in the Deep South Texas sky and the falling rain was torrential. Visibility was very limited and I ended up behind a fella who was moving much slower than I needed him to! I had about ten miles to go and was already late so, I chose to pass him. As I accelerated in the left lane, I could hear and feel the water relentlessly beating the under side of my vehicle. When I was right beside the slow fella, my steering wheel suddenly felt very loose. At the same time, I felt the rear end of my wagon drifting to my right. All four of my wheels began hydroplaning and I proceeded to "surf" toward the flooded drainage ditch. After a 180-degree spin, my 1984 Ford Country Squire station wagon plunged rear-end first into about three foot of water in the ditch. An analysis of this unfortunate incident revealed that my vehicle's direction and speed, the road it was on, and the driver's low level of awareness caused it to end up where it did. Let's look a little closer at each of these:

1. Direction and Speed - The 1984 Country Squire station wagon was a fine machine. It had a Windsor 302 (5 liter) engine and 140 horsepower with a chassis and drive train that mirrored that of the Lincoln Continental. It could do zero to 60 mph in 13 seconds and averaged about 16 mpg. It was traveling quickly down that specific road because the distance to the destination was significantly shorter than the usual pathway.
2. The Road - The road was a fine road. It had recently been repaved and re-striped. The pavement was smooth and the road was straight, undamaged, and level. It had no shoulder, but it was a country road just like every other country road in the area.
3. Awareness - The driver was a fine driver. He had never been the cause of ANY accidents and, other than for being ticketed for speeding, had never had any encounters with law enforcement. He was working multiple jobs to support his young family and was simply trying to get to his night job on time. He had no knowledge of what a "contact patch" was so, driving the way he drove with worn tires on wet pavement was totally understandable and quite frankly, a behavior common to many other drivers.

My life experience has placed me in and around many "organizational vehicles" that ended up in predictable "ditches". The contributing factors and root-cause of their ditch-entering experience is very similar to my vehicle's journey to the ditch. Their direction and speed, the road they were on, and low levels of awareness caused them to end up in their own ditches. Let's look a little closer at each of these:

1. Direction and Speed - Every organization had fine products and/or services. Many offered world class programs and processes and earned millions in revenue rapidly responding to their customer's needs. Their pursuit of profit often appeared more important than their posterized vision and values.
2. The Road - Every organization had a fine corporate mission statement. It had been rewritten and re-posted with each new "leader", organization, and/or reorganization and everyone thought they knew what was most important to those at the "top". There was little employee "participation" but... they were just like many other organizations being successful often at the perceived expense of their admitted, most valuable asset.
3. Awareness - The people were fine people! They rarely came through the doors intending to create challenges and, other than chatting with management and HR during evaluation periods, they rarely had any real thought-provoking encounters with anyone. They had no knowledge of the organization's beliefs so, disengaging and striving for personal comfort was totally understandable and quite frankly, very acceptable to most everyone.

In summary, my 1984 Country Squire station wagon was a fine machine on a fine road with a fine driver. The fact that I was hurrying past a slow driver on an unfamiliar shortcut in a severe thunderstorm on worn tires... was totally understandable because I was simply trying to support my family and had no clue about the "contact patch".

Similarly, the organizations I've been in and around had fine products and services with fine visions, values, and mission statements posted everywhere for the consumption of their fine people. The fact that few if any of them knew why their organization existed, what they believed, or why anyone should care... was totally understandable because they were there to do their work and support their families... not be concerned about the organization's "contact patch".

According to vehicledynamics.com, the "contact patch" (CP) is the only point of contact between a single tire and the road. Since there are usually four tires, then four CPs create the traction controlling all of the vehicle's movement. The most shocking fact is that the average CP is only about the size of the human hand. In practical terms, a person on their hands and knees weeding a garden... has about as much contact with the ground as a 4,000 pound 1984 Country Squire station wagon has with the road. Now, considering the fact that the referenced vehicle might be traveling at a high rate of speed in a severe thunder storm in South Texas with worn tires... you do the analysis.

The CP of an organization consists of the people who are actually making contact with its vision and mission. The vision is the direction or the "why" of the "organizational vehicle" and the mission is the road or chosen path on which the group "drives" through the challenges or storms of organizational growth. Individual and group awareness is the tire tread!

To the degree that members of an organization share a belief, are accountable to that belief, and clearly and consistently communicate that belief; to that degree they will increase their individual and collective awareness resulting in engaged members exercising the practical and sustainable realization of their shared vision.

Let's chat about your possibilities!

Dan