19 March 2015

The right blend of experience, wisdom and youthful energy

One of the characteristics of a recession in some sectors is a clear out of older employees through a redundancy process and we often talk about the need to bring in fresh blood into our own sector as existing age demographics rise. 

I was reminded of the issue of having a good blend of experience, wisdom and youthful energy and drive in a business and it is a management issue to make this work effectively by a stark anecdote from a BPIF member. He highlighted that at Duxford a team had rebuilt a Chipmunk from scratch. Following the plans for the first version which he had flown as a boy in the RAF Cadet force. The flying instructor told him to perform a loop, but to remember that the Chipmunk carburettor cut out after seven seconds of inverted flight. The plane would then stall and crash. Apparently this was fixed on version two. The Duxford plane was rebuilt from plans that had the original carburettor on it as no one had any knowledge the problem and issue. The plane at Duxford attempted the 1st loop and it ended in a crash! 

Sometimes we underestimate the cumulative knowledge of individuals and don't have a strategy to pass this over to younger employees. One piece of information can have a big impact and avoid a big impact so I think its worth looking at how greater interaction between employees can create greater group knowledge. Worth a thought.