Strict hierarchies have a tendency to destroy individual initiative. A perhaps apocryphal story about a famous military episode illustrates the self-defeating nature of strict hierarchies. In 1707, four British warships were returning home after a successful campaign against the French at Gibraltar. A common sailor approached the admiral, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, to tell him that the ships were in danger. Despite the official navigators’ calculations, the sailor, who lived on the nearby Scilly Isles, knew that the ships were not in the open sea because he recognized the familiar smell of the land. For his trouble, the sailor was hanged for insubordination. Because of the navigators’ mistake and the admiral’s discipline, 6,000 men lost their lives.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 14:01:30 +0000
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