I’ve seen the difference between a controlled contraction and a freefall. While I don’t like either one, I’ll take a controlled contraction anytime over a freefall.

In a controlled contraction, you are, as best as you can, responding to your ambient environment just a wee bit ahead of the impending force, and controlling the outcomes, or at least steering within the outcomes.

In a freefall, you are not even remotely in control of the outcomes, and you are simply doing your best to control the collateral damage, debris and injury sustained. And there are times, of course, when a freefall is so uncontrollable that it’s simply impossible to avoid the fatal outcome.

It is a very close call between the two.

A CEO’s job is to see it coming and respond to the indicators. However, when that isn’t possible, a CEO’s job shifts to producing a controlled contraction before it becomes a freefall. It is certainly not glorious. It’s not pretty. But it lessens the damage, restricts the injury, and let’s you walk away from the scene of the accident when the dust settles and the vista clears.

Original writing date: August 13, 2007

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 9:14 am and is filed under Business, Dynetech, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.