Last month's volcanic ash cloud over Europe disrupted air-traffic and cost the airline industry over £1bn. But the ash cloud also revealed the serious absence of collaboration between the various European air traffic authorities. Apparently there are 27 different air spaces across the EU, each one with its own authority and bureaucracy.
The BBC reports:
"There has been widespread criticism of the EU's response, with Euro MPs and airline officials complaining that the Commission and transport ministers did not hold emergency talks until 19 April."
That's five days after planes stopped flying. What were they waiting for? An "all-clear" signal to fly to their meeting?
In times of crisis, it seems like collaboration between governments and institutions breaks down.
Lest we think that this is sort of thing doesn't happen here in the US, one only has to look at two more examples: Katrina, and the BP oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
So what is it about large institutions that makes collaboration so difficult, if not downright impossible in times of crisis?
Here are seven possibilities:
- Lack of a Shared VisionAnd that's just the tip of the iceberg.
- Absence of Trust
- Institutional Blindness
- Territorial Turf Wars
- Lack of Leadership
- Insensitivity to Customers' Needs
- Culture of Unaccountability
Among individuals, however, we see something else entirely.
In times of crisis, passionate individuals can come together to collaborate in ways that defy the norms of business and institutional performance.
In their latest book, The Power of Pull, John Hagel, JSB, and Lang Davison describe Joi Ito's successful effort in distributing a script to post messages to Twitter that would make it virtually impossible for the Iranian government to monitor and stop the service during the green revolution (which we all hope is still alive). Overnight, Ito assembled a loosely knit team of collaborators who got created a distribution process which also could not be traced. This is a remarkable example of how passionate individuals can come together in times of crisis and make a real impact in a space of hours.
Our institutions can't seem to do anything resembling this sort of collaboration - particularly when the answers lie outside the institution.
Back to the European air-traffic story.
Here's something else we learn from the BBC:
In addition to avoiding the kind of mix-up we saw last month, a more efficient air traffic system could cut emissions by up to 12% for the average flight.
We learn that, on average, planes fly 49km (30.4 miles) longer than strictly necessary, and airport slots are allocated independently of flight plans, causing extra costs and waste.
This is the cost of not collaborating.
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