Collaborate to Save Your Business, or Even Save Your Life.
The following is adapted from Collaborate as If Your Life Depends on It by Doug Crawley.
“Russ, we’re in a spin,” I yelled from the back of our two-seat jet.
“Doug, we’re below 10,000 feet,” Russ, the front seat pilot yelled. “Get out. Eject! Eject! Eject!”
There was no further communication — and none was needed. In fact, I never even heard him say, “Eject.” As soon as I recognized that we were in a spin — and the plane was going down — I started my ejection sequence.
We both were able to eject, the parachutes attached to our seats shot out automatically, and we were left swinging under the canopies as the airplane burned on the ground.
A few seconds later, and we wouldn’t have gotten out.
I flew 185 missions during the Vietnam War, and if my pilot and I had not excelled at collaboration, I would not be alive to tell you my story.
I graduated from college in May of 1967. In July, I got a notice that I was to report to the Army on August 2nd. I knew I didn’t want to join the Army, though, so on August 1st, I flew to basic training in San Antonio, Texas, to become an airman in the U.S. Air Force — even though that was my very first time in an airplane. I was going into the military to fly airplanes, but I didn’t have a clue what it was all about.
Ultimately, I was stationed at the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force base in Thailand, and I was crewed with Dwight M. Kealoha, or K, a pilot from Hawaii, whom I had met when stationed in Idaho. Together, K and I flew reconnaissance missions over Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam — North and South.
We often flew at night, in total darkness. We were at war, so people were shooting at us. The airplane we flew, the RF-4C, has been described as “the last manned tactical reconnaissance aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory.” It was designed as a fighter aircraft with guns and bombs, but in our version those weapons were replaced with cameras so we could take photographs of military targets. Today, the military uses drones and satellites to take pictures of target sites, but back then that was our job — K flew the plane, and I sat in the back seat to navigate and operate the cameras. Flying reconnaissance has been described as the most dangerous job in the U.S. Air Force, and our mission’s motto was “alone, unarmed, and unafraid.”
The RF-4C was a tandem-seat jet, initially designed for two pilots, so there were controls in the back seat as well as in the front, allowing for either person to be able to fly the airplane. The dilemma in night flying, though, was that the radar system was designed such that we each had our own screen, but we could only utilize one mode at a time. I needed the Ground Mapping Mode (“GMM”) of the radar to navigate, keep us on course, and ensure that we acquired the assigned target. But that mode only helped with directional navigation — it didn’t say how high above the ground we were. K needed the Terrain Following Override (“TFO”) mode of the radar to ensure that we didn’t run into the ground, which we could not see. It didn’t give any information about navigating, though.
At any given time, we could either know whether we were on course to the target or how high we were above the ground — but not both. The only solution was to time-share the radar system. K needed to keep us from crashing and I had to keep us on course. We had to work together and collaborate as if each of our lives depended on it, which, in fact, they did.
There was no “I” or “me” in that two-seat jet — there was only us. Because these night missions were so dangerous, we always flew with the same person we’d trained with — and had grown to trust our lives with. The men who flew those missions lived together, died together, won or lost together.
Your life may not literally depend on your collaboration — like mine and K’s did in that plane — but important aspects of your life might. Your job, your next promotion, your relationships, or even the success of your sports team may depend upon how well you can work together with the other people in your life.
From our school years to our jobs to social situations, we are all just thrown together and expected to figure it out. Other than perhaps in the military or other professions where your life is on the line, like police or firefighters, most people never talk about how important collaboration is. Can you imagine if K and I hadn’t been trained, if we had just been told to get in the airplane and go fly? “Make sure you work together, get the targets, and come back safely!” That would never work — but that’s how collaboration is often approached, in the business world and in the rest of our lives.
What if the major business problem is not sales, revenue, expenses, the economy, or whatever else we can think it to be, but is in fact our inability to successfully collaborate?
I believe a lack of collaboration often lies at the foundation of failure. I want to open your eyes to how much better things can be when we all work together.
To learn more about how to collaborate effectively to improve your life, check out Collaborate as If Your Life Depends on It on Amazon.
DOUG CRAWLEY is the president and CEO of Synasha and Staffing Synergies. He has over 40 years of management and entrepreneurial experience, including executive roles with two Fortune 100 companies. Doug served as a navigator and flight instructor in the US Air Force and was discharged with the rank of captain. During his seven years of military leadership, he flew 185 combat missions during the Vietnam Conflict. He is the founder of the MOST (Mentoring Our Students Together) Program, an after-school collaboration between his church and the local school district. He holds a BA in Mathematics, an MBA, and a doctorate of ministry degree.
