1. © Cotton Innovations Ltd 2015
For further information on this subject and other business tools contact:
Brad Cotton – brad@cottonci.com
Telephone +44 (0)7867 305 043
Other newsletters at cottonci.com/blogs
During my travels this
month I took a local
European flight in a small
propeller aircraft, which
required us to walk over
the tarmac (Pavement) to
the plane, as it was too
small to connect with the
air-bridge (jet-way).
Whilst waiting to board the plane,
admiring the sunset silhouetting
the plane, I noticed the wooden
chocks placed either side of each
wheel and thought about the importance of this
humble device.
It is a CAA requirement that every plane must be
chocked when stationary to stop accidental roll away.
But as all airports are flat, this seems a useless design,
an unnecessary precaution. The humble chock also
serves another more noble purpose. Unless you
remove the chocks from the wheels, the plane is
unable to go anywhere.
Even the mighty A380 with its 4 enormous engines,
creating between 72-
76000lbf thrust each, it is
still unable to move unless
first the chocks are taken
away from all the wheels.
So, thinking about our business, even with the most
amazing people and processes, which we may refer to
as ‘the engines’ of our business, unless our ‘chocks’ are
removed to enable us innovate, create and be the
‘engines of industry’, we are, in effect, no different
from the mighty A380, held to the ground by a simple
set of wheel chocks.
So where do we see these
constraints in our industries?
They come from:
 ‘Ghosts or myths’ in the
system, which we cannot challenged or changed
 Work-a-rounds, which have been in place so long
that we can no longer see them
 Business decisions we always make, rather than the
ones we could make
 The fear of failure and its repercussions, which stop
us moving forward or making decisions
 The obsession with climbing the promotion tree by
emulating and impressing others, rather than
striving for truth, or new and exciting ‘faster to
market’ opportunities.
“A meeting’s purpose is to waste hours so
we can record minutes!”
So what can we do to release us
to reach our full potential? - Let
us start off with:
 Doing everything once.
 Organise the work spaces, forms and processes so
we can work effectively.
 Manage our meetings better.
(A friend of mine once accurately said - of many
meetings - “A meeting’s purpose is to waste hours so
we can record minutes!”)
 Use our resources to the best effect where that is
time, people, money or equipment.
 Actively tackle the wastes in our processes (called
TIMWOODS), which can absorb over 80% of our
day to day activities.
So my challenge to you this month is - where are the
‘chocks’ in your business and are they holding you
down? Or have they been removed to allow the
business to rise above the rest?