Recently, the e-learning guru Elliott Masie wrote: ‘I visited the Panama Canal this week, for the first time in 20 years. One big learning lesson happened while taking a half day transit of this amazing engineering site linking the Pacific to the Atlantic.

‘As each of the huge boats moves through the locks, the clearances are tight. So, a special pilot boards the ship, taking over control from the captain. And, as they move into a lock, there are electric rail tugs on either side of the canal, with steel cables to keep the boat in the middle of the canal. Some have only six inches of clearance. The drivers of these tugs receive precise instructions to move forward or tighten the cable from the pilot.

“They recently upgraded the tugs and added two way radios between the tugs (4 to 8 per boat) and the pilot to increase communication. But it actually led to more scrapes of the boats against the walls and a much slower transit time.

‘It turned out that the tug boat drivers were second guessing the pilot and arguing about the “commands”. So the two way radios were replaced by one way radios and they returned to an old fashioned bell system. After each command is radioed from the ship to the tug drivers, they confirm that they have received and are executing the command by ringing a bell on the tug.

‘While we all love collaboration, some situations call for trust in command and control.’

Comment: There’s a moral here, I fancy. Undoubtedly, one solution doesn’t fit every situation – as every solution seller has had to find out in the end.