A technology coordinator, a building and grounds supervisor and an assistant superintendent were on their way to a meeting in Montana. They were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car failed. The car careened almost out of control down the road, bouncing off the crash barriers, until it miraculously ground to a halt scraping along the mountainside. The car's occupants, shaken but unhurt, now had a problem: they were stuck halfway down a mountain in a car with no brakes. What were they to do?
"I know", said the assistant superintendent, "Let's have a site based meeting, propose a vision, formulate a mission statement, define some goals, identify the critical attribute, come to concensus on our outcomes, and by a process of continuous improvement and cooperative learning find a solution to the problem, and we can be on our way."
"No, no", said the building and grounds supervisor, "That will take far too long, and besides, that method has never worked before. I've got my Swiss army knife with me, and in no time at all I can strip down the car's braking system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way."
"Well", said the technology coordinator, "Before we do anything, I think we should push the car back up the road and see if it happens again."