Boeing is doing a smart thing by bringing back distinguished, retired engineers to render a second opinion on its plans. (See WSJ, Seattle Times, Seattle PI) Because of the dynamics of how design is done, it’s unlikely that anyone employed full-time at Boeing, with a career path to pursue, would say the bosses were smoking dope, as one of the retirees did. And, yet, sometimes people are smoking dope (metaphorically) when thinking about design. We certainly found that to be the case when organizations were setting strategy, in the research project we did for our book. Who can forget the huge cement company that started selling lawnmowers, based on the hazy notion that cement is used in homes and homes have lawns, so the cement company should sell mowers? (The company, Blue Circle Cement, soon filed for bankruptcy and was sold to a rival.)

Retirees aren’t always a perfect fit. Disputes can arise, for instance, if a retiree was part of a different faction than the one that now has control; rather than be about the facts, arguments can sometimes be territorial. Retirees can also, at times, be too wedded to the old way of doing things. Still, if managed properly–as seems to be happening at Boeing–they can provide an important second opinion, free of influence from office politics.

Former, longtime employees also have institutional memory that can be crucial. Too often, we found, companies not only don’t learn from others’ mistakes–the point of our book–but don’t even learn from their own mistakes. Companies made the exact same error that the company had made a decade or two before, and the reason was partly that no one was still around at a senior level who bore the scars from that experience. In Boeing’s case, current engineers have fallen in love with a concept that the old-timers say has been tried and found wanting.

The situation brings to mind the saying: “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.”

That’s a lesson that retired executives can provide, not just about design but about strategy.