...I knew more about the dynamics of motivating an organization.
Thinking about the FEMA debacle (now their erstwhile El Leader Supremo says that they're dysfunctional and should be reorganized) makes me wonder how you can effectively keep track of how an organization's doing.... let alone, how its doing within the constraints of budget, auditors, and god knows what else. I gravitate to simple fixes and quick solutions, and those don't seem applicable here. Though I'll bet that they could be summarized simply.
3 comments:
Oh for gosh sakes.....
Swartzkopf's "It doesn't Take A Hero".
Wolf and Attner "The Packer Way"
Sun Tsu "The Art of War"
Harold Geneen "The Synergy Myth: And Other Ailments of Business Today"
and when all else fails,
Scott Adams..."The Dilbert Principle"
I've read about half of those. No, that doesn't mean I started, got half way through, and stopped. I really liked Schwartzkopf's book, though I have been uneasy about that kind of book ever since finding out years ago that Yankee From Olympus more more a hagiography (did I spell that right?) than an actual history. The Art of War is very good, and I loved thinking about that. Dilbert is magnificent, of course. And I'll offer one more: Moving Mountains, about logistics in the gulf war. The author is a little too fond of his own omniscience, but he has really good basics. Oh, and just about anything by Tom Davenport.
I like Tom Davenport. I am working through "Information Ecology" right now. A bit dated, but then, so am I! I may not finish it....he seems a little fond of obfuscation disguised as profundity.
There are lots of people who can do the job. Fewer if you give them a budget. Even fewer if you demand a certain result. But....
it is not impossible.
A really really important job like a war, or a disaster may require a brilliant leader. Or else you hire a person who has "done the thing before". Since brilliant people are thin on the ground, and come with their own set of problems, and really important jobs like hurricane relief and foreign invasions are pretty common, I personally prefer to have a person at the helm who has "done the thing before".
The fire chief who is called in to co-ordinate 4 fire halls in a warehouse blaze would do well to have started with smaller fires. I can't imagine why you would put a guy whose only claim to expertise is that he co-ordinated a boy scout camp into that fire chief's job.
I see that Mr. Brown has a new job...the consultant in charge of "why FEMA didn't respond properly in New Orleans". Hmmm...you don't suppose this would be a conflict of interest do you? Just WHAT does that guy have on the FEMA management?
"From the Wikipedia....
Brown is now (as of September 26, 2005) apparently working as a consultant for the Federal government, helping to determine what went wrong in the response to Hurricane Katrina. On September 27, 2005, Brown testified before the House Select Committee on Katrina Preparation and Response that he is currently paid over $140,000.00 annually by FEMA."
Oh well, this is just a commentary....I don't have the answers. Perhaps it is all old news by now, and it will all fixed by the time Monday comes. I mean, its not like he works for ME!
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