At 9:19 AM -0800 12/12/03, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
Look at Al Q, Inc: you don't need explicit instructions from the Boss to motivate folks to do things. You see who is the enemy, you see opportunity. You don't need permission.
Yup. That's the way Reagan operated, too. I'm just finishing up "Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency". The middle and last of which is a President's Counsel-eye view of his role in the Iran/Contra thing, but the beginning of which makes exactly the point you're making. The troops really did take their cues from public pronouncements at things like the State of the Union speech, and he really did run things with, shall we say, as little attention to detail as possible. Keep your message simple, say it a lot, and people can make up their own stuff without too much supervision. Ollie North as the extreme example, but you can bet that Reagan certainly didn't have to tell people like Schultz and Weinberger how to do their jobs. George Will's comparison of his management style to that of a Turkish Pasha's was not a bad one, hmmm? Cheers, RAH -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'