Endless Knots

"In a good organization, they look at their watches"

Although I've met a few of his colleagues, I don't know General Stanley McChrystal, who's front-page these days because of his role as the U.S. commanding officer in Afghanistan. Don't fret: I'm not going to talk about the war(s) at all but I did happen to see the "60 Minutes" interview with McChrystal last week. (I'm still trying to figure out how this was possible, given the fact that I've barely seen any TV in the past few months.)

The general said something that should be turned into flashing neon signs for every organization that drags its feet, which I'm certain applies to precisely none of the exemplary enterprises of those reading here.

I'm editing slightly for effect, and for which I'm sure McChrystal would forgive me: 

"When you want something In the average organization, people pull out their calendars. But in a good organization, they look at their watches..."

One other notable quotable, the words of which I'm going to get completely wrong, but I offer the sentiment for those who fret over information leaks in their organizations: When asked whether he's concerned about security breeches when he holds incredibly large conference calls (the "60 Minutes" interview showed scores of people in one such videoconference with the Pentagon), McChrystal said he was less worried about leaks than he was about the people who need to be informed not being in the know.

Knights and Dames of the round table

This appears to be it, with nominations today of Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Illinois) for Secretary of Transportation and Rep. Hilda Solis (D-California) as Secretary of Labor. Click, wait for OrgScope map of US Gov to load and open, and you've got the Obama round table of cabinet nominees. You can dive down into the departments, change what you're looking at by clicking on the menu bar, and have a high ole' time.

Or just get used to the new faces here. (FYI, Dennis Blair nominated today as National Intelligence Director--thanks to Siobhan Gorman at Wall Street Journal for that news; still waiting for final touches at CIA, Federal Election Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Trade Commission, and FDIC - Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and a host of other agencies -- none of which are cabinet-level jobs.)

For Pres-elect Obama: Create transparent digital org chart

We've joined the minions who've been tossing suggestions onto change.gov, "The Office of the President Elect, where you too can take your Seat at the Table. All kinds of groups, organizations, wild-eyed idealists, companies with ideas (imagine!), and really serious policy folks have drafted recommendations. We submitted ours last week; though it hasn't appeared yet, we'll note it here should it make it through the filters.

Our proposal? To create a truly comprehensive, thoroughly transparent, digital org chart of the whole government, as per the points we've been making here and on the NetAge website.

Here's our Memo to PEBO (Pres-elect Barack Obama) -- and the Transition Team or  download Memo-to-transition-team:

We recommend creating a “digital organization chart” of the US government, publicly available and online, that maps the Executive Office of the President, Cabinet Departments, and independent federal agencies. Such a map would extend down through every sub-organization to each position, identifying office holders, position titles, locations, and links to other critical information and affiliations.

 Background: We are management consultants with expertise in networks, collaboration, and trust. Co-authors of six books, including Networking, The Age of the Network, and Virtual Teams, we’ve been online since 1979 and on the web at NetAge.com since 1995. We offer this memo as our best thinking on how to create even greater transparency as the new administration takes shape.

What We Recommend: Create a publicly available, online “digital organization chart.” The chart maps every position in the government, beginning with the President and extending all the way down from the Executive Office and Cabinet Departments to the lowest positions. In effect, every office and its current occupant become visible online, indicating how they connect to all the rest. As a public service, we have started a first draft of the Executive Branch, mapping top down: Run dynamic map of the US Gov.

NYC Housing Commish Shaun Donovan to HUD

That makes 11 in just over a month for the PEBO cabinet.

PEBO? Ana Marie Cox, who's been all over the 'sphere--former Wonkette, former Time-ette, and current "Twit," which is where I ran into her "tweet" (don't worry, you'll catch on) this morning that explains the latest nick: "Learned a hot new pool report acronym today!!! PEBO: President-Elect Barack Obama. Impress your friends, confuse your enemies."

Via email at 6 this morning, PEBO announced his pick for Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan. Thus, we've added Donovan to the US Gov Map (it opens in Person mode).

Apparently, other names, better known at least to me, were on the list, including Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and former San Antonio Mayor (and Clinton appointee) Henry Cisneros.

It appears that Donovan, trained as an architect and an NYC native, might be quite the inspired choice. NY Times has been running profiles on the appointees and those speculated about. Here's what it ran today about Donovan in its "The New Team" series:

Extensive experience with housing issues, learned in the pressure cooker of New York City, where he has been heading the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Since taking the position in 2004, he has focused on the ambitious goal of building more low- and moderate-income housing in New York City while navigating the web of interests, including landlords, developers and lenders, who all have a stake in the outcome. He also has experience in HUD, where he served as deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing in the Clinton administration, managing a multibillion-dollar housing subsidy program that served 1.7 million people annually.

So he's had a really big hand in housing in one of the most difficult markets in the world (ok, I guess Delhi or Beijing would be a lot harder). There are a ton of posts going up even as I type and, forgive me, I failed to get the link to the original source that others are quoting saying that Donovan foresaw the mortgage meltdown in '04. If anyone finds it, please add it to the comments. And, congrats to Mr. Donovan. He's only 42.

 

"Czar" Daschle for HHS

(First, I have to ask: Why is everyone doing anything critical a czar and why is everything we want to stop a war? Really. English is a very rich language, at least 170K words, not including LOL, etc. I dunno about your family but the czar, the real czar, was not popular in mine. In fact, said person caused all my grandparents to leave their homes and come to America. Having gotten that out of my system, let me say...)

Another good pick in Tom Daschle as nominee for head of Health and Human Services and newly-named Health Reform--let me throw out some other interesting options--Director-- wait, that's what the Prez-to-be actually called him but for the press: Lion, Luminary, Dignitary...ok, Czar.

Daschle (btw, Happy Birthday last Tues, Tom--he's my Facebook friend, of course, no, just kidding) has been added to our latest installment of the US Gov network map, which you can run here. For those unfamiliar with the reach of HHS, hugely influential health care organizations like the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control & Prevention hang as leaves off the post of Deputy Secretary of HHS. The map also shows the next level down of HHS's org chart. And, we've added Daschle to our running list of Cabinet nominees.

 

From an organizational perspective (and my peculiar language objections aside), it's interesting that Daschle is getting two hats: Secretary of HHS and Director of Health Care Reform, hence the moniker "health care czar." His deputy at the White House for Health Care Reform is slated to be Jeanne Lambrew; thus we've added her to the White House appointee list (we don't yet know who the Deputy will be at HHS). 

We put Daschle on the map with both hats. As reported by CNN ("Obama taps Daschle as 'lead architect' of health care plan"), President-elect Obama said, "[Daschle] will be responsible not just for implementing our health care plan. He will also be the lead architect of that plan." Translation: Generally speaking, architectural plans are drawn up at the White House; implementation takes place over at the departments. Thus, Daschle will be in the rare position of both drafting the plan and making sure that it happens.

Shinseki for Veterans Affairs - Yes!

Here's why Jeff and I are in favor of this particular appointment:

On May 2, 2003, we attended a meeting at the National Defense University chaired by then-Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki, and attended by, among others, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. For all we know, it was one of the last meetings of the two men. Shinseki would retire a few weeks later after famously clashing with Wolfowitz's boss over Iraq troop levels. As the whole world knows, Shinseki was right - and his calm presence struck us then as an indicator of the man's thoughtful approach. The meeting was the "after action review" presented to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, following the first Joint Forces-Army Wargame, a week-long simulation that we'd been invited to attend by one of Shinseki's protégés.

Our attendance at the wargame came about as a result of a phone call a few months earlier. An aide to then-Major General Jim Dubik was calling on Dubik's behalf to extend an invitation to "Unified Quest," as the wargame was known. The simulation would take place at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the aide said, and we would be among a select group of outsiders. We were flabbergasted. We met as anti-Vietnam War activists in 1968 while students at Oxford University. We opposed the Iraq War. Why was General Dubik inviting us, we asked? He'd read our then-decade-old book, The Age of the Network, the aide said, and the Army needed to be a lot more networked. We decided to attend.

Thus began our involvement with Joint Forces and the US Army, where we’ve discovered that many of its ideas, particularly in regard to leadership, are ahead of those in the commercial and non-profit sectors (see for example, this post). General Shinseki came to the wargame on its last day, ironically, the “Mission Accomplished” day.

What we remember most clearly from Shinseki's visit is this: All of those involved with putting on the event - the schleppers, organizers, and senior military officers, including Dubik and then Brigadier General (now Lt General) Mike Vane - stood in a line as Gen Shinseki spoke to them, thanking them. Everyone knew what was happening - indeed, Shinseki's disagreement with the Administration had been broadcast on television - and the sadness seeped across the floor just beneath the blanket of respect that seemed to pour from people's eyes. Shinseki then walked down the line, pressing a medal into the hand of each person who'd worked the event.

We have added Eric Shinseki to our dynamic OrgScope map of the US Government and growing list of nominees. We have also detailed the top-level org chart of the Department of Veteran Affairs to go with this stellar nomination (see our page on the VA's org chart).

 
(click to enlarge)

An Easter prayer for Tibet by Jeff Stamps

My husband, Jeff Stamps, a long-time student of world affairs, politics, and Buddhism, wrote this piece, which I hope you will read.

An Easter prayer for the Tibetan people
and their spiritual leader
By Jeff Stamps

This Easter, my prayer is for the Tibetan people everywhere and for their spiritual and temporal leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

This global spiritual force, with his inclusive religious mantra, is an intensely-trained monk from the distant nomadic steppes of Shangri-La, the “roof of the world.” He also runs a government-in-exile from a generously-provided sanctuary in India.

The Nobel Peace Prize apostle of non-violence, the Dalai Lama is the Gandhi of our time, albeit with more spiritual depth but fewer political skills. Since his exile, he has held the same “middle way” view: cultural autonomy for Tibet, but not political independence. Today, he struggles with both the oppression of his people by the Chinese and with the now-unconstrained frustration of Tibetan youth demanding independence. Among all of us who love Tibet for whatever reasons, we share a deep sense that time for the Dalai Lama’s “middle way” and Tibet’s very survival is running out.

By “Tibet” surviving, I mean Tibetans as an ethnic group with roots deep into pre-history, a people treated as racially inferior (“barbarians”), as a coherent religious group of Tibetan Buddhists, and as a national group of several millennia standing. For the Dalai Lama’s strategy of non-violence to work, the world must find ways to help Tibet and China find a path that provides Tibetans the cultural and local autonomy they require within the Chinese federal system of governance.

There are four reasons the world should care about the Tibetan uprising at this time: (1) the preservation of an ancient and abiding culture; (2) respect for a very old spiritual tradition; (3) the act of genocide; and (4) concern for the environment.

Monique: "It wasn't supposed to turn out this way"

My friend Monique Doyle Spencer has another doozie in today's Boston Globe, Working women, where did we go so wrong?

When my kids were little, my "sister" Judy came to visit. Sister is in quotes because by birth neither of us legally has a sister, which both of us regretted, so after about 20 years of friendship, we adopted each other. Judy was sitting at the kitchen table and I was cooking food to take to my mother in the nursing home (situated one good cry's worth away). I don't remember all the details anymore - but the weekly cooking was only one responsibility (my mother hated the food there so...). I was working full-time, the girls were perhaps 5 and 7 (no further explanation needed), Jeff and I had a looming book deadline, and on and on and on. "You never take anything away," she said. "You just keep adding things."

This is what Monique's piece is about. There are too many pieces for the puzzle yet we keep jamming more in. Thanks, Monique, as always:

IT'S ALMOST the end of National Women's Month and I have a big confession: I think we women ruined the workplace.

Ouch. I don't want to feel that way, but take a look. Once upon a time, when a woman took a professional job, she worked a 60-hour week on average. Her boss was a man and she thought she had to prove herself. She didn't make any more money than the guys who worked 45-hour weeks. She thought this was the glass ceiling, so she started working 65 hours instead. Still, she made no more money. She did, however, get promoted to head of her department. She was the lowest-paid department head in history, so she worked even harder.

Here's the honest truth: Her boss didn't even know what she made. He didn't care, either. She never felt secure enough to negotiate her own raise, so she waited for somebody to notice. They never did. So the extra $10,000 a year that would have made a world of difference to her family never came home. It stayed at the company where it meant absolutely nothing to anybody...

        Monique Doyle Spencer is author of "The Courage Muscle: A Chicken's Guide to Living with Breast Cancer."

Tibet, March, 2008

The terrible events in Tibet of the past few days have me thinking about our Tibetan friends and reflecting on the times we've spent at lectures with the Dalai Lama (HHDL, to his people). I think I've said before here (and certainly in my writing and to my friends) that when it comes to matters of spiritual practice, I tend, like my eating habits, toward omnivorism. If a body of belief espouses peace and justice and taking care of others, I'm in. And, if it is sound psychology, I'm not only in but climbing the stairs. Having spent two weeks in sessions with the Dalai Lama over the past 25 years, I feel confident saying that he is a profound psychologist. His attention to empathy and his call to work toward the happiness of "all sentient beings" resonates.

Like many others who've been concerned about the future of Tibet, my heart is breaking: two friends have received first-hand reports, which are excruciating to read, and the news this morning that the Dalai Lama, an unwavering believer in nonviolence, is willing to step down as the political leader of Tibet if that would contribute to the violence coming to an end, make me want to...you know, I don't know what it makes me want to do but it's a lot more than sit here and post to my blog.

Some years ago, my husband and I noticed a banner outside an art gallery in Meredith, New Hampshire: "Tibetan Children's Art Exhibit." There we found the most amazing collection of paintings by children who had fled Tibet without their parents (they send them out in hopes of a better life) and resettled in the north of India at Tibetan Children's Village. We looked at the many paintings on the walls and in the many drawers and listened to the story of how these paintings came about. To deal with the trauma they experience during their dangerous journeys across the Himalayas, these kids are offered art lessons once they arrive in India. Art as therapy. We decided almost without discussion to purchase two pieces, this one, "Life is a Dream," and the one at the end of this post.

We chose "Life is a Dream" because we liked it and because it was painted by a young boy, T. Lobsang, who is completely deaf. My hubby was born on this very date 64 years ago with a 60% hearing loss in both ears. Enough said. Beneath the painting, which hangs in our living room, is the small plaque that was on the gallery wall, explaining more about this talented young man.

 

We also chose a second painting, White Tara, the female Buddha associated with compassion and long life, because it was painted by the children's art teacher, Sonam Choephel. The original, which this photo can't possibly reflect due to my limited photographic skill, is exquisite and hangs in our dining room. It's especially meaningful because some years ago, Sonam Tsering, the father of our friend Phuni Meston, came to our house for dinner and said prayers in front of it. Sonam, a Tibetan nomad who fled his country after the Chinese occupation and lived for many years in India before joining his daughter and son-in-law here in Boston, passed on in 2005. I think of him every time I walk through the dining room.

White Tara by Sonam Choephel

Jon and the General

Remember Frontier 6, the blogger who said that soldiers should be allowed to blog and post to YouTube? Well, now he's made his first appearance on Comedy Central. Last night, Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell, recently the face of the military to the press in Iraq and now head of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, was the guest on The Daily Show. Caldwell was there to talk about the new field manual for the Army, which I mentioned here and in a piece for The Standard called "The social general." Jon Stewart was his inimitable self, kidding Caldwell about the dry prose and the very thought that a soldier would pick up the field manual in the heat of battle. Caldwell held his own, explaining that its purpose was for training, not the quick look-up while in combat, and that it contains a different view of the soldier's role than has been prescribed before. Caldwell's best moment in the interview came when he talked about the true multi-tasking that soldiers have to do now - building a road one moment, taking sniper fire the next.  His appearance on The Daily Show is part of the Army's campaign to market the new manual and its revolutionary contents, which say that diplomacy and nation-building must be held up as equal to "offensive and defensive operations." You can see it for yourself.