CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Be Prepared
Time - Too Busy Being Busy
Meeting Support, Facilitator
Prepared, Nobody Has Time on Information
Preparation

1107 -
1107 -    ..
1108 - Summary/Objective
1109 -
110901 - Followed up work at ref SDS 4 8822.
110903 -  ..
110904 - On 960315 work with Intel, ref SDS 11 6650, and discussions with
110905 - Morris at Chips ref SDS 10 8833, and earlier on 960227, ref SDS 7
110906 - 3003, along with experience at DEC, IBM and everywhere else on the
110907 - planet, show that managers do not have time to read the record in
110908 - order to prepare for meetings and other communcations, which conflicts
110909 - with the fundamental principal of management from the Boy Scout
110910 - motto...
110912 -                           ..
110913 -                          Be Prepared
110914 -
110915 -
110916 -    ...discussed in POIMS. ref OF 1 0307
110918 -  ..
110919 - Lack of preparation causes poor communication cited by Henry Kissinger
110920 - reviewed on 940609. ref SDS 3 4238
110922 -  ..
110923 - Managers waste 70% of the day in meetings because people are not
110924 - prepared, reported by AP reviewed on 960205. ref SDS 6 5222  See
110925 - example at ref SDS 13 7390.
110927 -  ..
110928 - Value of being prepared seems self-evident...
110929 -     ..
110930 -    Military culture is strongly oriented toward being prepared, and in
110931 -    fact spends most of its time getting prepared (see for example
110932 -    analysis on General Hatch, below, ref SDS 0 4385), under the
110933 -    worry...
110934 -
110935 -            For want of a nail a shoe was lost.
110936 -            For want of a shoe a horse was lost.
110937 -            For want of a horse a battle was lost...
110938 -
110939 -       ...cited in the POIMS paper. ref OF 1 9879
110940 -     ..
110941 -    Lawyers invest heavily in being prepared.  The entire discovery
110942 -    process that takes depositions, copies and reviews mountains of
110943 -    documents, pre-trial motions and briefs, are all aimed at
110944 -    "preparing" for a special kind of meeting called a "trial" in order
110945 -    to show that the facts, as aduced by evidence, justifies a
110946 -    particular course of action.  That is what business meetings are
110947 -    all about, but they need better preparation.
110948 -     ..
110949 -    Entertainers invest heavily in being prepared. They rehearse their
110950 -    lines over and over, so they sound spontaneous and give the
110951 -    impression that being a good talker is the paramount quality of
110952 -    successful leadership.
110953 -
110954 -    Sports, like the military, invest heavily in being prepared.
110955 -    Football teams spend 6 days a week preparing for a special kind of
110956 -    meeting called a "game."  Bill Walsh can make this point using the
110957 -    scope on 951114, ref SDS 5 1276, based on analysis of planning and
110958 -    preparation to manage complex conditions faced by a quarterback,
110959 -    developed on 901008, ref SDS 16 6993, and 960312. ref SDS 8 4739
110961 -  ..
110962 - This experience suggests significant value in being prepared.
110964 -  ..
110965 - Yet over and over we hear there wasn't enough time to prepare for the
110966 - meeting, the call, the letter, which causes Murphy's Law, loses,
110967 - failures and reengineering people out of a job.
110968 -
110969 -      [On 960328 applied in letter to General Hatch. ref SDS 14 3427]
110970 -
110971 -      [On 960419 applied this concept in a letter to PMI Communications
110972 -      re Asilomar, ref SDS 15 7777.]
110974 -       ..
110975 -      [On 960529 applied in meeting with Turner. ref SDS 16 8522.]
110977 -  ..
110978 - Management practice in the modern era has drifted off course, away
110979 - from fundamentals to be prepared, because there is not enough time.
110980 - cited in NWO paper. ref OF 2 5827 and ref OF 2 9448
110982 -  ..
110984 -  ..
110985 - Communication Metrics enables managers to be prepared by capturing the
110986 - record and using it for the next event to avoid mistakes that cause
110987 - rework.
110988 -
110989 -     [On 961204 managers want to avoid help to be prepared. ref SDS 18
110990 -     9584]
110992 -      ..
110993 -     [On 971008 received report by government that Communication
110994 -     Metrics saves money by avoiding rework. ref SDS 19 1273]
110996 -      ..
110997 -     [On 990817 managers resist being prepared. ref SDS 20 8663]
110999 -      ..
111000 -     [On 990827 proposal to NSF cites emotional resistance to using
111001 -     Communication Metrics. ref SDS 21 1088]
111003 -      ..
111004 -     [On 990831 example of resistance. ref SDS 22 4420]
111005 - ..
111006 - The first aim is to understand what happened in the current
111007 - event, as explained in NWO... ref OF 2 4212 and developed on 950327 as
111008 - the goal of Communication Metrics. ref SDS 4 8492
111009 -
111010 - "Understanding" results in discoverying a number of things that were
111011 - overlooked which can be fixed before disaster strikes.  So, by
111012 - following Stephen Covey's suggestion to "strive first to understand,
111013 - then prescribe," reviewed on 921205, ref SDS 2 2231, we create a
111014 - record that can be used to prepare for the follow up action. Being
111015 - prepared enables the work to be performed accurately with less wasted
111016 - time and less time required for rework to fix mistakes.
111017 -
111018 -     On 950327 these ideas are in definition of Communication Metrics
111019 -     under risk management theory, ref SDS 4 6118, ref SDS 4 4828.
111021 -      ..
111022 -     There is also specific analysis on being prepared in the same
111023 -     record at ref SDS 1 8822.
111025 -      ..
111026 -     [On 971008 received report by government that Communication
111027 -     Metrics saves money by avoiding rework. ref SDS 19 1273]
111028 -
111029 -
111030 -
111031 -
111032 -
111033 -
1111 -

SUBJECTS
General Hatch, Fluor/Corps of Engineers
Preparation, Be Prepared

1304 -
130501 -  ..
130502 - General Hatch Planning for Asilomar Presentation on Be Prepared
130503 -
130504 - Follow up ref SDS 9 0000.
130505 -
130506 - The theme of "be prepared" ref OF 4 KU3L, may a good way for the
130507 - General to visit with Asilomar conferees. I mentioned in a recent
130508 - letter on 960312 how management performance has degraded, indeed is
130509 - imploding, in proportion to the success of technology to compress time
130510 - and distance, ref SDS 9 7409.  One manifestation of this implosion is
130511 - the lack of preparation at meetings and other management endeavors,
130512 - chiefly related to communications [see example ref SDS 13 8442,
130513 - because people feel communications is being an effective talker, per
130514 - analysis above of the entertainment industry.  Everything is done ad
130515 - hoc at a summary and cursory level of analysis, as discussed in the
130516 - New World Order paper.
130518 -  ..
130519 - The General would be ideal to explain the benefits of being prepared,
130520 - per above analysis, ref SDS 0 6870, and how investment in better
130521 - preparations pays off in better results. He could be prescient by
130522 - observing how the short sightedness of "expediting" the work by
130523 - failing to prepare under the excuss there is not enough time, results
130524 - in less time in the future as we scurry to recover from mistakes
130525 - caused by past failures to be prepared, per cycle of implosion.
130526 -
130527 -      [See follow up at ref SDS 12 0000 172 and letter sent to Hatch at
130528 -      ref SDS 14 line 143.]
130529 -
130531 -  ..
130532 - Solutions
130533 -
130534 - First commit to be prepared for the next meeting, the next phone call,
130535 - the next letter or email that has to be prepared.
130536 -
130537 - Second, if you regularly do not have enough time to prepare, then look
130538 - into the methods suggested at the conference to expedite getting
130539 - prepared.  Does your organization need a Communication Manager, do you
130540 - need better tools.  Whatever it takes, you must prepare to succeed.
130542 -  ..
130543 - What is the measure of not being prepared?  Have you read the record
130544 - of events that led to your current assignement, meeting, call?  Have
130545 - your created talking points and questions?  If not, you are not
130546 - prepared.
130547 -
130548 -      [See example from later project with Corps of Engineers where
130549 -      reps from Port of Oakland complain they do not have enough time
130550 -      to read the record, ref SDS 17 line 262.]
130551 -
130552 -
130553 -
130554 -
130555 -
130556 -
130557 -