CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Get It Not Everybody at Same Time Senior People Think About Fundamen

0603 -
0603 -    ..
0604 - Summary/Objective
0605 -
060501 - Follow up ref SDS 19 0000, ref SDS 17 0000.
060502 -
060503 - Received ref DRT 1 0001 from Uncle Jim dated 970515 and commenting
060504 - about the report issued by USACE on Com Metrics, ref DRP 1 6172, which
060505 - was sent to him with a letter, ref DIP 3 0001, on 970425 answering his
060506 - request for an explanation on distinguishing information from
060507 - knowledge. ref SDS 19 0001  He says....
060508 -
060509 -     Thanks for sending over a copy of your Contract on the Corps of
060510 -     Engineer project for the Richmond Harbor.  I hadn't meant to delay
060511 -     writing to you but it grabbed my interest and I spent quite a bit
060512 -     of time going thru it.
060514 -      ..
060515 -     It pleases very much that, after long effort and study you seem to
060516 -     have a very useful product.  Like Newton said to the apple, "it is
060517 -     now!  fall!" ref DRT 1 JI5G
060518 -
060519 -        [On 070226 Letter to Uncle Jim thanking him for ideas and
060520 -        encouragement over the years. ref SDS 31 OT6F
060521 -
060522 -
060524 -  ..
0606 -
0607 -
0608 - 1745
0609 -
060901 - Called Uncle Jim and thanked him for taking time to comment.  During
060902 - the call, we discussed that USACE has not awarded a contract to
060903 - continue Communication Metrics.  The management people put together a
060904 - procurement that requires approval by the commander of the San
060905 - Francisco District, and he has so far resisted the effort.
060906 -
060907 -        [On 970624 met with Chief Engineer who gave reasons for
060908 -        rejecting recommendations of senior staff on using
060909 -        Communication Metrics to save lives, time, and money.
060910 -        ref SDS 21 0001
060912 -  ..
060913 - Uncle Jim related further perspective on helping people advance the
060914 - practice of management....
060915 -
060916 -     Getting senior people to think about fundamentals and issue a
060917 -     report shows progress.
060918 -
060920 -  ..
060921 - Experts Assigned Review New Ideas Rarely Recognize Good Ideas
060922 -
060923 -
060924 - Uncle Jim continues...
060925 -
060926 -     Keep in mind that everyone does not "get it" at the same time.
060927 -     Part of my time in the Pentagon was working to improve management,
060928 -     work processes, communication, efficiency -- that kind of thing,
060929 -     including assignments on the C5 procurement program in the 60s and
060930 -     70s.  So, apart from our family relationship, Com Metrics and SDS
060931 -     caught my eye.
060933 -         ..
060934 -        [On 980307 Andy Grove describing difficulty improving work at
060935 -        Intel described challenge that success blinds people to new
060936 -        realities; some people just don't "get it." ref SDS 22 2648
060938 -         ..
060939 -        [On 011210 50 years to change attitudes on improving
060940 -        established culture. ref SDS 26 R66K
060942 -         ..
060943 -        [On 020131 Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld explained why
060944 -        culture resists change, ref SDS 27 KW9N, and how persistance
060945 -        can grow a new culture to overcome resistance and enable
060946 -        improvement. ref SDS 27 6L5K
060948 -         ..
060949 -        [On 070226 Letter to Uncle Jim thanking him for ideas and
060950 -        encouragement over the years. ref SDS 31 OT6F
060952 -      ..
060953 -     You should know that we got lots of ideas at the Pentagon from
060954 -     everybody, but less than 10% were worth anything, at least that
060955 -     was my take.  People get skeptical and cynnical, what-have-you, on
060956 -     anything submitted from outside, so review is cursory.  Time is
060957 -     limited for careful analysis, because everybody is busy in
060958 -     meetings, calls and shuffeling paper, often to solve problems
060959 -     caused by using a hair-brained idea or method that somebody
060960 -     way-back-when thought would work.  If there is a ton of evidence
060961 -     on benefits, we pay attention; but, then review is just a fait
060962 -     accompli, endorsing what people are already doing.  Bottom line:
060963 -     even when you have something special, like Com Metrics might be,
060964 -     it is largely luck getting through channels to effect improvement.
060966 -  ..
060967 - On 950930 Uncle Jim talked about experience as a contracting officer
060968 - for the C5 military transport plane. ref SDS 3 X686
060970 -  ..
060971 - Research on 960304 indicates that approving funding to develop digital
060972 - computer technology in 1943, which is the prevailing design today, was
060973 - lucky because experts at the time said digital computers would never
060974 - work, and was for the birds. ref SDS 5 YF6O
060975 -
060976 -            [On 970611 Bill Benkavitch had a similar experience; after
060977 -            retirement he was able to grasp merit in SDS, ref SDS 20
060978 -            0900, which, as a communications and managment "expert" he
060979 -            previously overlooked while busy on the job using methods
060980 -            that cause problems which SDS solves. ref SDS 20 2870
060982 -             ..
060983 -            [On 000716 Professor Ransdell noted SDS support for
060984 -            Communication Metrics provides a theory that escaped
060985 -            discovery since the 17th century, and cautioned not to get
060986 -            discouraged by slow acceptance. ref SDS 24 7838
060988 -             ..
060989 -            [On 990713 Morris effort getting SDS evaluated at Intel
060990 -            illustrates cursory analysis due to limited time, people
060991 -            are discouraged, skeptical, cynnical about achieving
060992 -            meaningful improvement. ref SDS 23 5R6N
060994 -             ..
060995 -            [On 011006 engineer frustrated why big projects get so
060996 -            fouled up so quickly. ref SDS 25 O99K
060998 -             ..
060999 -            [On 020131 improvement at DOD resisted by culture of
061000 -            denial. ref SDS 27 G15V  Rumsfeld says to be persistant,
061001 -            build circle of advocates. ref SDS 27 6L5K
061003 -             ..
061004 -            [On 030808 Pat Lincoln advised that "experts" are busy on
061005 -            their projects; they do not have time to study and learn
061006 -            how SDS can advance their work. ref SDS 28 S67H
061008 -             ..
061009 -            [On 040203 bureaucracy promotes conformity for order,
061010 -            command and control for predictability to sustain
061011 -            continuity, ref SDS 29 MB7K, which necessarily resists
061012 -            innovation to improve communication. ref SDS 29 8Y5I
061014 -             ..
061015 -            [On 040721 Pat trying again to explain SDS opportunity,
061016 -            busy scientists and engineers do not have time to consider
061017 -            new ideas. ref SDS 30 UA9N
061018 -
061019 -
061020 -
061021 -
061022 -
0611 -

SUBJECTS
Get It Not Everybody at Same Time Senior People Think About Fundamen

0803 -
080401 -  ..
080402 - Uncle Jim continues...
080403 -
080404 -     Persistence is the key ingredient to give "luck" a chance to
080405 -     bubble up in the right set of circumstances that gives people
080406 -     experience, which is the only way to "learn" whether a new idea is
080407 -     a better idea.  Now that I have looked carefully at a number of
080408 -     your SDS records, a common structure seems evident that improves
080409 -     literacy for "documentation" required for military procurement.
080410 -     In effect, you have integrated benefits of creativity in narrative
080411 -     with the order of forms management.  Combining time, subjects, and
080412 -     linking makes a powerful new way of working to communicate
080413 -     clearly, verify accuracy, and discover correlations in daily work
080414 -     that otherwise get overlooked until mistakes occur.
080416 -      ..
080417 -     So, you have a "tiger by the tail," as we used to say.
080419 -      ..
080420 -     I think in this case that reading and writing are so fundamental
080421 -     in culture, learned mostly in grades 1-3, that the prospect of
080422 -     improving this basic system, which is never questioned throughout
080423 -     adult life, seems impossible to busy people working without SDS on
080424 -     solving problems that SDS avoids.  You can see how difficult that
080425 -     is to accept, shown by my problem last year getting into your
080426 -     point about the difference between information and knowlede.
080427 -     [Uncle Jim's letter on 961006. ref SDS 10 0001]
080429 -      ..
080430 -     Persistence, persistence.  Hang in there.
080432 -         ..
080433 -        [On 010131 Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited persistance as a key
080434 -        ingredient for transformation to improve the Defense
080435 -        Department. ref SDS 27 6L5K
080437 -  ..
080438 - On 950930, Uncle Jim encouraged persistance to overcome resistance to
080439 - improving the work. ref SDS 3 H66K
080441 -  ..
080442 - Uncle Jim's explanation about not enough time to think causing cursory
080443 - understanding reflects the article he submitted a few years ago that
080444 - reported information overload makes people spend 80% of the time
080445 - looking for information. ref SDS 1 CR6L
080447 -  ..
080448 - Since he is retired, Uncle Jim had time to recognize on 961006 that
080449 - General Hatch read NWO three (3) times, ref SDS 10 0001, and so Uncle
080450 - Jim decided to invest time to grasp the core concept that knowledge is
080451 - different from information, and requested follow up. ref SDS 10 JW8O
080452 -
080453 -            [On 970611 Bill Benkavitch had a similar experience; after
080454 -            retirement he recognized merit in SDS, ref SDS 20 0900,
080455 -            which he previously overlooked while busy on the job using
080456 -            methods that cause problems which SDS solves. ref SDS 20
080457 -            2870
080459 -  ..
080460 - An example of people unable to improve the work because they are too
080461 - busy on the job fixing problems to recognize the solution occurred on
080462 - 960406 when Millie reported difficulty finding documents, which SDS
080463 - avoids. ref SDS 6 5922  At that time, Morris noted this is a universal
080464 - problem, which means people are sketpical of new solutions.
080465 - ref SDS 6 4249
080467 -  ..
080468 - Morris mention, also, at a later time that so few new ideas turn out
080469 - to be good ideas that people hired to evaluate new ideas do not have
080470 - enough time for anlaysis to recognize the good ideas.
080472 -  ..
080473 - The basic challenge is presented in the homily that good ideas are
080474 - usually "hidden in plain sight, " because "Improvement comes dressed
080475 - in coveralls and look like work."
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