General Jones and Smart Power Approach or Team Building
Ah yes. One of the things that inspires the most is witnessing military discipline at play. This is the number one story in the blogosphere today.
The New York Times has a article I like on General Jones with a money quote that could define so much what we are seeing:
General Jones described that behind-the-scenes “teeing up” process as an example of how he could be helpful to the president. He maintained his cool even when asked about sniping from staff members that he went biking at lunchtime and left work early, although he did, at one point, seem about to crush his coffee cup.
“I’m here by 7 o’ clock in the morning, and I go home at 7, 7:30 at night; that’s a fairly reasonable day if you’re properly organized,” he said. What about officials who pride themselves on being at the White House deep into the night?
Congratulations,” he said. “To me that means you’re not organized.”
So so so very true. Organization. Structure. Outlines. Plan. Solutions. Delegation of authority. May sound unfamiliar to some but it proves a point because it SHOULD be familiar. Holbrooke sums it up beautifully:
But Richard C. Holbrooke, Mr. Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that General Jones was “a Marine, and he believes in team-building,” an approach that Mr. Holbrooke said had produced “a sophisticated, multilayer decision structure at the N.S.C. that did not exist before.”
The only thing that this tells me is that there must be certain people who could benefit from this type of organizational planning. Or maybe get more individuals who understand exactly how to go about executing it. Because it is desperately needed based on the actions of the DHS maverick department of there agency where it seems there is zero organziation or any form of discipline.
