"I want to talk to senior staff at round table and tell people to stop giving me information the day of a meeting, it does not do me any good. If it is long, I should be given it the Friday before, if not, it needs to be given to me the day prior, so I have time to read it. To give me a notebook or a long paper right before a meeting is not a service -- it is a waste of the peoples' time who put the information together; it makes me feel bad; and I'd rather not get it."
Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
You're not helping the boss by giving him lots of information he won't have time to process.
1 comment:
Amen and sevenfold Amen!
A favorite Pentagon trap is for,say, a deputy-assistant under SECDEF to generate a pressing issue paper - preferably to a wide senior chop chain - and to solicit comments by 1630 the same day. Such happens especially during the budget build and/or when proponency for a major weapons sysatem or political matter needs action.
I wish I had a dollar for every hour I sat outside the Joint Staff Director's office at 1745 hours, a 'purpled' memorandum needing one 3-star's nod before moving on tothe next-senior officer for his/her chop, in a line that goes on forever...until 1631 (at which time the flags start THEIR 26-hour days..
Now, that's what action officers are for: to develop and route the issue papers, patiently waiting one's turn as an O-5, when the next most junior supplicant to the almighty is a 2-star. They are dispensible, moving hands on an eternal clock whose 2359:59 is somewhere in the E-Ring.
Witness DR's plea supra, when the harried AO takes his triple padlock bag to brief SECDEF- PLEASE keep it to one paragraph, and remember: wrestlers, naval aviators, and cabinet level secretaries never have a rush hour because it's always midnight somewhere in the E-Ring...
Steve Myers
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