THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
Friday, September 27, 2002 1:22 PM
03 00050 61 02092701
Mr. Morris E. Jones
morris.jones@intel.com
Intel Corporation
2200 Mission College Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95052 8119
..
Subject:
Cultural Drift Accurate Communication
Dear Morris,
Thanks again for help with the
CD write software.
Was able to get it installed
and stumble through to accomplish the immediate objective of getting an SDS
program to Gary Johnson, as
we discussed on September 19.
..
On September 24 I sent you a copy of a
transmittal to Gary
that sketched some
ideas for evaluation which tried to reflect your suggestions on September 19
for terms that permit Gary to pilot test SDS.
..
Thanks very much for your help on this. We are starting an adventure to see if
someone with Gary's computer skills, life and work experience, and motivation
can get through the learning curve on SDS. I am hopeful, based on Gary's
writings, that he has glimpsed enough about the opportunity for using SDS to
augment intelligence to make the effort needed for advancing beyond information
technology to a
culture of knowledge,
as explained in POIMS. If we start seeing
SDS records on the Internet
with Gary's name on them
that will be indicate he has broken
through, as you noted in our call last year on September 24, 2001.
..
The power of culture to leverage human potential and, also, stifle progress
comes through in The Maltease Falcon, shown in a recent television
broadcast. This movie was filmed in the mid-1930s, possibly later, but
certainly in the olden days before our work lives. The movie has a brief scene
of a business meeting. There is a heated exchange where the Humphry Bogart
character says turns and says to a woman taking dictation, or notes of some
kind...
..
Am I speaking too fast for you to get this all down?
..
... or words to that effect. Seems like there is another movie from about the
same period with a similar scene, where a secretary takes notes of what is
said, and people were concerned about getting an accurate record, because it is
hard to remember everything
when people are speaking fast, other people chime
in, there are gestures, as related by Tom Keesling at the US Army Corps of
Engineers on September 20, 1996, and when
emotions flare up,
using modern management methods at Intel, reported on January 23, 1997. When
people are focusing hard on formulating a response, all of these stressful
factors make it hard to "get it all down" accurately, as asked by
the Bogart character in The Maltease Falcon. ..
It turns out that in both movies there was never anything made of the
record taken down during the meetings, i.e., it did not play out in the plot of
the movie in any way. This suggests that concern about getting an accurate
record was simply window dressing to demonstrate a realistic portrayal of
business life that was familiar to audiences in those days, and so, is evidence
that there was a time when the routine of daily business entailed capturing an
accurate record.
..
Since these movies were released demonstrating strong cultural
support for accurate communication
in the pre-1960s era, per above,
cultural drift seems to have created a
180 degree warp, as related in the record last month on August 20,
showing that, even people working on technology to enable
linking in email for alignment and accuracy, now have
given up on linking,
and
argue against accuracy.
Analysis at that time revealed a dangerous trend of people
giving up on accuracy. Now, a month later,
new evidence
on September 24 supports
Drucker's observation, reviewed on November 30, 1993,
that people are
giving up on communication,
which has previously been a powerful and
common cultural imperative for 2,000 years, illustrated by
the movies just a few decades ago.
..
Have any of the management seminars you attend discussed the need for this kind
of support, or explained why accuracy is not needed now, when it seems to have
been important to "get it all down," as related in
the movies from years past?
..
In our call on February 4, 1995 you mentioned having attended a professional
development event in New Orleans where there was a presentation that you
likened to the
Welch Management Method
of investing time to get an accurate
record, like in the movies many decades ago. You also mentioned that this
seemed like
unnecessary overkill,
similar to our discussion on August 9, 1989.
Has there been a seminar or professional explanation of why accurate
communication is overkill? Why isn't someone called into office to "get it all
down" today, as was the custom in earlier times?
..
As you can see, the
letter on August 20 brought to mind the perspective on February 4,
1995 by
arguing forcefully that accuracy is not important
for conversation and
email, because, people can be more creative when accuracy is
ignored.
..
I agree that people can be very creative when communication is not burdened by
accuracy, but wondered if you have seen any evidence that people are moving
back toward the idea of support for communication, like the movies from years
ago? Maybe somebody else saw the same movies I did, and got a hint. Have you
seen any hint that people are moving toward a concern about accuracy, or are we
still on the upward curve toward ignorance, fear and denial?
..
I think I mentioned a recent discussion with Tom Munnecke at SAIC who related
having
given up on improving health care,
because he feels the system must
completely collapse before people are ready to improve.
..
As well, you asked
last year on April 26, 2001
are people ready for SDS,
which invites comparison with health
care.
..
Does the system of daily management have to completely collapse in order
to for people to improve? Enron collapsed, PG&E collapsed, World Com collapsed,
and there have been mini
collapses galore in the stock market
because too many
people are having too many problems. By definition, it is difficult to see
how there could be any more pressing problem than
inaccurate communication, especially given your report on August 9,
1989 that communication takes up
80% of the time at the office.
..
If we start to see a secretary helping one executive, rather than 3, that would
be one indication that people are trying to "get it all down," when something
important is discussed.