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S U M M A R Y


DIARY: March 17, 1996 01:03 PM Sunday; Rod Welch

Developed idea of "Be Prepared" as fundamental supported by SDS.

1...Summary/Objective
....Military culture is strongly oriented toward being prepared, and in
....Lawyers invest heavily in being prepared. The entire discovery
....Entertainers invest heavily in being prepared. They rehearse their
....Sports, like the military, invest heavily in being prepared.
2...Communication Metrics enables managers to be prepared by capturing the
3...General Hatch Planning for Asilomar Presentation on Be Prepared
4...Solutions


..............
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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 -