CONTACTS 
0201 - Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges  415 392 6320
020101 - Mr. David Buoncristiani, Esq.

SUBJECTS
Buoncristiani, Dave, TMJB
Financial Support from Sponsors
Buoncristiani, Dave, TMJB

0605 -    ..
0606 - Summary/Objective
0607 -
060701 - Followed up work at ref SDS 12 line 54, ref SDS 10 line 90.
060702 -
060703 - David reported TMJ&B can contribute some funds, but upon discussion we
060704 - decided not to proceed with this sponsorship effort.  His presentation
060705 - at Asilomar is too important to the agenda to risk alienating the
060706 - effort by over extending requests for ancillary support.
060707 -
060708 -    [See follow up at ref SDS 15 line 68.]
060709 -
060710 -
0608 -
0609 -
0610 - Discussion
0611 -
061101 - I asked David about obtaining financial support, per our discussion at
061102 - ref SDS 10 line 92.  He said he has gotten permission to provide $500.
061103 -
061104 - I explained the objection that has arisen, within the PMI Committee,
061105 - to paying honorariums, ref SDS 14 line 220, and that this means we
061106 - need to find another way to bring Dr. Brusman and Tom Landauer into
061107 - the agenda.  One idea would be for TMJ&B to hire Dr. Brusman who wants
061108 - $2K, for a joint presentation in order to adequately make the point
061109 - David is planning about failure of human memory, ref OF 2 line 141.
061110 - David is addressing what happens when miss-communication is not
061111 - discovered and corrected, i.e., the heavy hand of an external metric
061112 - when there is no internal metric.  People initially get frustrated,
061113 - tense, angry, mistakes and failures occur which usually are simply
061114 - absorbed.  Managers feel much of their job is putting "out fires,"
061115 - without recognizing the cause, until David gets them on the witness
061116 - stand and shows they caused the "fires" that grew into a fire storm of
061117 - litigation.  Dr. Brusman has the expertise and credentials to make the
061118 - link between micro activity on the job each day in the office where
061119 - people are not prepared, ignore the record and are stressed from too
061120 - fast a pace, and the inability of executives to remember why the
061121 - contract was not followed.
061122 -
061123 -     [Applied this in letter to PMI Comm, ref SDS 16 line 136.]
061124 - ..
061125 - This is a difficult point for many executives to grasp who feel
061126 - they can manage the work by conversation and good listening skills, if
061127 - only everybody else would work as hard and as "intelligently" as they
061128 - do, per Asilomar monthly meeting on telling the truth, ref SDS 1 line
061129 - 327.
061130 -
061131 - Given this "executive mindset," David's presentation without the
061132 - foundation of Brusman and Landauer, leaves open the prospect in the
061133 - minds of many that their problems are caused by lawyers who ask trick
061134 - questions, per meeting with Morris, ref SDS 2 line 853.  In any event,
061135 - that is why I wanted Brusman to precede David, and then Tom Landauer
061136 - to follow David's remarks, in order to explain the correlation from
061137 - Cognitive Science between these sets of phenomena.  It takes more than
061138 - a single discipline to penetrate cultural inertia that resists change
061139 - due to ignorance, fear and denial.  David mentioned this point in our
061140 - discussion a few weeks ago, ref SDS 4 8849.
061141 -
061142 - David indicated this makes sense, but feels it would be difficult to
061143 - set out a direct benefit to TMJ&B for supporting the Asilomar effort
061144 - beyond David's presentation.
061145 -
061146 - A possible benefit would be contributing to the next step in the march
061147 - of civilization, ref OF 2 line 40, as contemplated in David's
061148 - presentation of fostering a new role through a new management science.
061149 - If we are going to do this, what does it take to make it effective?
061150 - Presumably the firm's contribution to public television is grounded in
061151 - part on public service criteria, in addition to gaining exposure for
061152 - the firm.  All of the discussion about "skills" deficits, inadequate
061153 - education, downsizing, improving the economy and general well being of
061154 - the national community, are addressed by the prospect of lifting human
061155 - capacity to think, remember and communicate.  For many this is too far
061156 - to reach, so we need special people initially to help others see it is
061157 - safe to reach out for this goal.  TMJ&B has shown it fits this model.
061158 -
061159 - A second benefit to TMJ&B would be to support an event that can
061160 - improve internal management at TMJ&B under the reasoning David and I
061161 - discussed a few months ago.  I mentioned the recent memo that Millie
061162 - submitted at another law firm, ref SDS 13 line 59, on the issues we
061163 - want Dr. Brusman to talk about at Asilomar, ref OF 2 line 126.  This
061164 - suggests the issues are common and so may warrant a minimal investment
061165 - to find a solution.  Many firms are spending considerably to improve
061166 - internal communications and work processes.  That's what Asilomar is
061167 - about.  It takes a mix of ideas to get the job done.  In this context,
061168 - sitting down with Dr. Brusman to work out a joint presentation and
061169 - then subjecting that work to scrutiny and examination by others who
061170 - face similar challenges at Asilomar, may well have direct benefit to
061171 - TMJ&B.
061172 -
061173 - Third, there is the prospect of engendering a new work practice at
061174 - Asilomar that could make it easier for TMJ&B to serve its clients.
061175 - People are moving away from sound management practice, i.e., drifting
061176 - off course.  This brings more work for lawyers, but renders the whole
061177 - process more of "he said, she said," than a search for what
061178 - transpired.  Exposing to prospective clients in a professional setting
061179 - how they can avoid disputes while at the same time position themselves
061180 - to be successful in the event litigation occurs, seems advantageous to
061181 - TMJ&B.
061182 -
061183 - David said his firm would not agree to pay Dr. Brusman.  He said there
061184 - is no precedent within the firm to do this, so he would feel
061185 - uncomfortable bringing this suggestion forward.
061186 -
061187 - I said under those circumstances, it is best not to press forward with
061188 - the initiative.  I will look for other ways to get this job done, and
061189 - welcome David's suggestions.
061190 -
061191 - I thanked David for his consideration.  It is a little more difficult
061192 - than one might expect to solve the riddle of the New World Order.
061193 -
061194 -
061195 -
061196 -
0612 -