Category: Leadership

Iraq: Patience and Policy

The Bush Paradox (New York Times)…David Brooks, June 24, 2008 Pg. 23

Let’s go back and consider how the world looked in the winter of 2006-2007. Iraq was in free fall, with horrific massacres and ethnic cleansing that sent a steady stream of bad news across the world media. The American public delivered a stunning electoral judgment against the Iraq war, the Republican Party and President Bush.

… More than a year on, the surge has produced large, if tenuous, gains. Violence is down sharply. Daily life has improved. Iraqi security forces have been given time to become a more effective fighting force. The Iraqi government is showing signs of strength and even glimmers of impartiality. Iraq has moved from being a failed state to, as Vali Nasr of the Council on Foreign Relations has put it, merely a fragile one.

The whole episode is a reminder that history is a complicated thing. The traits that lead to disaster in certain circumstances are the very ones that come in handy in others. The people who seem so smart at some moments seem incredibly foolish in others.

Air Force: Philosophical Differences

Ex-Official Cites Differences With Gates, (Washington Times)…Robert Burns, Associated Press, June 21, 2008
Pg. 9

Two weeks after being ousted, Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said Friday he had a "difference in philosophy" with his boss, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, on numerous issues – not just on the nuclear slip-up that Mr. Gates said was his reason for removing Mr. Wynne.

"When you have a difference of philosophy with your boss, he owns the philosophy and you own the difference," he said.

Air Force: Change at the top – change in culture?

OPINION: The Heir Up There, (New York Times)…Max Boot, June 16, 2008, Pg. 19

THE appointment of Gen. Norton A. Schwartz as the chief of staff of the Air Force last week is a historic first, one that could serve as inspiration for people who share his underprivileged background. General Schwartz is, you see, a cargo pilot.

With an officer whose background is in transportation and special operations chosen to head the entire Air Force, a cultural revolution is well under way. Fighter planes and their pilots will not loom as large in the future as they have in the recent past.

Some years down the road lies an even more radical transition. The day will surely come when the Air Force chief of staff won’t be a pilot at all. The service now operates in outer space and in cyberspace. Experts in those areas are rising through the ranks. But it will probably take many years, and another wrenching transition, before a non-pilot rises to the top.

Air Force – New Leadership

A Different Type Of Air Force Leader, (Los Angeles Times)…Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel, June 10, 2008, Pg. 8

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates took action Monday to dramatically reorient the leadership of the Air Force, calling for the nomination of the first non-fighter or bomber pilot to lead the service since its inception after World War II.

Over time, the move could lead the service to give more emphasis to missions that support ground wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as cargo flights and in-air refueling, over more traditional roles like air dogfights.

Schwartz is head of U.S. Transportation Command, which coordinates the Pentagon’s worldwide transportation operations and manages military logistics.

Army (ARDEC) – Recognized Sustained Excellence

REMARKS: Joseph A. Lannon, Director, ARDEC. 

It is a tremendous honor to stand here today and accept this prestigious award, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, on behalf of my co-workers at the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, also known as ARDEC.

Our prescription for organizational success is very basic. Everything we do is bound by a commitment to the customer, our warfighters, whose lives depend on our work.

Four basic components—coupled with hard work, tenacity and vision—have shaped ARDEC into the organization it is today:

  • Innovation in both product and process;
  • Persistence in the pursuit of excellence;
  • External evaluation and continuous learning to accelerate improvement; and
  • A culture that thinks like a “for-profit” great business with a bottom line.

2007 was the first year for the nonprofit category.  The Award recognized SUSTAINED and PROVEN (auditable) excellence over several years.  

The Good or Great Page provides a notional comparison of Baldrige to the concepts of capability maturity, cost of poor quality, sigma, and knowledge of variation.