March 12, 2007

Walter Reed Scandal: So What Else Is New?

 

I was disgusted, but not surprised, at recent revelations of the conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital, the shining star of our military medical system. After all, these are the same folks that gave us Iraq, Katrina, Scooter Libby, et al. What is surprising about the same standards of leadership being applied to yet another branch of the operation?

 

Some of these failures were directly connected, such as Mr. Libby’s transgressions as a part of the entire Iraq political context, and Katrina exacerbated by the over-extension of our National Guard. But there are many examples of similar failures of leadership and organization. The surprise in the Walter Reed situation is that we didn’t hear someone say, “Our intelligence tells us that the conditions at Walter Reed are A-OK. It’s a slam dunk.”

 

One imagines that effective preparation for war would have included dealing with wounded military. Oops! Another small detail left out of the planning. Or were Rumsfeld, Cheney and the president so sure of themselves that they didn’t expect any wounded? Actually, we didn’t have too many before the president’s famous “Mission Accomplished” pronouncement. I guess that was supposed to indicate the end of the war. OK – we were just a little off there.

 

The main point is the management of the system as a whole. The nature of large systems emanates from the top down, something like the rotting of a fish, as the old saying goes. The norms, habits and standards are determined by the words, and actions, of leadership, in some ways that are not even clearly traceable. During 30 years of working with organizations, this consistently re-amazes me. The personality and philosophy of an auto company’s CEO can be reflected in dealerships all over the world. So it is with many other examples.

 

A brief review of some qualities of effectively managed systems may help us to be less surprised as we see patterns repeated.

 

Effective leadership encourages everyone, even outsiders, to share information – even or especially bad news, with those higher-up and further from the front lines. There is a thirst for data, especially that might suggest possibilities for improvement. This keeps the system in touch with its environment. Effective systems are value and standards driven. They respect excellence – above expediency, politics and even personal relationships. They reflect deeply felt human values, as well as objective success.

 

I’m reminded of several quotations, some quite genuine and others only rumored to have occurred, that demonstrate the Administration’s approach to management and leadership. They are organized around the principles described above. They should help us make a clearer connection between Walter Reed, Iraq, other recent failures and heaven-knows whatever future “surprises” are still in store. The source and context of the quotation appear in parentheses before the quotations.

 

Communication Up – (By hospital leadership at congressional hearings)  “We first heard about the hospital conditions in the Washington Post article.” (Rumored - by an anonymous Rumsfeld aide :-) “General Shinseki, we have a position for you where your ability to count will be less of a handicap.”

 

Respect for Data and Information – (Summarized from many news reports) “The environmental science reports were reviewed and effectively censored by an administration official on loan from a large energy company.”  (Rumored - by VP Cheney, with his fingers crossed-under his jacket :-) “Honestly, we really want the best intelligence available on Iraq.” (Rumored - by Rumsfeld aide, proposing a new Defense Department “information” service :-) “Well if the intelligence services won’t find the data we need, we’ll just have to create a service that will.”

 

Commitment to Excellence – (By interim Walter Reed director) “The stories about bad conditions at the hospital have been greatly exaggerated.” (Part of recent congressional testimony of Defense Department spokesman) “The medical treatment is really excellent, even if the quality of life for patients leaves something to be desired.”

 

Competency over Cronyism - (By you-know-whom) “Brownie, you’re doing a hell of a job.”  “Harriet would make a great Supreme Court justice.” (Rumored - anonymous administration response to Iraq Study Group :-) “Maybe we should really start thinking about getting the best people over there to fix this thing.”

 

Human Values - (By you-know-whom) “No one who has anything to do with these leaks (about Valerie Plame) will remain in my administration.”  (Rumored - by a number of administration officials – chuckling to themselves) “If they were really on the ball, they never would have joined the military in the first place. We certainly didn’t.”

 

I hope this helps clarify what we are up against.

 

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