President Obama is a lawyer, an academic, a community organizer and a real good teleprompter reader.
So why is anyone surprised he “solves” problems with lawsuits, enlists the aid of folks who collect degrees to discuss theories of how to solve a crises, twists the arms of the evil doers in big business and thinks if he just keeps reading that teleprompter we will all realize that he is doing everything anyone could ever ask of a president.
I am tired of hearing talking heads give Obama a partial pass because “no one” could solve the crises in the Gulf. I contend a good project manager with solid critical situation management skills and decent communication skills would have handled this situation better than the current cadre of politicians and paper hangers.
One of the first things a leader should do when forming a team is to recognize his weakness and ensure he has at least some folks on his team who have strengths in those areas. In Obama’s case, this would mean having folks on his team who are not political hacks, lawyers, academics, etc…
In some cases our president did this (Robert Gates), in others he chose to fill positions with political hacks (fill in the blank).
Unfortunately, the administration folks in position to respond to the crises in the Gulf were, in my opinion, ill-prepared to do so. But that need not be a problem if they (again) recognized their weaknesses and brought in the RIGHT expertise.
So, what would someone with crit/sit management skills do in this situation? Off the top of my head…
- Identify current lines of communication, authority and escalation paths
- Assess the current situation, identifying areas of greatest risk
- Form a core team of folks who will lead the attack on each risk/problem area
- Establish the rules of engagement (no looking back, no pointing fingers, no fast forwarding beyond the current situation to focus on punishment or even root cause analysis); insist the team focus on the goal
- If anything distracts the team from focusing on the goal, eliminate the distraction
- Assess proposed solutions based upon available data and prioritize their implementation… you don’t have time to wait for input from every source… the decision to wait has it’s own consequences
How would this have helped?
I know it seems pretty basic, but what this approach would have led to is a clear understanding that there are three or four or five risk areas that need to be addressed. Think they already know this?
Assuming BP has the lead on the capping of the well, who has the lead on preventing the oil from reaching the shore? Who has the lead for addressing cleanup once it reaches the shore? Who has the lead on the clean up of oil currently still in the Gulf? Who has the lead on preventing the oil from getting into the Gulf Stream and heading up the coast?
If you believe BP owns all of this, you are reacting to the anger this situation generates as opposed to breaking this into focus areas. Being angry is understandable and natural, just not helpful. We can kick there tails after this is all over.
Once you have identified the areas that need to be addressed, you need one owner for each. Not a team.. one person who owns pulling together a team of experts to quickly identify potential solutions, prioritize them and implement the first of them within 24 hours. Think that’s too fast? Can’t be done? That’s why you need clear lines of communication and escalation paths.
For example… need booms from Maine by tomorrow morning? Use military transports, charter planes, whatever it takes and worry about billing BP later. This is a crises, no time to worry about distractions like funding. Think $20 billion BP set aside ($5 billion per year) is a lot of money? Our national debt is growing at a rate of $5 billion per day! I think we can all agree this is a crises of national importance that should take priority over some of the crap that $5 billion a day is paying for.
Another example… the Dutch offer assistance and expertise and you determine that is your best bet for cleaning up surface oil? Accept their offer of assistance (you should have been given absolute authority to do this), insist that the Jones Act be suspended, and get those ships headed our way. If for some reason you lose the Jones Act fight, the ships could always turn back, but by waiting until you have all the loose ends tied up, you allow valuable time to pass.
Appear that solutions provide by the team of experts are not working? By now you should have already been soliciting ideas from the huge knowledge base that is the American people. Anyone have any idea who to contact with an idea for capping the well? I had an idea three weeks ago and no one could tell me who to tell… providing ideas should be as easy as calling a hot line.
Now with multiple teams attacking the major sub-problems within the crises and reporting daily into the crit/sit manager, sharing progress and solutions across the teams, synergies will start to develop. Maybe the guy protecting the shore would prefer chemical dispersants not be used because it makes the oil difficult to block with booms… that would be a good thing to know.
You also have to realize that no matter what you do, some problems might not be solved, but attacking early and fast gives you the best chance of overall success. Wouldn’t you prefer to capture the oil within a 300 yard radius of the leak than within a 300 mile radius of the leak?
This would have worked. Still could although the problem grows by the day.
I’ll even offer a suggestion of the teams that should be formed and charged with attacking the issues (probably better suggestions could be made by folks who have more knowledge in this area… crit/sit manager should rely on those experts when forming the teams):
- Capping the well: BP with leading experts engaged from deep well corporations, especially if any have ever developed a contingency plan to respond to a similar crises
- Defending the shore (close to shore): Army Corps of Engineers with resources provide by National Guard units from each state impacted
- Shore Clean Up: EPA with aid of HAZMAT experts and National Guard units
- Gulf Clean Up: Coast Guard with support from any country, company or organization with experience cleaning up this kind of mess
- Protecting the Gulf Stream? I have no idea.. if the clean up is ineffective, this may not be possible.. but not a bad idea to kick this one over to a group charged with coming up with any ideas that could work (like a giant filter stretched int he path of the oil slick)
Probably holes in this analysis, but this is off the top of my head. My point is… who is leading this type of effort today and, if no one, why not?