January 20, 2017
Dear Everyone:
And so it begins…
To say that this will be an unconventional Presidency just might
be the greatest understatement since
Noah said:
“It looks like rain.”
Eight years ago,
I was conducting a class in how to use one
document management system or another.
One of the students asked if we could take a “break” at 9:00 AM
to watch the
Inauguration. After all,
it was an historic occasion:
The swearing in of the first non-white President.
I happily agreed because I knew the class would not take the
whole time-slot; it had lots of cushion built in.
Today’s
Inauguration is equally historic:
The first
businessman-dog-and-pony-show-no-political-experience-whatsoever-President.
About 40 years
ago, I was working in a large file room in downtown
San Francisco.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was actually in the throes
of a
merger. Several
departments had been “restructured” together and my boss at the time had
convinced the Powers That Be (PTB) that his workgroup could run all the
various file rooms of the previous departments under his brilliant
leadership. With computers,
no less. Looking back, I now
realize that he had given the PTB the “usual snow job”.
In any case, he
and his assistant took me with them to inform the denizens of another
file room of just who was now in charge.
They wanted one particular person, “Lynda”, to teach me her job.
In fact, they planned to give every job a “backup person”; this
was just the first that these people had heard of it.
“Lynda” promptly
threw a hissy fit. Complete
public meltdown. Actually
shouting at her new supervisor.
It was absolutely impossible for anyone, anywhere in all the
galaxies, to do her job satisfactorily except for “Lynda”.
Period.
I couldn’t help
thinking: “When you’re up to
your eyeballs in alligators it’s sometimes difficult to remember that
your main objective is to drain the swamp.”
In time, “Lynda” cooled down and the merger proceeded.
But I learned a
valuable lesson: When the
PTB takes a job away from you and gives it to someone else, let it go!
You can’t really stop them anyway.
Just do what you can to show the new person what to do, then step
away completely. If they get
the job done, even if it’s not exactly the way you would have done it,
no problem. If they actually
do it better than you did, it’s still not a problem.
If they screw it up, it’s the PTB’s problem because it was their
decision to begin with.
I get the feeling
that Barack Obama
is thinking the same thing.
The American Electorate put
Donny the Trumpet
in charge, so let him charge away.
After all, it may
not be a complete fiasco.
“Tradition” is a
word meaning “That’s the way we’ve always done it”.
It’s a comfortable place to hide.
If things go wrong, you can always blame it on your predecessors.
On the other hand, doing something for no better reason than
“tradition” is a pretty lame excuse, too.
So let’s give
Donny a chance and see if his “outside the box” thinking actually
produces the wished for results.
And in the meantime, Obama isn’t going too far away.
He’ll still be around to say “I told you so!” should the occasion
arise.
There is an
ancient Chinese curse that says:
“May you live in an Interesting Time.”
It certainly is going to be an interesting four years.
Love, as always,
Pete
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