The New York Times recently ran a rather
flattering article on Mitt Romney as a manager who is unhurried and Socratic
and a great detail man. Robert Reich had a problem with the article and so do
I. [Isn’t the political right always accusing the NY Times of being too liberal?]
The piece tells how folk would come into
Romney's office to be fired and leave thinking they had been promoted and surrounded
himself with folk who could do his bidding well. They opine that Romney is a
man who could run a government well.
This seems odd to me as throughout his
campaign he and Ryan offer no details at all. He rattles off a number of platitudes
and ideological blather but details? He will create 12 million jobs – no details
and all based on assumptions that cannot be proven. Oh yes, he wants to get rid
of Obamacare and do away with Dodd-Frank, but that is not doing anything. It
sounds like he would replace Obamacare with Obamacare to me. Ah yes, then there
is the little detail of his tax returns or rather no detail.
My guess is that Romney has a lot of detail
men around him like he had at Bain Capital when it came to personal gain but as
for the building of the great middle class – no details.
It seems rather like the last debate on
foreign policy when Romney to answer questions with, “Yeah, whatever he (Obama)
said.”
Oh yes, the Gantt chart for those of you
who are not familiar with it; it was the invention of Henry Gantt who made a
project schedule chart with start and finish dates of the essential things that
needed to take place to get a project done. It’s great and I used them
frequently in the ministry to get projects done clearly and keep everybody up
to date and on time. Romney’s chart might look something like this.
[Goal: get elected president]
/-last couple of years as governor
--------------------to present/
/--make lots of claims---/
/----mislead as much as
possible----/
/-----condemn Obama
policies--------/
/-----spend huge
amounts of negative PAC $’s ---/
After election:
/-------------------uhhhhh-------------------/ (We’ll figure that out
later.)
I know, it’s not a very good Gantt chart
but you get the idea.
As to the Socratic part? The Socratic method
is to ask questions that guide and lead the listeners and responders to a
logical choices you intend for them to make. It is a directive means to a truth
to be understood and shared. Perhaps the best teaching method ever conceived.
Romney as Socratic………….um, just can’t see it.
Back in the sixties when was an R&D program coordinator in chemical/biological weapons development we used the Gannt. They were messy
ReplyDeleteand needed required updating and changing...this
was before handy computers. Even now they have their limitations . IMO, buying and selling businesses is not that complex, just lucrative. Money is made whether the project succeeds or fails. You just need sufficient capital. business management
is a weak academic course, best summed by:
"IN “Academically Adrift,” Dr. Arum and Dr. Roksa looked at the performance of students at 24 colleges and universities. At the beginning of freshman year and end of sophomore year, students in the study took the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a national essay test that assesses students’ writing and reasoning skills. During those first two years of college, business students’ scores improved less than any other group’s. Communication, education and social-work majors had slightly better gains; humanities, social science, and science and engineering students saw much stronger improvement." IMO, business skills
are hardly an advertisement for successful
political leadership.
Good GANTT chart, except for the third element hasn't happened. He's gotten successful for telling it like it is (not 'misleading')
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