James Drogan

If, in business, customer satisfaction was at the levels described in this article from the Wall Street Journal, a company would likely find itself in decline.  At a minimum, the company's modus operandi would need to change.  At the other end of the change spectrum one could imagine wholesale changes to management or sale of the company.

That won't happen here.  To politicians it is more important to win than to be correct; to do something for themselves, not others; to avoid blame, not take risk.  There are far too few competitive seats in Congress due, in large measure, to gerrymandering (a short  word for "you couldn't get rid of me if you wanted to.").  Hence, America is unlikely to find its way out of this political box anytime soon.

Shame on all of us for letting it happen.  Perhaps term limits is an idea whose time has come.

Re: Conversations with Dave

I meant provocative in the good sense of the word.  And you do it deliberately.  If this wasn't the case you would keep the good stuff to yourself.  You're a bit like Holmes and Watson rolled into one.

I had mentioned in a previous note that I had gotten through James' "Talks to Students and Teachers."  I concluded that this work ought to be on the annual summer training regimen for teachers.

If what you are calling for in the airline cock-up is the application of tough love, then I'm on your side.  I tend to come down on the side of Darwin when it comes to business.

I've shut down my old web site and opened a new one at jmsdrgn.squarespace.com.  Lower costs, an ability to consolidate my blog and other stuff, a simple clean design, and a demise in customer service on the part of my original service providers were behind this.  Innovation in service, cost, and design coupled with maniacal focus on customer service needs to be (must be?) core values of for profit institutions. 

Airlines where labor and management have failed to appreciate the necessity of a joint focus on these core values should not be coddled.

I note that I have yet to read or hear about any real study of the impact of letting the Americans and similar ilk fail.  Why is that?  Maybe it's because "...judicious reading, thought and investigation..." is hard work.  Maybe its because the results of the hard work will reveal the emperor has no clothes.

Paul Krugman goes off on a rant in Staying What Course? in the May 16 New York Times.

What, Dr. Krugman, should we do?  Anyone can turn out the substance of this op-ed, but the hard part, the alternative actions (something beyond Dear Iraq:  We're leaving.  You fix it.) is what's required.

Being a critic is easy.  Being a constructive critic is hard.  But then, I suppose Dr. Krugman was on the hook to turn out an op-ed piece.  Goodness, the pressure of being a published op-ed writer.

Yes, sarcasm abound herein.

From Conversations with Dave 5/15/5

First story. Our daughter was in a program for gifted students in elementary school.  She had this idea of wanting to build a more-or-less working model of a volcano.  Her mentors rejected this as being outside the boundaries of the program.  In other words, she could be gifted, but only within the bureaucracy's definition of gifted.  She declined to stay in the program when it was offered to her in junior high.

While teaching has a component to it that requires students to master the basics, real teaching comes about, I believe, when you help students discover the magic of learning.  Magic tends change boundaries.

You might be interested to know that she is comps and a dissertation away from taking a doctorate in international history.

Second story.  Our granddaughter is becoming bored with school.  She is a very good student, but finds the work unchallenging.  I also suspect that part of the problem is she has classmates that are not quite as focused and energetic as she is.  These classmates require, of course, time from the teacher.  One answer would be more funding and a lower teacher/student ratio. Another answer would be gifted/involved teachers who live and love to teach.  Another answer would be private schools.  Another answer is more involvement from her family (including here grandparents).

As she is coming to stay with us for a week in August we're thinking about the things we can do that will provide her an opportunity to explore challenging things.  She might (will?) wear us out, but we intend that she not be bored.

The following sentences in the Friedman opinion piece caught my attention: "Look at the attention Congress has focused on steroids in Major League Baseball, Mr. Barrett mused. And then look at the attention it has focused on science education in minor-league American schools."

My sense is there is a dependency chain that proceeds from education through health, the economy, foreign policy, and globalization.  Education is the basis for everything.  Yet, America's representatives relegate it somewhere down the priority list.  Existing bureaucracies create rules and regulations that hinder, not enable the learning process.  Really good teachers becomes frustrated and leave.  No Child Left Behind becomes the lowest common denominator. 

There is some very high quality education in this country.  I had a very interesting conversation on Friday night with a senior executive in the communications industry regarding a private school in Manhattan.  His daughter is eleven as I recall.  Her class deconstructed Hamlet, reassembled it in a modern dialogue, and presented it as a play.  Her homework is submitted entirely over the Internet and is accessible to her parents.  Perhaps we can't replicate what appears to me to be an exciting learning environment everywhere, but we ought to replicate it as much as possible and make it as available to as many students as possible.  I know that all students will not respond, but I think we ought to be able to provide an opportunity for every child to live up to their desires and promise. 

Why oh why can't pork barrel projects become education barrel projects?

A volcano for every child ought to be the order of the day.

From Conversations with Dave 5/15/5

This connection suddenly leaps to mind: hunter-gatherers give way to an agriculture society that evolves into an industrial age that matures into an information society that is tending to give way to a culture of innovation.  A continuum of development that may not be and will not be for everyone. The further along a society is in this continuum, the faster change. Hence, a growing gap between various societies.

Just dabbling.

From Conversations with Dave 5/15/5

What is striking about actions of the various governmental organizations described in the very interesting set of attachments to your note is that no mention is made of any effort to transform the thinking of the average American on these subjects.  This education of Joe Six Pack is something you and I have discussed before.

Does this lack of focus on the average American lead to consequences such as the recently reported desecration of the Korans?  Whether true or not, the damage from the story has been done.

Physician, heal thyself.

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

From The Quotations Page.

"The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'."

From The Quotations Page.

From Conversations with Dave 5/12/2005
 
The Beer Game is still around and has been computerized at least once (Simchi-Levi, David Simchi-Levi; Philip Kaminsky; Edith. Designing and Managing the Supply Chain W/ Student Cd-Rom (2nd Edition), McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2002). But you're thinking on a larger scale.

And I bet there are things out there. They may be proprietary and they may be called tools, not games.

Here's a picture called The Context of Interest. It represents the areas I roam in my duties for Maritime.

 

I would like a simulation that allows me to look at the smallest component in this diagram, say Transportation.  Master that then have the mastered component become part of a larger simulation, say Logistics. Master than then move on to Supply Chain and so on until the entire picture can be run as a simulation. The heart of the picture is from Michael Porter.

From Conversations with Dave 5/11/5

The brain, it seems to me, is little more than a mass of meat nestled amongst the senses.  Necessary, true, but without an accumulation of knowledge, skills, experiences, a value system within which this mass of stuff is managed, and some sort of deep rooted, mysterious supervisory program, not much.  It's the collection of stuff, the value system, and the supervisory program (I can't think of a more catchy phrase at the moment) that comprise, as I see it, the mind.  The brain is simply the carbon-based engine that runs the stuff.

I marvel at how the mind works.  I'm continually amazed how, during the ebb and flow of conversation in the class, all these associations of what would, at first, seem to be unrelated, rush into my mind whether or not I want them there.  I consciously apply a filter, some stuff makes it through and gets into the conversation.  The conversation represents another filter.  Sometimes my stuff doesn't survive.

My supervisory program operates, in part, independently of conscious decisions on my part.  It seems to be sampling the passing data and information stream, storing bits and pieces of stuff, which are then dragged out in the association process.  Today's NYT crossword ask for Charles ____ of Hill Street Blues.  Haid is the answer, but I don't know how I knew.  More than once I have answered an obscure Trivial Pursuit question without knowing how I did it.

Anyway, I've not read in this area as deeply as you.  All I can do is provide an informed layman's perspective.

I also realize that I need not respond to all of your posts.  One the other hand, you are provocative and I will rise to the bait.

Mary and I were in Gloucester last weekend.  On Sunday we attended services at St. John's Episcopal Church.  During the services St. John's recognized a number of people for their contribution to the church and for progress in their faith.

In the latter group were three young women who had recently been confirmed in the Episcopal Church.  One, Emma, gave the homily based, in part, on her experiences with the homeless in Boston.

Extraordinary insight delivered in an elegant way.  Emma calls upon all of us to listen to one another, to resist the opportunity to talk at and stare past others.  I've asked for a copy of her remarks.

Will she make a difference?  Well, I'm reminded of the story of the young boy and the starfish.  And she reminded me to pay better attention, to listen and hear, to understand, to practice tolerance, to accept and, ultimately, to work in a more positive way for the common good.

Emma needs to be heard by many.