QUALITY vs QUANTITY

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Dear Friends:

As a young student of economics, I was taught about the "Law Of Diminishing Returns." As it was explained to me, it was a very pricey version of the old adage "Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth," or somesuch. Intuitively, this makes complete sense. If you picture a small plot of farmland with a crew of fieldhands (each armed with a rake or hoe) working the crop or the soil, you can see that, generally speaking, a greater number of folks gets the job (whatever the job is) done faster -- to an extent. But after a certain optimal number of workers has been reached, the operation becomes counterproductive due to overcrowding. What started out as farming begins to look more and more like a Lacrosse match, a Black Friday outing at a major retail store, or a session of the U.S. Congress, with an ever-increasing probability of injuries and less and less production.

The quantity of people, money or any other resource "thrown" in the general direction of a problem is not necessarily proportionate to the likelihood of reaching a solution. Bigger commitees, larger financial bailouts and increased information are not necessarily desirable (or even helpful), unless there are several issues addressed first:

• What is the actual problem to be solved?


• What is the root cause of the problem? Sometimes merely medicating symptoms just allows the disease to progress.


• What will the solution look like, assuming we succeed? If we don't have a clear vision of what the changed scenario will look like, if we cannot visualize, or think it through to completion, we are possibly taking a Humvee trip on a bridge that is 98% complete --e.g., the last 2% seems small, until you fall into the ocean.


• What are the proposed sources and uses of the the personnel, funds or other resources to be deployed in solving the root cause of the problem?


• How will the proposed steps of the solution be implemented, monitored and corrected, should a change in direction become necessary?


• How will the resources be accounted for and controlled?


• Which parties stand to benefit the most by the plan?


• Which parties stand to incur the greatest burden (i.e., cost) of the plan?


• Are there incentives for competence and efficiency, and dis-incentives for failure? If we reward failure, we encourage and perpetuate it. Don't give the CEO of a major company (which he or she has driven to the brink of bankrupcy through his or her own misjudgments, negligence or avarice) a major sum to keep his or her organization solvent and let him or her continue to receive the rewards that should be reserved for those who are successful. Worse, don't let that same CEO fire the bulk of his staff in order to conserve his or her own level of inordinate compensation.


• How will resources be phased in? what will the benchmark achievements be? Let's not build a "bridge to nowhere" or take a meandering drive without a clear destination and a linear path. What are the expected results, incrementally, along the project timeline?


• Which parties are responsible for which functions?


• Who will oversee the efforts of the responsible parties to maintain their integrity? (Checks and balances anyone?)


• In terms of production possibilities and allocations of resources, will our assignment of resources to a particular problem cause another problem to take its place?


• Are we running the risk of pumping blood (of a rare type) into a patient with an absolutely fatal diagnosis? Are we reacting emotionally and ignoring the analytical notion of sunk costs?


• We must manage people's expectations with intelligence, realism and sensitivity.

These are considerations crucial to intelligent decisionmaking and sucessful problem-solving. They require several ingredients:

• A detailed plan;


• A skilled leader;


• Well-coordinated teamwork and a sharing of costs, as well as a sharing of benefits.

Thank you for reading me.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle, Internationalist

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JOHN DONNE: Meditation XVII - Will You Lead?

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To My Dear Friends All Over The World:

The following is a brief reminder, in a troubled time. We are capable of being so much more than we settle for. I offer this excerpt from a sermon by John Donne just to demonstrate what Internationalism truly means, and why it must work if we are to survive, as well as to evolve spiritually.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security."

As for my feelings regarding leadership, they were recently set forth in a post to the INTERNAL ENERGY PLUS Yahoo! Group:

We live in a world comprised of suffering (or blind) followers, as well as some very poorly-equipped, ill-motivated "leaders". The greatest crisis in our world is not nuclear, economic, environmental, educational, healthcare or any one of these things, important though they are.

The greatest crisis is the lack of genuine, capable and committed leaders -- those persons having the ability: to unite all people; to inform people; to hear people and be responsive; to be protective, but not overbearing; to apply the highest legal and ethical standards (without exception) to themselves; to permit assembly, discourse, debate and dissent; to be firm but compassionate; to broker alliances; to offer right-minded incentives for the achievement of desirable acts and ends; to ask questions and to take good advice; to award merit as well as loyalty; to delegate decisionmaking, but to coordinate the decisionmaking process and to be at the center of it; to occasionally laugh at themselves; to admit and correct mistakes; to gauge their success by the happiness and prosperity of the people whom they serve, and not by their own personal financial or other gain; to love the people whom they lead; to be financially responsible, but to view education, health and charity as investments in the future; to be prepared to give their lives, if need be, for their charges; to govern by and for the benefit of all of their constituencies; to constantly re-examine their own true motivations and influences, for the measure of their own integrity and continued worthiness to lead; in sum, to be exemplary Human Beings.

If you possess the attributes described above, you are not only equipped to lead, but you are obligated to assume the mantle of leadership.

Think about it. Act on it. Change things for the better. Lead. A world cries out for role models, mentors, educators, guidance and leadership. Some must lead. Are you one of those who must?

Always,

Douglas Castle
The Internationalist