The Forest For The Trees

So I read something by the beloved Peggy Noonan that speaks to how the federal government (state governments, and any organization, really) works. Now, I've spent many years working in the federal government, and I think I have an appreciation for its strengths and weaknesses. And Peggy just nailed it.

She said: "But in Washington, agency analysts and experts don't have answers, really. They have product. They have factoids. They have free-floating data. They have dots in a pointillist picture, but they're not artists, they're dot-makers."

For those of you who aren't too familiar with pointillist art, please take a look at this familiar piece of art.

This is "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte" of Ferris Bueller's Day Off fame. John Hughes (Director of Ferris Bueller) commented on the "Bueller Bueller" edition of the DVD that when Cameron was looking at this painting, with each zoom in, Cameron realized he didn't know what he was looking at (meaning for Cameron = he didn't know himself).

Pointillism is a form of painting where the picture is made of by a bunch of individual dots. If you see a high resolution image of this photo (or watch Ferris Bueller again), you'll see that there are a bunch of dots that make up this wonderful work of art.

It has been my observation that bureaucrats (or, worker bees) in federal agencies are highly dedicated and very skilled at creating their assigned dot. They are (in most cases) absolutely dedicated to making the best darned dot possible. And, they often do. Periodically, you will find some folks who can do their dot, and have the ability to look at all the others and see what's going on (you'd hope that the higher you go up in the organizational flow chart, the higher percentage of these types will be found).

But, as Ms. Noonan points out, at some point, the leader (or, folks at the top) can look at all the dots and understand what they really mean.

Herein we find the flaw of relying on reports put together by special commissions, blue ribbon panels, and agency experts. They gather the dots, put them on the canvas, then leave it up to the folks who appointed them to interpret them. If the appointers are hoping the experts will come up with answers, the war is lost before the experts are able to undertake their assignment.

The appointers (our metaphorical artists) are the leaders. They must look, study, and lead.