EconomistMom.com

Today (Tuesday) was a real eye-opener for me in terms of seeing how all the ways in which the federal government conducts its business are totally divorced from the ideas for “good business practices” discussed at the World Business Forum.  To elaborate on his “five dysfunctions of a team,” Pat Lencioni (who by the way introduced himself as an easily-distracted, idealist ENFP just like me!) explained that avoiding these dysfunctions requires leadership where:

1. The leader demonstrates “vulnerability” so as to encourage feedback from his or her employees/team members.  (Avoiding “absence of trust.”)
2. The leader encourages “productive conflict” and discussion of differences of opinion.
   “Conflict based on trust is just the pursuit of the best possible answer; conflict without trust is just politics!” (Avoiding “fear of conflict.”)
3. The leader forces “clarity and closure”–stepping in when needed to “break the tie” after encouraging healthy debate/disagreement.  People must “weigh in” in order to “buy in.”  (Avoiding “lack of commitment.”)
4. The leader has to be willing to confront difficult issues/situations.  Pat explained that the “technical term” for people (like him he said) who don’t like to hold others accountable is “wuss.”  Leaders also need to have the courage to confront their team members about bad behaviors rather than wait for the objective, measurable symptoms that often show up too late.  (Achieving “accountability.”)
5. Leaders need to be devoted toward the collective good of the team rather than being too self-absorbed.  (Adequately focusing on “results.”)

To me this appears to be a list of exactly what we lack in our federal government leaders right now…

And Jeff Sachs listed the (dysfunctional) American political system as one of the three great challenges to the American economy–saying that there have been “clear failures over the last generation that are contributing to the shocks we are facing” and that the “problems of governance go back at least 25-30 years.” He also emphasized that although he is a Democrat and supported and supports President Obama, he feels that the politics have gone “badly awry on a bipartisan basis.” He was referring to the triumph of interest-group politics over policy-making for the public good.

And Bill George presented these 7 “universal lessons” from the economic crisis that should be “obvious” to all (yet somehow are not, especially not to “business as usual” in the government):

1. Face reality, starting with yourself
2. Don’t be Atlas: get the world off your shoulders
3. Dig deep for the root cause
4. Get ready for the long haul
5. Never waste a good crisis
6. You’re in the spotlight: follow true North [true to oneself and true to one's values]
7. Go on offense [as opposed to "defense"]: focus on winning now.

On #5, Bill George explained that a crisis presents opportunities–that the Chinese symbol for “crisis” combines the characters of “danger” and “opportunity” (I have no idea if that’s true, but that sure sounds good), and that many times we don’t rise to the occasion of the “opportunity” part.

It seems to me we heard a lot of “good business” lessons today that could be, should be, applied to the biggest industry in the U.S. economy, the federal government.

I’m looking forward to hearing President Clinton perhaps make that connection in his (closing) address tomorrow afternoon (entitled “Embracing Our Common Humanity”).  We’ll see…