Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

Article infers a reference to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The assessment has its critics but I have found it has been a useful tool – I’m generally pretty accurate in identifying preference which helps improve communications.
Op-Ed. An Officer and a Creative Man, By MARK MOYAR, December 19, 2009, New York Times
Researchers have found [...]

ARTICLE: Army’s New Manual: Peacekeeper Training, AP, December 17, 2008
The Army has released its first new training field manual in six years, highlighting the need for units to be ready to conduct stability operations after traditional combat has ended.
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The manual, titled “Training for Full Spectrum Operations” and written at Fort Leavenworth, explains what soldiers can [...]

Defense Department Planning To Expand Minerva Initiative, (Inside The Pentagon)…Jason Sherman
The Pentagon plans this year to expand a fledging program launched by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to foster cooperation between the military and social scientists in a bid to improve understanding of 21st-century security challenges and develop a cadre of experts to influence national security [...]

A Defensive Strike For Its Fighter Jet (Dallas Morning News)…Eric Torbenson, Jan 6, 2009.
Seven years ago, Lockheed Martin Corp. won a bitterly fought contract for what would end up being the world’s most expensive fighter jet program. Today, it finds itself in an odd position: having to defend the plane it won the right to [...]

National Security Adviser Says Pakistan Is Top U.S. Challenge, (Wall Street Journal)…John D. McKinnon, Jan 7, 2009
The biggest foreign-policy challenge awaiting President-elect Barack Obama isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan but Pakistan, President George W. Bush’s national-security adviser said.
In an interview previewing a valedictory speech he plans to give on Wednesday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said [...]

On the issue of objective vs subjective information, you will always need the right balance of both.  I addressed a similar topic on the subject of militar’s  Effect Based Operational concept.
Did managers of risk outsmart themselves? Joe Nocera, New York Times magazine, Jan 4, 2009.

The story that I have to tell is marked all the [...]

Khyber Action Near End, (Washington Post)…Unattributed, January 2, 2009, Pg. 13  

Pakistan will reopen the main supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan in the next few days after security forces achieved most of their objectives in an offensive, a Pakistani official said Thursday.
Authorities suspended the shipment of supplies through the Khyber Pass to the [...]

POST: Tough love for the Pentagon, by Thomas P.M. Barnett on December 22, 2008
OP-ED: How to Pay for a 21st-Century Military, New York Times, December 20, 2008
You want some tough love on the Pentagon budget to pay for the interventions (overwhelmingly SysAdmin in nature) we’re still waging and are likely to wage in [...]

The Planned Change principle generally includes three courses of action: Maintain/sustain the current system/process, evolutionary/incremental improvement or revolutionary improvement through re-design.  The higher degree of change, the higher the risk. Risk can be minimized through use of the concept of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).  FCS incorporates all three approaches and a strategic assessment will help [...]

Toyota projects first operating loss since 1941, By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer, Dec 22, 2008.
Toyota forecast an operating loss of 150 billion yen ($1.66 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2009. Toyota has never reported an operating loss since it began disclosing such figures in 1941. But it did have an operating loss [...]