Death by PowerPoint vs. Writing to Learn

A recent article in the New York Times examines how PowerPoint has affected the way strategy is set and decisions are made in the US military.

Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. The amount of time expended on PowerPoint, the Microsoft presentation program of computer-generated charts, graphs and bullet points, has made it a running joke in the Pentagon and in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

A running joke, maybe, but some of the impacts aren't so funny.

Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, [likened] PowerPoint to an internal threat.

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”

...

Commanders say that behind all the PowerPoint jokes are serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making.

I agree with the unnamed commanders and think that this issue has implications for local government, too.

Public employee charactures

Unfortunately, like most charactures, there is enough resemblance to reality that you can recognize what is being charactured.

SNL's Public Employee of the Year

In my personnel course, I talk about people's images of public employment and bureaucracy. I think I may use this in class this fall.

HT: @Governing

What I'm reading: Safford; Eggers and O'Leary

Safford, Sean. 2009. Why the Garden Club Couldn't Save Youngstown: The Transformation of the Rust Belt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

I just started reading this and I'll have something to say about it later. I suspect that Youngstown's story is similar to Muncie's in some ways. You can hear Safford present the thumbnail version of his research by listening to an episode of Smart City Radio.

Eggers, William D. and John O'Leary. 2009. If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.

The idea behind this book may cause my libertarian friends' heads to explode. But Eggers and O'Leary make a good case that even libertarians should want government to be effective.

Continuous improvement: Two lessons from the classroom

The concept of continuous improvement is an important one, not only for organizations, but for individuals, too. I like to think that as I've matured, professionally and chronologically, I've devoted more attention to practicing continuous improvement, both professionally and personally.

Since, I started teaching a couple of years ago, I've found that some aspects of classroom teaching naturally lend themselves to practicing continuous improvement. Yesterday, I was thinking about how I approach continuous improvement in my teaching and the lessons those practices hold for practicing it in other areas.