Firing of Walter Reed Head Offers Business Lessons

I typically avoid overt politics, but the situation at Walter Reed offers good lessons for all businesses. The Pentagon has reassignment - read that as canned - a number of people, including the general in charge of the facility. Absolutely the right thing to do. If you have responsibility for an operation, then you get the credit and you get the blame. For him not to have been going around the hospital, seeing what things were actually like and taking necessary action, is disgraceful. It's also too close to how many companies operate. Upper level managers too seldom spend time talking with the front line employees, observing how things work, and talking to customers of all sizes. You can't just observe from above based on some numbers, because you have no idea how people are trying to present the operations to make themselves look good. When you're the last to hear, then you should be the first to go.

The second lesson is that responsibility doesn't suddenly end at a convenient scapegoat. If a division head wasn't taking care of business, why didn't the CEO know? The hems and haws give away when someone is trying to make up an answer without knowing for sure. Shouldn't the CEO be having regular conversations to smell when something is going bad? Similarly, it's right to fault General Weightman, but how about all the people above who never took a trip to the facilities? Also, what about when Bush and Cheney have visited the hospital? Why not take the opportunity to see how things really operated? Similarly, directors might consider taking visits through facilities to see how their fiduciary charges are actually doing. A little time here and there might indicate when glowing reports didn't seem to jive with the atmosphere on the floor.