Return to Article: Just Say No to Slogans
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8446
Couldn't agree more with comments. Amazing that (some) otherwise intelligent high-level managers aren't nauseated by pathetic slogans that do no more for morale than the HRO chief in DILBERT. I'm old enough to have lived thru "Peter's Principles", "Quality Circles", "360-Degree Reviews", etc., and when the "7 Habits" new Guru came along it was clear that it would become the "program du jour" and everyone would bow to it and throw money. It isn't fancy slogans/catch phrases that will solve our problems, but management with the backbone to realize that it takes ACTIONS, not WORDS, to demonstrate a true understanding of human needs and motivation. Nothing brings back thoughts of Gov't ineptness like a photo of Al Gore standing with a fork lift full of SF-171's being discarded when they coined the "Reinvention of Government" and "Paperwork Reduction" mantras, then introduced TWO new forms, with an equal number of total pages, to take the place of the SF-171. Nobody gained except the GPO.
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8418
One of Deming's 14 points (from his book his 1982 book "Out of the Crisis"):
"Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force."
Deming's central idea is that it's not people who make most mistakes; it is the process they are working within. It is counter-productive to harass the workforce without improving the processes they follow.
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8411
The USA has become a bumper sticker society. We advertise all our personal beliefs on bumper stickers and have moved that mentality into government! The government has little in the way of substance - it is an execution branch! The substance should be in Congress but they were the first to move to the bumper sticker mentality! It's not a choice it's a kid! Jesus saves! America, love it or leave it! Why shouldn't the government be moving more and more to a bumper sticker form of management - at least the incompetent managers can understand that much as the medieval people could understand the stainglassed windows in the church.
I think it is far more interesting that the Army sponsors a NASCAR race car for millions as does the Air Force. Why can't the services all sponsor one car? Why should they sponser any car? Why do the services publish fancy four color publications for themselves just to give the generals and admirals, as well as political appointees, a place to publish articles written by paid staff (staff I pay thropugh taxes!)- whatever happened to use of a cheap publication? Why does the government give personnel time off with pay to attend semi-private meetings such as SAME? Why do staff members paid from taxes spend time preparing speeches and information for private organizations? Congress needs to tell the government agencies they cannot spend money on these things. It has to be worth billions if these things are eliminated!
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8379
GovExec should tally how much agencies like GSA spend on their phony pr campaigns. That's a waste of taxpayer money if I've ever seen one.
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8359
Amen and Amen! The writer hit this one square on the head. We (the employees) just laugh at all these phony slogans and sales pitches. My agency, along with many others, spends serious money on this junk! They think all they have to do is put everybody on a "team", come up with great slogans (their opinion) and all government employees will work together in harmony and love. Give me a break!
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8351
Thanks for the lighthearted article. But beware...some managers actually note and act against employees who choose to pass on e-mails that introduce suggestions-for-improvement campaigns with inane slogans. I found out the hard way when, in July 04, an Army civilian manager actually came out of his office within 5 minutes of my deletion of yet another message from yet another higher manager who was introducing yet another suggestions-for-improvement initiative called the "G Force". This particular brown-noser openly accused me of not acting as if I was "a part of this organization". I told him that I had read enough about the message in the Outlook windows to understand that the message was about yet another suggestion program, but he then openly grilled me about its content. The exchange ended surrealistically with him demanding that I recite the e-mail's content and me telling him to fuggedaboudit. It reminded me of that 70's Stealers Wheel one-shot pop hit, "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right! Here I am...stuck in the middle with you!"
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8349
"Get It Right" is a lame pr-smokescreen to divert attention from GSA's "core" mission: helping contractors plunder the treasury. See today's articles for examples. GSA is hiring contractors to tell it how to award contracts to other contractors. Only in America!
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8347
The reason executives in government and industry use slogans is that's all they know how to do. They ARE salesmen. They get to the executive suite by selling themselves while their co-workers are actually doing the work. So you have executives who don't know how to do work so they come up with sales pitches -- the workers see through it and gag but the next level of executives falls for it and promotes the sloganeer to an even higher level. Then the process repeats itself with an ever widing gag.
Working for the Taxpayers
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8340
Good editorial on an old, but persistent, practice - in both government and the private sector. Sloganeering is a poor but convenient substitute for real management attributes - most notably leadership. It requires no sustained personal commitment or accountability, can easily be outsourced, and acts as bromide for management headaches. Yet, it is recognized and tolerated as a cultural icon in the diversion-prone culture. --a kind of management spam.
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8339
Yes leave it up to GSA to come up with a good slogan. In the words of one of their exec's as quoted in Government Executive " we didn't know what we were doing" when he explained the reorganization that he was undertaking. I may have erred on the quote but the gist was management & headquaters were lost & so a reorganization was necessary. It reminds me of the times when management says they are looking for the most qualified to file a vacant job I always wonder how have the jobs been filled in the past? Sometimes if you listen to what people say you hear what they mean to say & it isn't what is being said. Another example is when only essential travel is authorized I mean come on who is going to the boonies to visit the job site & who is going to the resorts for a seminar?
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8338
Every person reading this article will agree that they have seen some silly slogans. The State Department example of improving facilties, adding employees, increasing management training and modernizing equipment is inspiring but the real story is that it came after a successful fight for a significant funding increase. A look at the fiscal 2006 budget means that unfortunately, most agencies will only be able to say "Do more with less".
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