Lunch with Admiral (ret) John Poindexter: Developing a Data Driven Culture
Five years ago, I had lunch with retired Admiral John Poindexter, former National Security Adviser under Ronald Reagan. We had a great discussion on leadership and how leaders need to do a better job of collecting and using data for decision-making. He kicked off the lunch with a story of how he was brought into the White House shortly after the assassination attempt on Reagan and his personal mission was to ensure that the President always got the needed information, and that the President would not micromanage the National Security Council. Poindexter had studied how President Lyndon Johnson micromanaged the National Security staff and the military generals during Vietnam. He would even go as far as to set up a bed inside the situation room.
Why would Johnson do that? Because, according to Poindexter, he lost trust in his staff. Johnson would be told a piece of information which highlighted the success of operations in Vietnam but then he would see news reports or other sources of information contradicting the security reports. Johnson saw the disconnect and took action to micromanage his staff because, ultimately, it was his Presidency on the line. When he met with the National Security staff for the first time, Poindexter recounted that story about Johnson and said it was critical that the President not lose trust in them.
As a lifelong Engineer and technologist, Poindexter knew he needed a technical solution to ensure information could easily flow to the top. Pyramid like chains of command are great for pushing information down but a terrible structure for pushing information up. In fact, I recounted my time in Afghanistan in which the entire Embassy team had to come up with a paragraph to explain the situation in Afghanistan to President Bush and we had to have consensus. With issues related to the war effort, nationwide elections, the opium trade, border issues with Pakistan, corruption, and reconstruction projects, there was clearly a lot of information that would not make it to the President. Not only that, the President has no visibility on the other view points in the room that may have contradicted what made the report. Poindexter agreed that he faced these same challenges; however, an efficient technical solution would allow people to quickly respond to the President’s needs. Furthermore, it allowed for the President and relevant cabinet leaders to request clarification to the information they received.
Poindexter addressed this problem by going to DARPA and having them develop a means of digital communication that would allow instant communication among the NSC staff and the key leaders of the administration. Furthermore, this system had to be able to handle large amounts of data and there must be a way to search through archived information. This was, of course, the early version of the internet. Poindexter realized the importance of having an efficient means to filter information across an entire organization. This began a lifelong mission of Poindexter to find ways to get data to decision makers. He continues to speak and advise companies on data driven solutions.
Despite the flattening of organizations, the pyramid culture still remains. Too many CEOs and other C-Suite executives do not have an efficient means of receiving and understanding the data to identify potential problem areas in their organizations. This results in significant financial and brand reputation costs. This is why, despite increased abilities to collect data, we still see problems such as the BP oil spill or the GM recall. In each of these cases, somebody in the organization KNEW about the problem, but senior decision makers were unaware because information did not flow to the top. It is a question of executive insight. That is why leaders need a data solution to align their people to the mission. Creating a database is not enough Databases today are what file cabinets were yesterday — information is filed away and never looked at again. Not only must the data be collected, but you need a system to thoroughly analyze it and then develop a course of action based on this data.
Finally, the measuring of data has to be a CEO’s program. If you pass this off to somebody else, you find yourself in a position where somebody will create measurements that he or she thinks you want, when in all actuality it may not be what you want or need. In order to ensure you have aligned your corporate culture to the mission, mitigated your risk, and maximized your profit, you need to work with a credible organization that can take what you want measured and then implement a solution. The right solution allows you to have visibility, through measured data, into every aspect of your organization and provides you with a clear path to success.
