Federal Government & The Cajun Navy
The New Yorker posted an article asking in a round-about way: What's wrong with government? Why on earth do we need a band of citizens like the Cajun Navy to address monumental floods that destroy hundreds of thousands of homes? Katrina in 2004, Baton Rouge in 2016, and Houston's Hurricane Harvey in 2017, highlight government's perceived inadequacies responding to immediate needs.
Government on a large scale has power and resources to meet people's needs. One challenge facing government and bureaucracy specifically is the employment of 3 effective Core Values that private citizens are capable of exhibiting:
1) Entrepreneurial Value
2) Human Capital
3) Tacit Market Knowledge
Entrepreneurial Value
Entrepreneurial value means you think and act like an owner. When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, governing agencies lumbered to the scene late and logistically ill-equipped several days and weeks after the storm while citizens were stranded without power and food. How is it that professional FEMA warriors, who spend their lives training for crisis, respond so inadequately to needs of citizens in the moment? When bureaucracy has nothing personal to lose and no specialized incentive to "think and act like an owner", the response will lack urgency, creativity, and a will- power to perform with excellence. Government agencies don't think and act like owners because the crisis and problems at hand are not personal. The trained bureaucrat gets a paycheck regardless of the cost to the citizen who is in crisis.
Why, on the other hand, did thousands of private citizens drive their boats hundreds of miles along the coast of Louisiana into Houston springing into action with a "best ideas" campaign? It's because they took ownership of the moment. They established radio frequencies, charted paths, located advance places to dock, brought immediate relief in the form of fuel, clothing, water, and toiletries. They began to refine the process of locating distressed individuals and transporting these people to safety. They displayed high amounts of Entrepreneurial Value by thinking and acting like owners of each moment.
Government agency decisions are not created with (EV) Entrepreneurial Value in mind. Government decisions are often made based upon what works for the regulations within the bureaucracy. Where the church, neighbor, or private citizen might be inspired to meet the needs of others with excellence, the bureaucracy has no incentive to think and act like owners. The spontaneous gathering of intelligent individuals (Cajun Navy) aligned to achieve one goal, save lives., were able to maximize every moment day and night to communicate and deploy boats all across the flooded regions of Houston. The Cajun Navy displayed (EV) Entrepreneurial Value in a way that government so often fails to do.
Human Capital
People care. Bureaucracy doesn't care. When people invest, share, give, help, and plant into other people's lives, this is the essence of Human Capital. Hurricane Harvey is an example of neighbors employing (HC) Human Capital in a way that bureaucracy does not. Bureaucracy mass produces and delivers resources slowly. Bureaucracy, too often, lacks transparency and accountability. Bureaucracy has nothing to invest, nothing to share, or plant into people's lives. When things don't go well, the bureaucracy gets blamed as being inept or incompetent. But where is the accountability and the transparency for failures? It's typically not there. Individuals in the bureaucracy get their normal paychecks and slide by to the next disaster.
On the other hand, consider citizens who give from their hearts quickly and effectively. The men and women who organized their own boats, supplies, energy, time, and imagination have a deep appreciation for the volunteerism of America that Alexis de Tocqueville was so fascinated by. Human Capital is described as the band of citizens who raced to Houston on water and on land renting U-Hauls risking money, life and limb to better the cause of their neighbors.
On the other hand, bureaucracy has but rules, regulations, and processes that are to be followed robotically. There is no sense of "Human Capital" in bureaucracy as it often shrouded unaccountable processes. At best, larger governing institutions like FEMA are a utilitarian entity trying to do their best. But bureaucracy, by nature, lacks the accountability, transparency, and personal investment to be wholly effective.
Consider Baton Rouge in 2016 and Houston in 2017 with thousands of Dunkirk type private citizens with boats descending at places of devastation going to work rescuing lives around the clock without stopping. These folks were inspired and had a sense of urgency. Leaders displaying Human Capital are never forgotten because they display a powerful and personal effectiveness that makes the lives of others better. Human Capital is about being timely, personal, and effective. It's about making people's lives better.
The New Yorker stated, "After the floods, the Cajun Navy became heroes in Baton Rouge. Newspapers celebrated them. They were the grand marshals of local parades. The lieutenant governor of Louisiana took a special interest in their project. There were hundreds of families.....who felt that they owed their safety not to the distant forces of government but to a neighbor who had put himself at risk to help them.
Government is defined by bureaucracy. Government can be effective in large operations. But bureaucracy doesn't do human capital well. It can't. Bureaucracy has too many boxes to check, rules to follow, and objectives to accomplish. It's inflexible and uncaring because the tyranny of forms, procedures, policies, and unaccountable figures outstrips the ability to employ human capital.
Tacit Market Knowledge
"Learning through experiences to become better to gain an advantage"--this is tacit market knowledge.
Alexander Middle School in Katy, Texas marked a location where local efforts gathered for command and control decisions to address extreme flooding. These volunteers forged ahead by:
1-Receiving hundreds of calls and Facebook posts
2-directing volunteers with boats to these stranded people,
3- transporting them
4- finding shelters
5- providing food & toiletries
This process cropped up out of chaos. Lots of heart, urgency, and flexibility fueled the
goal which was to save people and get them into local shelters. Self-deputized citizens banded together to create a system that became more refined as each hour went on. Learning through a myriad of mistakes, learning quickly through trial and error, Alexander Middle School created a culture of care, meeting immediate needs including clothing, toiletries, food, and housing. All of this completed in dozens of hours! They identified how long it would take to transport citizens from boat drop off locations to Alexander Middle School through trial and error.
What happened when FEMA arrived 3 days after the hurricane? They took over Alexander Middle School. After all, disaster is their main focus and they are the professionals, right? FEMA prepares year-round for this exercise.
Volunteers who were focused, energetic, inspired, and working with a sense of urgency were now marginalized. As volunteers offered to leave the premises, the FEMA director said that wouldn't be good. We don't know where to go, how to deploy help, where the existing shelters are, or where to direct incoming distress calls. We don't know anything about the local terrain, people, churches, or food pantries. We only have other 1-800 #s to other government-created departments to talk to. They won't be of any help. The Local FEMA manager designated a portion of the school to the volunteers to keep doing what they were doing. FEMA just didn't have the knowledge learned from experiences to know the way to deliver immediate help to citizens that needed it.
The reality was the director walked into an established culture of effective operations working at maximum capacity with a significant knowledge of resources, terrain, people, and leaders in the community. The FEMA team director, from all parts of the country, recognized that without the organic order and systems that sprung up, he would be ineffective.
FEMA is a powerful organization. But they lacked Tacit Market Knowledge. FEMA saw early they had to import the specialized knowledge of local citizens who were inspired, knowledgeable, focused, prepared, and urgently working to save lives.
What are some valuable lessons that we can learn from the 2017 Hurricane Harvey crisis? Its the 3 core values drives superior performance organizationally:
1- Entrepreneurial Value
2- Human Capital
3- Tacit Market Knowledge
Every organization should identify how to create a culture of Entrepreneurial Value, Human Capital, and Tacit Market Knowledge. Look around you. Which organizations consistently excel achieve superior performance? It's those businesses and organizations who have leaders modeling:
Entrepreneurial Value-- Thinking & Acting like an owner
Human Capital-- Making everyone better because of your presence
Tacit Market Knowledge-- Continuously learning through experience to get better so you gain an advantage.
The New Yorker posted an article asking in a round-about way: What's wrong with government? Why on earth do we need a band of citizens like the Cajun Navy to address monumental floods that destroy hundreds of thousands of homes? Katrina in 2004, Baton Rouge in 2016, and Houston's Hurricane Harvey in 2017, highlight government's perceived inadequacies responding to immediate needs.
Government on a large scale has power and resources to meet people's needs. One challenge facing government and bureaucracy specifically is the employment of 3 effective Core Values that private citizens are capable of exhibiting:
1) Entrepreneurial Value
2) Human Capital
3) Tacit Market Knowledge
Entrepreneurial Value
Entrepreneurial value means you think and act like an owner. When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, governing agencies lumbered to the scene late and logistically ill-equipped several days and weeks after the storm while citizens were stranded without power and food. How is it that professional FEMA warriors, who spend their lives training for crisis, respond so inadequately to needs of citizens in the moment? When bureaucracy has nothing personal to lose and no specialized incentive to "think and act like an owner", the response will lack urgency, creativity, and a will- power to perform with excellence. Government agencies don't think and act like owners because the crisis and problems at hand are not personal. The trained bureaucrat gets a paycheck regardless of the cost to the citizen who is in crisis.
Why, on the other hand, did thousands of private citizens drive their boats hundreds of miles along the coast of Louisiana into Houston springing into action with a "best ideas" campaign? It's because they took ownership of the moment. They established radio frequencies, charted paths, located advance places to dock, brought immediate relief in the form of fuel, clothing, water, and toiletries. They began to refine the process of locating distressed individuals and transporting these people to safety. They displayed high amounts of Entrepreneurial Value by thinking and acting like owners of each moment.
Government agency decisions are not created with (EV) Entrepreneurial Value in mind. Government decisions are often made based upon what works for the regulations within the bureaucracy. Where the church, neighbor, or private citizen might be inspired to meet the needs of others with excellence, the bureaucracy has no incentive to think and act like owners. The spontaneous gathering of intelligent individuals (Cajun Navy) aligned to achieve one goal, save lives., were able to maximize every moment day and night to communicate and deploy boats all across the flooded regions of Houston. The Cajun Navy displayed (EV) Entrepreneurial Value in a way that government so often fails to do.
Human Capital
People care. Bureaucracy doesn't care. When people invest, share, give, help, and plant into other people's lives, this is the essence of Human Capital. Hurricane Harvey is an example of neighbors employing (HC) Human Capital in a way that bureaucracy does not. Bureaucracy mass produces and delivers resources slowly. Bureaucracy, too often, lacks transparency and accountability. Bureaucracy has nothing to invest, nothing to share, or plant into people's lives. When things don't go well, the bureaucracy gets blamed as being inept or incompetent. But where is the accountability and the transparency for failures? It's typically not there. Individuals in the bureaucracy get their normal paychecks and slide by to the next disaster.
On the other hand, consider citizens who give from their hearts quickly and effectively. The men and women who organized their own boats, supplies, energy, time, and imagination have a deep appreciation for the volunteerism of America that Alexis de Tocqueville was so fascinated by. Human Capital is described as the band of citizens who raced to Houston on water and on land renting U-Hauls risking money, life and limb to better the cause of their neighbors.
On the other hand, bureaucracy has but rules, regulations, and processes that are to be followed robotically. There is no sense of "Human Capital" in bureaucracy as it often shrouded unaccountable processes. At best, larger governing institutions like FEMA are a utilitarian entity trying to do their best. But bureaucracy, by nature, lacks the accountability, transparency, and personal investment to be wholly effective.
Consider Baton Rouge in 2016 and Houston in 2017 with thousands of Dunkirk type private citizens with boats descending at places of devastation going to work rescuing lives around the clock without stopping. These folks were inspired and had a sense of urgency. Leaders displaying Human Capital are never forgotten because they display a powerful and personal effectiveness that makes the lives of others better. Human Capital is about being timely, personal, and effective. It's about making people's lives better.
The New Yorker stated, "After the floods, the Cajun Navy became heroes in Baton Rouge. Newspapers celebrated them. They were the grand marshals of local parades. The lieutenant governor of Louisiana took a special interest in their project. There were hundreds of families.....who felt that they owed their safety not to the distant forces of government but to a neighbor who had put himself at risk to help them.
Government is defined by bureaucracy. Government can be effective in large operations. But bureaucracy doesn't do human capital well. It can't. Bureaucracy has too many boxes to check, rules to follow, and objectives to accomplish. It's inflexible and uncaring because the tyranny of forms, procedures, policies, and unaccountable figures outstrips the ability to employ human capital.
Tacit Market Knowledge
"Learning through experiences to become better to gain an advantage"--this is tacit market knowledge.
Alexander Middle School in Katy, Texas marked a location where local efforts gathered for command and control decisions to address extreme flooding. These volunteers forged ahead by:
1-Receiving hundreds of calls and Facebook posts
2-directing volunteers with boats to these stranded people,
3- transporting them
4- finding shelters
5- providing food & toiletries
This process cropped up out of chaos. Lots of heart, urgency, and flexibility fueled the
goal which was to save people and get them into local shelters. Self-deputized citizens banded together to create a system that became more refined as each hour went on. Learning through a myriad of mistakes, learning quickly through trial and error, Alexander Middle School created a culture of care, meeting immediate needs including clothing, toiletries, food, and housing. All of this completed in dozens of hours! They identified how long it would take to transport citizens from boat drop off locations to Alexander Middle School through trial and error.
What happened when FEMA arrived 3 days after the hurricane? They took over Alexander Middle School. After all, disaster is their main focus and they are the professionals, right? FEMA prepares year-round for this exercise.
Volunteers who were focused, energetic, inspired, and working with a sense of urgency were now marginalized. As volunteers offered to leave the premises, the FEMA director said that wouldn't be good. We don't know where to go, how to deploy help, where the existing shelters are, or where to direct incoming distress calls. We don't know anything about the local terrain, people, churches, or food pantries. We only have other 1-800 #s to other government-created departments to talk to. They won't be of any help. The Local FEMA manager designated a portion of the school to the volunteers to keep doing what they were doing. FEMA just didn't have the knowledge learned from experiences to know the way to deliver immediate help to citizens that needed it.
The reality was the director walked into an established culture of effective operations working at maximum capacity with a significant knowledge of resources, terrain, people, and leaders in the community. The FEMA team director, from all parts of the country, recognized that without the organic order and systems that sprung up, he would be ineffective.
FEMA is a powerful organization. But they lacked Tacit Market Knowledge. FEMA saw early they had to import the specialized knowledge of local citizens who were inspired, knowledgeable, focused, prepared, and urgently working to save lives.
What are some valuable lessons that we can learn from the 2017 Hurricane Harvey crisis? Its the 3 core values drives superior performance organizationally:
1- Entrepreneurial Value
2- Human Capital
3- Tacit Market Knowledge
Every organization should identify how to create a culture of Entrepreneurial Value, Human Capital, and Tacit Market Knowledge. Look around you. Which organizations consistently excel achieve superior performance? It's those businesses and organizations who have leaders modeling:
Entrepreneurial Value-- Thinking & Acting like an owner
Human Capital-- Making everyone better because of your presence
Tacit Market Knowledge-- Continuously learning through experience to get better so you gain an advantage.
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