Even if you agree with President Trump’s goals, it’s undeniable that he has the country spinning wildly from his executive orders, especially from his on-again, off-again tariffs.
Prior administrations also had the nation spinning, but in a different direction and at a slower speed. No doubt, future administrations will trigger new spinning, either to the left if Democrats gain control of the levers of power, or to the right if Republicans prevail.
Either way, many Americans are getting dizzy from all the spinning.
The dizziness brings back memories of my former consultancy before I retired, when I would advise executives of struggling companies on how to turn around their business in a planned, orderly way, without causing chaos that would make matters worse.
Change had to be fast enough to save the business but slow enough to keep the organization from spinning out of control.
My model, or metaphor, for the challenge facing an executive team was a column of connected gears. The big gear at the top represented the CEO and his top executives. Directly beneath that gear was a smaller gear representing the managers who reported to them. And following that gear were a number of successively smaller gears representing the various levels of the organization. The smallest gear at the bottom represented the employees who were closest to the customer but had the least power.
It was important for the top team to recognize that if they turned their big gear a little, the small gear at the bottom would turn a lot more. And if they spun their big gear too much and too quickly, the small gear at the bottom would be pummeled by the centrifugal force.
It was equally damaging to turn the top gear in one direction and then abruptly stop and turn it in the opposite direction, thus causing all of the other gears to spin back and forth violently, which in turn wasted money and time and caused employees to become demoralized and lose confidence in top management—a problem that carried over to customers.
To stop this from happening, the top executives had to get their act together and operate as a cohesive team. They had to develop strategies and operational plans to turn around the business at just the right speed. To do that, they had to reach a consensus among themselves on key priorities and time frames, and, just as important, to demonstrate unity to the rest of the organization.
This often required addressing internal politics on the top team that were getting in the way of teamwork and cohesiveness—the different personal agendas, self-interest, backstabbing, resentments, and counterproductive leadership and communication styles; or, in other words, the dysfunction that everyone saw, whispered about in private, but didn’t know how to fix.
This is such a critical factor in turning around a business that I wouldn’t work with CEOs and executive teams who weren’t willing to admit that they might be the problem.
Of course, the US government isn’t a business. Not only are the stakes much higher in a nation, but there are many more levels (gears) between the president and the citizens, who number in the hundreds of millions, versus the thousands of employees in a large company. Also, the executive branch shares power with the legislative and judicial branches, in a system designed by the Founders to work slowly and not be driven by the passions of the day.
This makes it even more important for the big gear in the White House to effect change carefully instead of chaotically, and to have a leadership style that facilitates teamwork among his cabinet and encourages them to give him honest feedback.
That wasn’t Joe Biden, and it certainly isn’t Donald Trump.
Maybe “the art of the deal” means treating everyone like a schlemiel.
Mr. Cantoni can be reached at craigcantoni@gmail.com.
We need to Bulldoze Washington DC, clean it up, remove everything,(except the Monuments etc) and plant Grass and move our Nation’s Headquarters to Iowa in the middle of nowhere.
This way future new Gov’t Employees and Politicians will take the job TO SERVE THE PEOPLE and NOT SERVE THEMSELVES, (Both on the Left and the Right). Do two 4 years Terms then LEAVE(just like POTUS).
Sometimes you’ve just gotta grit your teeth and rip the band aid off.
There is no chaos here. We are ending the chaos that has been injected into the US for decades. It is the normalization of things in a rapid fire motion. Long ovedxue!
I wonder if the author is feeling the pressure from the hate, anger, lying, whining, moaning of the democrat communists that dominate Tucson/Pima County.
Since the author brings up his consultancy, I’ve been at business process improvement at manufacturing companies, over 50 both domestic and internationally, for 40 years and couldn’t disagree more. Those smaller gears he mentions are doing all the wrong things because the big gears don’t know what the smaller gears are doing. Change can be painful but it must be quick, direct and unwavering.
The Great Reset & New World Order have been disrupted!!!! Great! That’s exactly what we the people want!
I agree, trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, he never did. He just likes people who kiss his ass, and when you do, you get played. Trump isn’t in control. He should be recalled.
Recall a President? Shows you are not at all familiar with our country, our Constitution. You lost. So sad. Too bad.
Biden was never in control, and his puppet masters left a huge mess to clean up. Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. The media twists, contorts and perverts everything in order to derail his M.O. – and therefore America.
Get your facts straight, child.
Get some sun.
I think that the biggest problem is the left and the MSM. They are the drivers and keep a slant that if anything is going right or not what they want then its all WRONG. Trump outlined what he wanted to do in both ’16 and now in ’24. The people supported him by electing him as they were tired of the same ol same ol of the left and right. This article is more of the same, go slow, take time, well time has passed for the last 70 years that has been how it went. Let the US be the sugar daddy while the others slipped it to us. Its too late to continue in that mode IMO. Our grandkids are not getting a real chance to save anything the country or themselves with this approach. The only reason that they claim we dont need to be a manufacturing country again is so the powers that be can continue their hold over the country. THERE are needs for BLUE COLLAR workers, but keeping them on the public tit is more important to these folks, just like the destruction of the borders. These people want the milk of the tit but they are like the left, tehy dont want to work for it in their OWN COUNTRIES. They claim they cant for a myrid of reasons, yet they come here and do what they should be doing at home and we have let them get away with it. 250 years ago this county’s founders said NO MORE and took action. No standing army, no real voices but they succeeded. France did help out of necessity as they were constantly at war with their cousins and were hoping to reestablish their foothold they had lost to brits.
So you want to blame someone, put it where it belongs, on the left, paid ‘professional’ politicians and a complete disregard as to what got us here. Piss poor education of the generations from the 60’s to present, most (‘college grads’) cant even tell you where the americas are let alone anything about their own states. So trump is trying to rectify but articles and attitudes like this and msm distortion is what we have to overcome.
Hear Hear!
Nailed it…..great post…..
Another analogy is the bus driving full-speed towards a cliff: If the driver turns too abruptly, he risks flipping the bus and going off the cliff, anyway, but if the driver doesn’t turn hard enough he’s still going to drive off the cliff, he’s just delayed it a second more – only enough time to scream just a little longer.
With the exponential growth of China’s influence and Europe’s surrender to authoritarian wokeism, this is were we are – barreling straight for Fossil Point, yelling and laying on the horn for Thelma and Louise to get the h*ll out of the way!
For my part, I side with risking the turn-over; some chance is better than no chance.
You could not be more wrong Mr. Cantoni. Voters expected organized disruption and the current administration is performing exceptionally well in that regard. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results so far! Your “gears” analogy fails on so many levels and your generalities and vague complaints lack substance. If you’re going to whine please be much more specific and detailed. You must not read polls. The only things “spinning out of control” right now are Democrats heads because their evil lab experiment of redefining this great nation is crashing and burning.
interesting analogy – not accurate – but an interesting reflection on what it was like, vs what it is like now. The gov’t was lost – the image of what we thought the USA was, or is , was no longer – given back to the days of LBJ – Kennedy – Obama – ‘WHO WAS PRESIDENT TILL TRUMP WAS PUT INTO OFFICE IN THIS ELECTION?’ Obama – again? I think so – meaning his actions from his term – continued forward – ‘dismal’ end of nation actions.. and here we are. This spin you call ‘mimic to confusion’ is more like ‘desperation’ to save a nation lost to Left and Right.. neocons – etc. This version of the RIGHT is vastly different – will in succeed? Maybe – if war does not come first – which I believe is more likely than success. The world is now different – GODLESS. Fatally flawed from EVIL. Good reason to remember ‘why is Easter’ Jesus death for our sin, Fault, all mankind. Took the blame for us.. his mission. Here we are.
The Left and the Neocons are only complaining that it’s out of THEIR control.
Amen! Thank you Jesus!