WWKOGD

In a quote attributed to Archilochos, pre-Athenian Greek philosopher and poet, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” When in doubt, individuals will default to a response level that they are proficient in.

In 1974, Admiral Rickover gave a speech to former FBI agents. One of my favorite quotes is taken from there. While it was intended to apply to engineering problems, the sentiment can be translated elsewhere. “A management system is broad and sweeping in its generalities. But technical problems are a matter of detail. The devil is in the details. Management systems cannot help when the difficulties are technical. A badly designed machine on which the safety of the ship and its crew may depend, is impervious to the blandishments of a management system. But a badly designed machine will yield to an exhaustive analysis by a technically trained man.”

WWKOGD (What Would the Kindly Old Gentleman Do) is intended to be a place for sharing of specific problems and the actions taken, with a nod to whether the approach and outcome could have been something the KOG would have nodded sagely about.